Cute Puppy Practices Zen!

Merciful Eye Temple--This little champ is named Conan, and he is praying for good grades for students. Apparently, the crowd made him frisky at first, but he calmed down and properly did his 合掌 (prayer hands). Of course, there was some memorabilia, a few charms, or omamori, and other stuff with his image on sale too. All for the grade. No mention of whether or not poop played a part in this grade-praying event.
[original Japanese+big pic]

Here are a couple more religious stories I found interesting:


Shiga-ken--One thing about festivals in Japan is that usually a portable shrine gets pulled out. I myself have helped pull one or two down the street--next goal is battling shrines!-- but this is pretty awesome a feat: getting together about 200 guys to carry a shrine 1km into the mountains. And that final bit of stone stairs is a 45% slope!
[original article]


From Fuki to Obama city--Have you ever heard the sound of a ほら貝? Here is a video of what a conch-horn of the Japanese variety sounds like (it's pretty difficult to do). Now, keep that in mind when you look at this picture. Sure the group may resemble a certain group of ill-repute in America, but these folks are doing nothing sinister; just the opposite in fact: that horn signals spring coming. Where better to announce spring than at a spring*, in an event called "the sending of the water"? They place their flaming cedar sticks in the water (2,500 people doing this, mind you) and purify it.
[article]
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* Actually this one was pretty hard to read and then decide proper English terms for, so if you notice anything off, do comment.

In case you used them...

Certain links are now gone from the sidebar, but here they are in this post, for posterity, or in case anyone was using them. I really do recommend the readings; you're not likely to find a link to the works of Clark Ashton Smith elsewhere on the web.


Occult Texts
Clark Ashton Smith
Edgar Allen Poe
Arthur Machen
H.P. Lovecraft
Lord Dunsany

Non-cthulhian stuff
Sacred Texts
"Koans"
Sci-fi

Entertainment
Daily Portal Z
Midnight Eye
Twitchfilms
Same Hat!
Ryuganji

ESL Teaching
JET Programme
Ohayo,Sensei!
Genki English◎
ESLKidsstuff
NATTO◎
ESLcafe

We call it a

The children have heads crowned with leaves. I am told that they are gods. They look more of Greek or Roman than of Japanese deity ilk to me.

"The fire is sacred; a symbol of friendship and unity" says the eager college student.
"What do they call this kind of fire?" I ask.
"They call it... a campfire."
"Oh." I think back to earlier when a teacher laughed at me for saying that if I went camping with even a couple friends, we would have a fire. Campfire: mundane katakana word, bigger ceremonial implications. The fire week cook our food on is much smaller, separate, and surrounded by cement.
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This article helped me understand ritual in everyday Japanese life a little bit better. It also helped me understand why I have to come to an empty teachers room every day during the summer.
I was going to write about how the Japanese are obsessed with harmony, but that will do for now, pig, that'll do.

The spider-button

Connections

Anyone else remember this series? It was a great staple in otherwise really cheesy TLC chanel programing. A smart show. I miss feeling kinda smart; I borrowed Brain Training from the gf and it kicks my butt.

Religion and other taboo jokes

I've noticed that whenever I am in a situation where a group of people get to know me for the first time, and an extended time at that, they realize I'm really funny. Usually, it takes months for someone to notice this, because I am so quiet. One day they go, "Oh, I get it now! All those things you say... You're funny!" To which I reply, "Well that's obvious. But have you noticed how incredibly humble I am?"

But even I tell a joke that's not funny every once in a while (analogous to a blog entry without a comment is the joke without a laugh). Among topics that I've discovered aren't funny: orphans dying. Okay, that should be obvious, especially when you are with an volunteer group helping orphans*, but I contend it was funny because it was so unfunny and downright blasphemous.
But ironically, I rarely find religion jokes very funny because I'm too incensed by them. It doesn't even have to be my faith. I cringe at every pedophilic priest joke. I even cringe for the Scientologists. And Tom Cruise.
My goal now is to have a sense of humor about religion, while realizing what is tactful and what is not. So no more holocaust jokes either†.
On a side note, it is very difficult to explain to a Japanese person why the chicken crossing the road joke is funny.
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Now for a random semi-spiritual thought to counter the balance, from some some TV producer,

I believe that the very act of believing in something causes us to distance ourselves from that thing, thus a duality is created: oneself and the thing in which one believes. Now since we all know that in order to fully understand a thing one must be that thing -- walk a mile in its shoes so to speak -- it seems obvious that the state of believing in something inevitably causes us to not truly understand that thing in which we believe. This noncomprehension leads to all sorts of difficulties. "I believe in love" has a better than even chance of leading to divorce, while "I believe in God" seems to end in variations on the Spanish Inquisition. But -- and it's a big but -- if one were love, one couldn't help but be affectionate and caring towards oneself and others. If one were God, one would act toward all beings and all things as if they were one's own creations.

