Issho ku ichinichi raku
Even if your wole life is pain
There is just the only enjoyable day
posted by Taigu at 6:19 AM
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
About Me
- Name: Taigu
- Location: Nishinomiya, Kansaï, Japan
Taïgu or Kuma San. French oddity, poet, writer, musician, artist and in love with life itself. Interested in unimportant things, people of no rank. Started zazen in my teens, received the precepts as a Zen priest twenty five years ago. Received Dharma transmission in 2003. I believe that Alexander Technique provides a real and living understanding of zazen. It allows zazen to be alive , fluid and dynamic as opposed to what I met almost everywhere: a fixed and rigid form that feeds intolerance, arrogance and ignorance. Lover of Jizo and Kannon. I was born in 1964 and because of my passion for life and art, I lived many lives in one. Jack of all trades, master of none. I now live in Japan. Surnom : Kuma ou Kuma San. Vaguement français, poète, musicien, artiste et amoureux de la vie même. Passionné par les choses ordinaires, les gens sans importance. Ai commencé Zazen dans mon adolescence, ai reçu les préceptes de moine voici plus de trente ans. Grand amoureux de Jizo et Kannon. Je suis né en 1964 et, de par ma passion pour la vie et l’art, j’ai vécu plusieurs vies en une seule. Touche à tout mais ne maîtrise rien. Ai recu la transmission du dharma en 2002.
Previous Posts
- Nantenbo's last calligraphy
- Koyasan,yesterday
- In Koyasan now
- who is moving the brush?
- one sitting, the whole world
- one taste
- Tokyo poems
- sitting-Zen
- kesa okesa
- Our story
13 Comments:
Dear Pierre,
I will soon begin to sew a kesa following (as best I can) your instructions on the other blog.
Thank-you very much for this help. I very much enjoyed reading your introductory advice on approaching the task.
I look forward to many beautiful mistakes!
I hope we will all rest safely in the folds of the great robe tonight.
Regards,
Harry.
Wonderful! Great news Harry!
Are you sewing a rakusu or a kesa?
Taigu
Pierre,
I wear a rakusu at present which was bestowed upon me by Rev Peter Rocca.
I didn't sew the rakusu, it was sent to us from Japan, so I thought I'd like to try sewing one as well. But after hearing Nishijima Roshi's (and your own) view on any practitioner of zazen wearing the kesa I feel like I'd like to sew a kesa instead.
I have worked out the size of the patches. I'm quite tall, almost 6ft, so my nobechu is 48cm (Ha! sounds very rude in English!)
Regards,
Harry.
Dear Taigu,
In your instructions for making the kesa on your blog is the 'yo' an inserted piece of material or is it simply the area between two main patches that is created by the two rows of stitching?
I have found material and am cutting out the 21 pieces at present.
Thank-you,
Harry.
Dear Harry,
The yo is the area between the fold and the line of stitches. BUT, if you sew the kesa using a large piece of fabric with added parts, then yo are all the vertical and horizontal stripes you sew on ( this last technique is rare, yet very interesting).
I am so glad you are starting to sew. This is a wonderful way to manifest deep respect and honor my teacher, Mike Chodo cross, my grand father, nishijima roshi and all the guys before. it is the way to celebrate just sitting and your true self.
Thank you
Taigu
Taigu,
Yes, I understand now that there are these two techniques.
I will soon put some pictures of my effort up on the 'Angry Buddhists' blog if you'd like to see how its going.
Thanks & Regards,
Harry.
Hi !
Enjoyed your this post!
K
This comment has been removed by the author.
Taigu,
http://www.buddhasrobeissewn.org/
Have you read this?
Is it useful?
Regards,
Harry.
Thanks K...I suppose the one to thank is you for saying such a wonderful thing...
Harry, many thanks, I did not know about the book. If it is useful, it is not interesting. If it is useless, it is just great! I think this book was written by another lover of the kesa like me. Very useless book, Harry. Written by a guy like me, just good for writing cheap poetry, loving a beautiful woman and this great big life...and sewing kesa...
take care Harry and please, carry on with this endless useless practice. Everything is just perfect as it is. Useless.
Dear Taigu,
A cucumber and a piece rope are wonderful and they expound the Dharma perfectly... but do we use them as a needle and thread for sewing together the pieces of a Buddha's robe?
I have so many books about Buddhism which are useless and some which I now realize as useful and some which even clarify uselessness in the Dharma.
Being really useless, I think, avoids the potentially nihilistic extreme of not being of use... there is clearly 'useful' and useful in the Dharma.
Regards,
Harry.
Indeed...
just an invitation to go further Harry.
Useless is the most important quality of real Dharma.
The piece of rope and the cucumber wiil be sewn into your kesa, as much as everything else, just through this useless quality.
Yes, our Masters explain it very clearly, without ambiguity.
Regards,
Harry.
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