Feb
14
So, let me take a moment to praise an excellent episode of an excellent show. Many anime fans out there inappropriately diss this gorgeous, witty, intelligent show because its humor is easy to miss…especially if deadpan isn’t your favorite type of humor to begin with. My initial reaction to the first episode can be found on psgels’ Star-Crossed Blog, under the SN PL. To give a brief description of the show, allow me to quote myself:
I wouldn’t exactly call this parody, though sometimes there are a few self-referential fourth-wall moments where clearly the show is parodying itself and thus, parodying all action/adventure anime. While the long talks during the fight aren’t exactly parody either, what they are is purposefully, and blatantly unrealistic, and we are brought into the know with the author, that this is literary and not to be taken as realistic, in order to engage in a sort of verbal swordplay serving as counterpoint while the battle itself is point.
There’s something essentially Japanese in the sort of wit that goes on here, in the way character’s assumptions about each other are consistently undercut by their replies, dialogue is as dangerous as sword-technique, and deep insights are couched within simple, obvious and even naive statements. As I also mentioned on psgels’ blog, one of the most humorous ironies of the show is that while Togame is the self-proclaimed genius strategian, all she really has is a sort of wordly cleverness, with little real understanding. Meanwhile, Shichika, the main character, is supposedly quite dumb and yet its clear that he’s actual quite intelligent, and simply naive about a world he’s never known and because of this very naivety, very interesting insights about the nature of the world he encounters are drawn attention to. For instance, his conceptual but un-intuitive feel for when to use certain social and lingual niceties is constantly drawing attention to the disconnect between our language and reality. While Shichika is no Zen Master, his interactions with Togame and the other characters in the series share a certain something with the dharma battles of Old Zen, a certain kind of wit that I find refreshing and entertaining. Fifty minutes may be long for a single episode of anime, but since it is only released once a month, both episodes have felt like they went by far too fast. If you want something lighthearted yet engaging, I highly reccoment Katanagatari. Enjoy!
Feb
10
A monk asked Tozan, “What is the Buddha?” Tozan replied, “Masagin!” [three pounds of flax].
Mumon’s Comment: Old Tozan attained the poor Zen of a clam. He opened the two halves of the shell a little and exposed all the liver and intestines inside. But tell me, how do you see Tozan?
Mumon’s Verse: “Three pounds of flax” came sweeping along;
Close were the words, but closer was the meaning.
Those who argue about right and wrong
Are thus enslaved by right and wrong.”
–Case 18 from the Mumonkan, as translated
by Katsuki Sekida (71)
This story is a koan, which literally means something like Public Record, but which is a story about the earliest Zen Masters in Ancient China, used as a method of training in certain schools of Zen. My own school, the Soto Sect, doesn’t use koans in this way, but as a major component of Zen literature we still value them even if they defy interpretation by strictly analytic methods. Tozan’s–not the same Tozan who founded the Soto Sect, by the way—three pounds of flax is one of the more well-known koans in the West, though not nearly as widely known as stories such as “Joshu’s Mu”, or Hakuin’s “Sound of one hand clapping.” I think part of the appeal of this particular koan is the seeming utter randomness of Tozan’s answer. It is as if he just blurted out the first thing he happened to think, probably whatever he held in his hands or perhaps the flax caught his attention out of the corner of his eye just as he was asked. Yet, despite the seeming randomness, an inconceivable number of causes and conditions are behind his answer. Yes, it is definitely spontaneous, which is what makes it so delightful, but it isn’t truly random. Only that Zen Master, at that particular place and that particular time, could have given this answer. In Sekida’s notes we learn that Tozan himself achieved enlightenment when his master Ummon—founder of one of the five schools of Zen in Ancient China—shouted out “Rice Bag!!” Clearly, Ummon’s shout is echoed here in his disciple’s own answer, “Three pounds of flax!” Any number of different events could have occurred, such that Tozan would have given a completely different answer. Free and spontaneous, yet causally determined and non-random, this is what is at work in “Tozan’s Three Pounds of Flax.”
It is also what’s at work in my own life. There are so many factors at work in my life right now, that have put me in the position I’m in, disabled, in the midst of a divorce, raising two kids, and also seeking refuge in the buddhadharma. So I can’t up and take off for Japan right now, despite how much I feel called to monastic training. But, I am free to spontaneously take up the Buddha Way right here where I am, in a Southern Urban area in America, and I can even live a schedule as similar to monastic living as my physical body can take, except on every other weekend and one weekday afternoon when I have time with my kids. So, while in many ways I am completely confined by causality, I am also completely liberated by spontaneity and choice. This is my practice, and this practice I will share with you. I am not enlightened. I am not a teacher. I’m one guy, doing his best to wake-up, and willing to share the knowledge, practices, and choices that I try with all of you.
Gassho!
Kendo
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