- Last Updated: Thursday, 23 December 2021 15:41
News
If Hamacher were as tall as his accusations on the internet are untrue,
while, without any understanding of ZEN, publishing discriminatory information about others,
then he could shake hands with the man in the moon while kneeling.
Lifetime SWING fan Sōtetsu Yūzen Rōshi fulfilled a wish at the age of 81.
On 31. 10. 2021, five professional musicians met to found
THE MUMON-KAI SWING BAND.
Dirk Schelenz – Guitar
Michael Waterstradt – Bass
Frank Bach – Clarinet and Saxophone
Michael Wirth – band leader and drums
Betty Labeau – Singing
Regular swing concerts will shape the community life of Mumon-Kai in the future.
The Rinzai-ZEN master Sōtetsu Yūzen Rōshi, founder of halls for the practice of Zazen in Germany, Austria, Poland and Spain, decided on 19.11.2020 to dissolve the Eiwa-Zendō branch located in Poland, founded by him on 27.06.1983.
This includes the withdrawal of the name "Eiwa-Zendō" that was given by him.
Due to a destructive breach of trust, he withdraws the authority given to the two persons employed on his behalf to lead the Zendō.
Thereby ends the right to call the place that he founded a hall for the practice of Zazen and to run it as a place for Buddhist practice.
The proceeds of the property, which was financed by the Erste Berliner ZEN-Gemeinschaft e.V., will be returned to the lender.
Mistrz Rinzai-Zen Sōtetsu Yūzen Rōshi, założyciel ośrodków praktykowania zazen w Niemczech, Austrii, Polsce i Hiszpanii, w dniu 19.11.2020 r. zdecydował o rozwiązaniu znajdującego się w Polsce ośrodka Eiwa-Zendō, utworzonego 27.06.1983 r.
Wiąże się to z odebraniem nazwy „Eiwa-Zendō", którą nadał sali spotkań.
Ze względu na destrukcyjne naruszenie zaufania, odwołuje on pełnomocnictwo do prowadzenia Zendō, które zostało udzielone dwóm osobom umocowanym w jego imieniu.
Tym samym odebrane zostało prawo do nazywania założonej przez niego Sali Zazen jako takiej i prowadzenia jej jako buddyjskiego miejsca praktyk.
Przychody z nieruchomości finansowanej przez Erste Berliner ZEN-Gemeinschaft e.V. z tytułu jej przeznaczenia na miejsce praktyk zostaną zwrócone podmiotowi finansującemu.
Haiku of the month
by Sōtetsu Yūzen
Cherryblossoms above
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Three publications by Sōtetsu Yūzen about Kōan studies:
Nach-Satori-Übung – Begegnungen mit Chao-chou Ts'ung-shen (chin.) Jōshu Jūshin (jap.) 778-897
Mumon-Kai-Verlag 2012, hardcover, 356 pages, numerous calligraphies and coloured illustrations. € 28,50. To be ordered via:
Nach-Satori-Übung - der Antrieb des scheintoten Ochsen:
The book takes the reader all the way back to the ancient times of Zen, to master Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768).
"Eventually," Hakuin said, "I realised that the experience I've gained within the stillness and peace of the Zen hall is almost impossible to maintain in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. From that moment on, the chief concern of my Post-Satori exercise was to bring both aspects of my life into harmony: the one gained during my monastery life and the one lived in everyday life."
The author, Sōtetsu Yūzen, revives Hakuin's Post-Satori exercise: He allies himself with Master Jōshū Jūshin (778-897) Borrowing striking incidents from Jōshū's life, he shows how bastions of thought and cathedrals of belief can be totally shattered with the help of Jōshū's spontaneous Zen spirit. For the inexperienced, the occurrences involving Jōshū must appear like locked gates. 48 masterful examples of the effects of a Zen mind have been hereby selected by Sōtetsu Yūzen. The manner in which a student manages to open these gates shows his ability to understand Zen.
If he also proves his ability to turn his Way of Zen into his everyday life, he has truly found jiriki (Jap.), the power to self-liberation.
Tritt durch die Wand - Die Koan-Sammlung MUMON-KAN
Mumon-Kai-Verlag 2010, hardcover, 542 pages, 52 illustrations and 52 Chinese calligraphies. € 38,00. To be ordered via:
Step through the wall - of your thinking! Wake up! Come to the realisation of your true self by your own strength! This can only happen when the walls of thinking fall and the vibrant present moment is no longer concealed by illusions of faith. Climate crisis, financial crisis, relationship problems, identity crisis – in short: we are determined by internal and external life crisis. "Who am I, where do I come from, where do I go to and what am I living for?" – Zen proves to be an answer!
By means of 48 landmarks for orientation (Koan), a way to deal with the noisy chaos of our daily delusionary life is shown. As a car driver already knows, it is hardly possible to find your way without a navigation device nowadays. Zen, as a way to self-realisation and, at the same time, the endeavor to apply this insight to everyday life, also needs the instructions and guidance of an authentic master.
Sōtetsu Yūzen guides us while passing the 48 Koan of the MUMON-KAN. After 47 years of learning and practicing, he has experienced ZEN to be an intuitive, spontaneous and unambiguous doing. It has nothing in common with the affected behavior you find in meditation seminars that can be altered at random. By using simple, sometimes provocatively stirring words, he frees the Koan of all mystifications and the incomprehensible, philosophic literary entanglement it has often been subjected to. Free from any esoteric affectation, Sōtetsu Rōshi energetically opens an access to these ancient spiritual treasures and helps the Zen student to perceive and to live in a Buddhist manner.
Heimkommen und still ruhen - Der Koan-Weg im Rinzai-Zen
Kokurin-Verlag 2012, 276 pages, 28 full page ink drawings. Price: hardcover € 25,00; paperback edition € 19,00. To be ordered via:
The practice of ZEN is no supplement, nor is it a decoration or a fashionable innovation –it is the radical elimination of all kinds of illusions and religious persuasions from our life.
ZEN is our practical, everyday application of the Buddha's teachings. ZEN is a way of life that shows us how to solve the problems of life and death and of alleged fate out of our own strength. Practicing the Way of the Koan, ZEN is a "coming home", a finding back to who we really are.
Each Koan is an offer, a means to expose our ego which causes us to suffer. A Koan can't be solved by mere reasoning at all. We have to venture to leap onto an intuitive kind of understanding instead. If we succeed to enter the Land of the Lotus by finding again our original, inner freedom and peace, we start to live a life of contentedness–even amidst the world's everyday madness.
Thus,"Heimkommen und still ruhen (coming home and resting peacefully)", is what we give to ourselves.
About us – The Tenshin Bulletin
Tenshin is the official bulletin of the First Zen-Community of Berlin. The magazine is published quarterly with contributions from all our Zen-halls, including accounts about Sesshin, lectures and information about Buddhist life in our community. It costs EUR 5,-. An annual subscription costs EUR 20,-.