Tag: zen

Shi Yongxin, the abbot of Shaolin Temple. (File photo/China Daily)

China: Shaolin Head Monk – Shi Yongxin – Under Investigation for Alleged Criminal Offenses! (28.7.2025)

In Japan, a Buddhist monk or nun can get married, produce children, eat meat, and drink alcohol. In other words, these people are lay-people in robes – but are practicing dishonesty. A group of Chinese Ch’an monks had been following the Vinaya Discipline when they travelled to Japan to spread the Ch’an Dharma – but returned with Japanese wives and children – and wearing lay-clothing – eating meat and drinking alcohol. In front of Xu Yun – these “monks” petitioned the post-1949 government of China to permanently abolish the Ch’an requirement for monks and nuns to be celibate and vegetarian. Xu Yun is said to have loudly slapped the table – stating that the Chinese government should do the exact opposite – that is, integrate the Vinaya Discipline into the fabric of China’s secular law. If a man or woman wants to be an ordained Buddhist monk or nun, then it should be a legal requirement – punishable by secular law – if they fail to uphold the rules and regulations of the lifestyle they have chosen to follow. Being a Buddhist monastic is a “job” that requires a strict form of lifestyle.

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Revolutionary Blake's7! 2024 Bluray!

UK: The Revolutionary Spirit of Blake’s 7! (7.1.2025)

I watched the BBC SciFi series entitled “Blake’s 7” when it was first broadcast between 1978-1981. Like many, I was sad when the series ended. It grew out of Dr Who (Terry Nation) and reflected a left-wing uprising against a right-wing Fascist State. The late 1970s was the last time a left-wing Labour Party was in power. The British workers united and rose-up to secure their rights with strikes, mass demonstrations, and marches. During the 1970s, and as a reaction to the left-leaning Hippy movement of the 1960s, The British “National Front” (NF) was on the march with its rampant message of misogyny, racism, and wanton violence. This led to the defeat of the workers at the ballot box (that’s liberal democracy for you) and the advent of the fascistic Margaret Thatcher – a working class Tory who had benefited from the free milk given to school children, free healthcare, free education, subsidised social housing, and welfare support, etc. During her ten-year tenure – Thatcher took all this away from the British people!

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The Book of Enoch - It Is Not!

Hereford [1986]: Zen of the Wonky Table! (16.11.2024)

Eventually, “Phil G” left the college and moved down the road to become the “Rector” of St Barnabas Church (situated in College Road). He would invite myself and my friend (a Catholic Priest from Eire) for tea every Sunday afternoon for probably about six months (around 1986). He asked me about (Japanese) Zen Buddhism – and I lent him the book entitled “Zen Buddhism” by Christmas Humphreys [Unwin – 1984] (I have written on the many issues surrounding this man elsewhere). This book had casually come into my possession and became very popular amongst the Student Body at that time. As others wanted to borrow it – I bought up the subject of this book being returned whilst visiting the flat of “Phil G”. He initially said he did not know where it was and had a problem finding it.

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Many Good Points - A Number of Bad!

Emails: Exposing the Catholic [Anti-Soviet] Ignorance of Abbot Andre Louf [1929-2010]! (19.5.2024)

This is despite the anti-Soviet nonsense he spouts on page 114 – a line of Vatican propaganda that sullies a man who tolerates a qualified “atheism” in his monastery! Of course, this type of anti-Stalin invention can be dismissed by studying the Collective Works of Stalin (Stalin trained in the Seminary before becoming a Revolutionary) and the historical (academic) work of EH Carr, Alexander Werth and Grover Furr, etc. EH Carr does mention that following the Bolshevik Revolution, monks and priest were not allowed to vote in elections until after 1922 (the founding of the USSR) – but prior to 1917 – no one (ecclesiastical or lay) was allowed to vote for any reason outside the closed circle surrounding the Czar – and the oppressive feudal system he administered. Just as Catholic monks live under the “Dictatorship” of God, the Pope and their Abbot – monks and priests in the USSR possessed absolutely no rights prior to 1917! Andre Louf, as a professed Catholic monk, was NOT permitted by the Catholic Church to vote in any election. When the reality of his position is fully understood – then the magnitude of his ignorance becomes fully revealed. Even monastic masters are inclined to “lie” – perhaps that is what their God requires.

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Goju Ryu Karate-Do

Karate Kid Movie [1984] Blu-Ray – “Mr Miyagi” Reconsidered! (14.1.2024)

The authors of the film ‘Karate Kid’ (1984) had a paradox to overcome. On the one hand they wanted a traditional ‘Okinawan’ Karate-Do master – who at the same time had NOTHING to do with Okinawa either before or during WWII! This entire idea is racist and disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands of Okinawan men, women and children who died being trapped between the Imperial Japanese Army and the invading US Marines – and those who died fighting the Americans or were murdered by US troops after surrender. Of course, many thousands of Okinawan women and girls were raped by US troops once captured. Although Mr Miyagi had to represent everything ‘martial’ that defines Okinawan history – including its stand against the invading US Forces – he also had to be completely ‘detached’ from everything ethnically ‘Okinawan’ so as not to disturb the Eurocentric sensitivities of the average US audience!

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