From the publisher… Dharma Brothers: Kodo and . . . Read More.]]> Dharma Brothers: Kodo and Tokujoo, A Historical Novel Based On The Lives Of Two Japanese Zen Masters (Volume 1)
Arthur Braverman
CreateSpace, December 2010
592 pages, 6 x 9
ISBN-13: 978-1453861530
(Also available in a Kindle digital edition)

From the publisher…
Dharma Brothers: Kodo and Tokujoo is based on the lives of two Japanese Zen Masters, how they grew from two ordinary boys, walking very different paths to become extraordinary men, and the deep spiritual bond between them. It is also the story of Japan from 1880 to 1965, of two personal accounts of Zen journeys to enlightenment, and of love and friendship. The story follows the lives of these two Dharma brothers, set against a backdrop of the Japanese-Russian War of 1905, and the rise of fascism in Japan in the 1930s. Kodo was an orphan, brought up in a harsh environment, while Tokujoo was the son of a well-to-do businessman. They both spent years studying in the most stringent Zen monasteries and became life-long friends. Each struggled to find his way clear of the circumstances in which he had been reared. Each sought a way of life offering more meaning and truth, ultimately becoming a different exemplar of Zen practice and living Buddhism.

About the author…
Arthur Braverman is author of Living and Dying in Zazen and translator of Mud and Water: A Collection of Talks by the Zen Master Bassui; Warrior of Zen: The Diamond-hard Wisdom Mind of Suzuki Shosan; and A Quiet Room: The Poetry of Zen Master Jakushitsu. He studied Zen at Antaiji Temple in Kyoto, Japan under Zen Master Kosho Uchiyama (Kodo Sawaki’s Dharma heir). He lives in Ojai, California.

The Sumeru review…

I read a lot of books, and they fight for space on my table. Good books get finished, while the not so good ones languish half-read. Dharma Brothers quickly became my book of choice and yesterday I finished it, after a few weeks of stolen moments.

What was the pull? It’s very simple – I could see myself mirrored in the story and I wanted to know what happened next. Braverman’s novel, based on the true stories of two well-known Japanese roshis, illuminated the day-to-day path of zen practice with grace and wit in a narrative story format. That is not a topic which would appeal to a broad audience (which is why it is self-published), but for practitioners, it is one of immense import.

It is not easy to write a novel. It is not easy to write a historical novel that portrays another culture credibly. And it is not easy to write convincingly of a spiritual journey, without tumbling into either hagiography or maudlin melodrama.

Braverman does a very good job of walking the middle way. That’s not to say the book is without structural flaws, but those flaws are matched with vignettes that soar. My biggest complaint is that a lot of the book is spent in setting up the early practice of Kodo Sawaki Roshi and Tokujoo Kato Roshi. Braverman’s choice to focus on the intimate details of their daily lives comes at the expense of our learning more about their public activity, teaching and dharma work later in life. I would have liked to know more about their sermons and teaching methods in the public sphere, since they were such influential teachers in the 20^th century.

Similarly, I would have liked to know more about Japan’s social, cultural and political evolution over the period covered in the book. Braverman spent a number of years practicing in Japan with Kodo Sawaki’s dharma heir, Kosho Uchiyama. That experience has allowed him to portray Japan at the turn of the century with riveting accuracy. It would have been fascinating for him to include more of that context in the book, since it was such an important part of world history and since it was so integral to the transformation of all schools of Japanese Buddhism.

On the other hand, Braverman has captured perfectly the nuances of monastic practice and the “one taste” of zen. His accounts of zazen, koan study, dokusan, shikantaza, kinhin, physical labour as practice, temple architecture and routines, hermit practice, life for hereditary priests, and so on, all ring true without a false note.

Dharma Brothers steers clear of describing Kodo or Tokujoo’s satori experiences in any great detail, and even goes so far as to downplay those awakenings by placing them within the context of life’s ongoing challenges and emotional waves. Failure and uncertainty are recognized as teachers too. As Tokujoo’s teacher notes at one point in Tokujoo’s middle practice – the early student tries to control everything in his environment; the advanced student lets nature unfold and responds appropriately.

Zen is a Buddhist tradition that relies much more heavily on experiential learning through meditation than on study of sutras and commentary. It also places great value on everyday living. But it would be disingenuous to imply that one can progress along the path without knowing what that path is. Which leads us to some of the deeper issues raised in this excellent book:

• priests, monks, hermits and laypeople in Japan’s Buddhist landscape
• operation and maintenance of Buddhist institutions in Japan after 1880
• lives and prospects of non-eminent monks
• marriage as part of the dharma path, rather than antithetical to it
• zen versus bushido
• tradition versus modernity
• real practice versus going through the motions

Dharma Brothers: Kodo and Tokujoo, A Historical Novel Based On The Lives Of Two Japanese Zen Masters (Volume 1) tackles all of these topics, to greater or lesser degrees, in the context of a story that makes you want to keep turning pages. You will as likely be left with more questions than answers, but that is a good thing.

Braverman never gives any explanation of why his first novel is tagged as volume one, but we can only hope he keeps writing fiction along with his other endeavours.
Karma Yönten Gyatso

Dr. Shields completed his undergraduate work and later received a PhD at McGill University. He is . . . Read More.]]> CRITICAL BUDDHISM
Engaging with Modern Japanese Buddhist Thought
James Mark Shields
Ashgate Press (Surrey, England, 2011)
http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=10343&edition_id=13553
216 pages / ISBN 978-1-4094-1798-9 hardback / An e-book edition is also available

Dr. Shields completed his undergraduate work and later received a PhD at McGill University. He is currently Assistant Professor of Asian and Comparative Thought at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA and was Visiting Faculty Fellow at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, 2009-2010.

