* * * Dr. Bunnyhead's "experiences of zen" * * *
Antaiji, 1995. "The responsibility for your practice lies solely on yourself. There is no one to live your life for you. Nobody will wipe your ass for you. You should be clear about the basis of your practice and the motive that brings you here. Make sure you know why you want to come here - do not fool yourself or others." Too many fail to make sure - and end up as spectators of what they call the "zen life". This quote comes - together with these photos - from a 1200 page Ph.D. thesis entitled "experiences of zen", by the scandinavian scholar Dr. Sven Bunnyhead, who spent six weeks at Antaiji in 1995 and five more days in 1998.
A monk cleaning the temple in the morning.
"Dr. Bunnyhead, you are in the way!"
Monks practicing sutra recitation: To study the way means to study yourself. When religion is studied intellectually, as part of someone else's life rather than one's own, this is called in the sutras: "entering the ocean to count pebbles of sand" or "counting the money in someone else's purse".
The late abbot Miyaura Shinyu Roshi at work, cutting cedar trees.
In Zen, a day without work is supposed to be a day without food, i.e. your life itself is spiritual practice.
In 1995, Dr. Bunnyhead discoveres a "zen grunge".
Three years later (1998), it's time for lunch. Muho's pants stay in place now even without a belt. And in some years later the buttons won't close any more...
Back in 1995, people serving lunch.
Formal chant before dinner. This is something for the camera!
Cleaning the bowls at the table, after the meal.
Monks studying. In Buddhism, study aims at investing the nature of your own life practice here and now.
Antaiji after nine.
The monks in their element (?).
"Video sesshin" after the rice paddies have been planted.
The present abbot as a young monk (1995 & 1998).
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