antaiji

Muho: “Adult Practice”
Muho: “What does it take to become a full-fledged Soto-shu priest and is it really worth the whole deal?”
Kosho Uchiyama: “To you who has decided to become a Zen monk”

I – Introduction

By the roadside leading up to the temple he watched over, Shinyu Miyaura was found fatally wounded, face down in the shallows of the mountain’s river. Some hours before, the abbot had driven a bulldozer over the bank and was crushed beneath. While the vehicle moved up towards Antaiji, he stumbled a few feet in the other direction before collapsing unconscious.

His body was discovered by an American monk. A practitioner at Antaiji for over a year, this monk was with Miyaura shortly before the accident had happened. Miyaura was using the bulldozer to help bring down a guest who stayed at the temple the night before. As it was 14 February, the middle of winter, there was too much snow on the road for a regular car to drive through without assistance. While Miyaura was saying his goodbyes to the guest at the bus stop by the base of the mountain, the American monk was told to go ahead back up to Antaiji as it would soon be time for the communal bath. After a few hours, he and the other residents realised something was wrong, so they made their way back down the mountain to search for Miyaura. One could only imagine the shock of discovering that wreckage, and seeing their teacher’s broken body amidst the blanket […]

On most sundays, 6:40 to 7:40, next time on April 14th

The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attractions of an interior voice but will not listen to other men. He identifies the will of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling is, the more he is convinced of his own infallibility. (Thomas Merton)
Source: New Seeds of Contemplation

Koike Ryunosuke calls his editor to confess (Japanese)