What happens when good Buddhists do bad things? This is the underlying question behind James Mark Shields analysis of Japan’s Critical Buddhism movement of the 1980s and 1990s. His book is an exploration of many important issues illuminated by, and flowing from, that initiative, such as:

• how Buddhist thought in Japan (and other countries) was at times co-opted by, or collaborated with, authoritarian and conservative tendencies within the ruling elite
• how Buddhists (and particularly Zen Buddhists) have unwittingly or consciously provided a script for militaristic adventurers to justify their ideologies
• how Buddhism has responded to modern, liberal, humanist thought from the West (and must continue to do so)
• how modern Zen thought has been distorted by anti-rationalism and infusions from non-Buddhist traditions
• how Buddhist practitioners fall into the trap of imagining a golden past – an originary Buddhism that never existed
• how Westerners have mis-interpreted Buddhist teachings and practices to suit their own agendas
• how Engaged Buddhism evolved (and must continue to do so)

In short, it is packed full of provocative and powerful arguments for applying a critical eye to contemporary Buddhist thought. Rather than accepting the pronouncements of Buddhist teachers holus-bolus, he bravely explores the “what if?” of testing the wider social context and historical implications of those positions.  Shields’ scholarship is impeccable and his bibliography is extensive, making the book a valuable resource for other researchers.

Essential reading!

1:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. (Doors open at 1:00 pm)

Tickets are $20 CAD and are available online through Ticketmaster: http://www.ticketmaster.ca/event/1100465CC6D7D356

Tickets are still available.

For . . . Read More.]]> Open Mind, Open Heart: Touching the Wonders of Now

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Orpheum Theatre
884 Granville Street, Vancouver

1:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
(Doors open at 1:00 pm)

Tickets are $20 CAD and are available online through Ticketmaster: http://www.ticketmaster.ca/event/1100465CC6D7D356

Tickets are still available.

For more information about the events related to Thich Nhat Hanh’s visit, please go to: http://www.tnhvancouver2011.org/

CRITICAL BUDDHISM Engaging with Modern Japanese Buddhist Thought James Mark Shields Ashgate Press (Surrey, England, 2011) 216 pages ISBN 978-1-4094-1798-9 hardback An e-book edition is also available

Dr. Shields received a PhD at McGill University and is currently . . . Read More.]]> We recently received a copy of

CRITICAL BUDDHISM
Engaging with Modern Japanese Buddhist Thought
James Mark Shields
Ashgate Press (Surrey, England, 2011)
216 pages
ISBN 978-1-4094-1798-9 hardback
An e-book edition is also available

Dr. Shields received a PhD at McGill University and is currently Assistant Professor of Asian and Comparative Thought at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA and Visiting Faculty Fellow at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, 2009-2010.

A full review of the book will follow. In the meanwhile, here is a link to the publisher’s web site…

http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=10343&edition_id=13553

She recently contributed a short reflection to end a broadcast of CBC’s . . . Read More.]]> Ruth Ozeki is a well known Japanese-Canadian author and filmmaker who was ordained as a Zen priest in June 2010. She is affiliated with the Mountain Rain Zendo on Fraser Island, BC.

She recently contributed a short reflection to end a broadcast of CBC’s “The Current” which focused on the recent tragedies in Japan.

You can here it here: http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=1851714935

Her message begins at 25:49 in the podcast.

For more information about the events (and to register when that portion of the website goes live), please visit:

To register as a volunteer, please contact:

Jessica . . . Read More.]]> Registration for volunteers at the retreat led by Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh and associated lecture in August, 2011, in Vancouver, will be managed by two of his Vancouver sangha members, Justin Loveless and Jeanie Seward Magee.

To register as a volunteer, please contact:

Jessica Main
Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation Chair,
Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program
http://ubcbuddhism.wordpress.com/

University of British Columbia
C.K. Choi Building, 1855 West Mall
Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2
jessica.main@ubc.ca
Tel: (604) 822-9305
Fax: (604) 822-5207

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norman-fischer/for-full-inclusion-for-wo_b_772357.html

NOTE: This information is updated in other posts on . . . Read More.]]> Thich Nhat Hanh, world-honoured Vietnamese Zen Master, peace activist, and inspirational teacher, will be in Vancouver in August 2011. Here is the information about his visit, from his hosts – the University of British Columbia…

NOTE: This information is updated in other posts on Sumeru.

Use the search button in the upper right corner of the screen to find more recent posts on “Thich Nhat Hanh” for details about the event website, retreat registration, volunteering, and so on.

————————————-

The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh and monastics of Plum Village, Deer Park Monastery, Blue Cliff Monastery, and Magnolia Village will hold a residential meditation retreat and a public lecture in Vancouver, August of 2011:

Retreat: “Awakening the Heart”

• Dates: August 8-13, 2011
• Location: UBC Point Gray Campus
• (more details when these become available)

Lecture: “Open Mind, Open Heart: Touching the Wonders of Now”

• Date: Sunday, August 14, 2011
• Time:   3:00 – 5:00 PM
• Location and Address:  Orpheum Theatre, 884 Granville Street
• (doors open at 2:00 PM with preliminary events until lecture begins)

Zen master, poet, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, peace and human rights activist, Thich Nhat Hanh has led an extraordinary life. Becoming a monk at age 16 in Vietnam, he soon confronted the human suffering and environmental devastation of war. From that time forward, he has chosen to assist and care for others while following the contemplative life of a monk. Through active social engagement and Buddhist practice, he advocates compassion and nonviolence.

See www.plumvillage.org for more information about Thich Nhat Hanh and his Sangha. Additional details and registration information about these events will be made available in the coming months.

The retreat and public lecture are made possible by the generous sponsorship of The Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation.