Tag: Ch’an

Shi Da Dao - Caodong Lineage - Fly-Whisk

China: Old Master Xu Yun [1840-1959] is Still Sat in Meditation! (17.10.2024)

I once saw a Westerner (a German) living in China. He could read, write and talk the Chinese language – and had been accepted as a Disciple by a Daoist Master (this is not easy to do – even if you happen to be ethnically “Chinese”). He was able to perform a secret Daoist gongfu Form -where he used the fly-whisk as a self-defence implement. There was no violence – just lots of spiralling movement. All I can do with my fly-whisk is lift it up and down occasionally. I suppose it all comes down to timing.

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Mum, Dad & Charlotte Got this GIANT Chocolate Bar!

Calibration Hits “57” So It’s Time To Excuse My Little Self-Indulgence….! (30.5.2024)

My academic (and Ch’an) teacher – Richard Hunn (Upasaka Wen Shu) – lived into his 57th year and was struck-down by cancer far too early (passing in 2006)! I suspect I will last a few years yet – but we never can tell! Still, I rise early to perform my academic and spiritual duties. Although now married with children – I have permission to still wear the black-robe of the Caodong Ch’an School – and to carry the Dust-Whisk of Authority. Of course, the only authority I possess is over my own mind and body. Oh, and I love The Beatles!

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WWII: Lest We Forget! (6.21.2023)

The politically motivated casualty lists of the contemporary Bourgeois West play down the Soviet and Asian casualty figures whilst over-exaggerating the losses of the West. The UK morally led the way whilst China and the USSR fought their corners with an incredible tenacity! At this special time of year we must also remember the Soviet and British POWs who suffered at the hands of the brutal (fascist) Imperial Japanese – with the Soviets also brutalised by the Nazi Germans (who viewed them as sub-human). At the setting of the sun – we will remember them!

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Venerable Old Master Xu Yun [虚云]: No Difference Between a Monk and a Lay-Person! (14.10.2023)

For instance, by cross-referencing the below May 1955 Dharma-Talk with the text of ‘Empty Cloud’ for that year – a more all-round picture can be built of exactly what was happening and how Master Xu Yun was reacting to it. To be clear, Master Xu Yun was adamant that an ordained Buddhist monastic must follow ALL the rules of the Vinaya Discipline and that a lay-person must follow a least five, eight or ten of the basic vows contained in the Vinaya Discipline. This is a practical distinction Master Xu Yun upheld – as he rejected the Japanese Zen tradition of monks being allowed to eat meat, drink alcohol and get married. Such individuals are ‘lay-people’ and NOT monks. This being the case, what is Master Xu Yun referring to when he states that there is ‘no difference’ between the ordained Sangha and the laity?

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The Lost Art of Kuriso Zen! (9.9.2023)

This is a vitally important question which has seen entire departments formed in the Japanese corporate monoliths of Saga and Nintendo – tasked with discovering the exact reality of ‘Kuriso’ Zen – and what the implications might mean for the Japanese Nation and the broader Japanese gaming community as a whole. As is typical with many Sects of popular Buddhism throughout Japanese history, the entire edifice of Buddhist ideology pertaining to a single School is reduced to a single (and simple) ‘mantra’ – or combination of sacred noises contained in a single sentence. Within the ‘Kuriso’ Zen, for instance, the established mantra is as follows:

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