--
*:as were attempts to lighten the mood afterwards by alluding to how horrible a joke I had made. These are the times when I really wish I had amnesia dust, or roofies a la Arrested Development.Do me a favor, reach into my pocket and let me have one of those pills please!
†:Holy crap, I'm just kidding! I don't know any jokes about the holocaust.

Zen moment today: Sitting amidst the students at lunch, and the only sound is of little mouths slurping up champon noodles.
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Lesson of today: Tell a hyper student to relax, and they will say, "RELAX! relax! relaxrelaxrelaxRELAXrelaxrelax..." ad infinitim ad nauseum ad a slap up the back of the head.

It's a beautiful day, go outside!

Life is brilliant right now!
--
So is spent the last half of school today watching SuperSize Me, as did all the students. The children went to their homerooms to watch. I, as an art teacher with freedom of choice, went to the special ed room to hang out with my fave kids. The movie got me to thinking (I have a goal of gaining 30 pounds before going to Japan as "insurance fat," but I have reconsidered and want to gain only pure muscle now, which will be tons harder).
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I leave you with a "Koan" came across recently.

A university student while visiting Gasan asked him: "Have you ever read the Christian Bible?"

"No, read it to me," said Gasan.

The student opened the Bible and read from St. Matthew: "And why take ye thought for rainment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these... Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself."

Gasan said: "Whoever uttered those words I consider an enlightened man."

The student continued reading: "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened."

Gasan remarked: "That is excellent. Whoever said that is not far from Buddhahood."

--Muju (the "non-dweller")

Yes, I agree

How I feel about my expenses right now:

One evening as Shichiri Kojun was reciting sutras a thief with a sharp sword entered, demanding wither his money or his life.
Shichiri told him: "Do not disturb me. You can find the money in that drawer." Then he resumed his recitation.
A little while afterwards he stopped and called: "Don't take it all. I need some to pay taxes with tomorrow."
The intruder gathered up most of the money and started to leave. "Thank a person when you receive a gift," Shichiri added. The man thanked him and made off.
A few days afterwards the fellow was caught and confessed, among others, the offense against Shichiri. When Shichiri was called as a witness he said: "This man is no thief, at least as far as I am concerned. I gave him the money and he thanked me for it."
After he had finished his prison term, the man went to Shichiri and became his disciple.

--Shaseki-shu (Collection of Stone and Sand)

as I watched the happy crowd I thought...

People are fantastic.

Tulpa

Have you created one today?



TULPA CREATION


The word Tulpa is from the Tibetan language and refers to any entity that attains reality solely by the act of imagination. The entity is created entirely within the confines of ones own mind, not drawn out, written down or even verbally described.

If its creator wishes, this "Tulpa Creation" may become physical reality through intense concentration and visualization. However, care must be taken to only bring to reality what is beneficial to the world, lest it's destruction becomes more problematic than its creation (see related account on Alexandra David-Neel)

When Alexandra David-Neel journeyed through Tibet, one of the many mystical techniques she studied was that of tulpa creation. A tulpa, according to traditional Tibetan doctrines, is an entity created by an act of imagination, rather like the fictional characters of a novelist, except that tulpas are not written down. David-Neel became so interested in the concept that she decided to try to create one.

The method involved was essentially intense concentration and visualization. David-Neel's tulpa began its existence as a plump, benign little monk, similar to Friar Tuck. It was at first entirely subjective, but gradually, with practice, she was able to visualize the tulpa out there, like an imaginary ghost flitting about the real world.

In time the vision grew in clarity and substance until it was indistinguishable from physical reality-a sort of self-induced hallucination. But the day came when the hallucination slipped from her conscious control. She discovered that the monk would appear from time to time when she had not willed it. Furthermore her friendly little figure was slimming down and taking on a distinctly sinister aspect.

Eventually her companions, who where unaware of the mental disciplines she was practicing, began to ask about the "stranger" who had turned up in their camp-a clear indication that a creature which was no more that solidified imagination had definite objective reality.

At this point, David-Neel decided things had gone too far and applied different lamaist techniques to reabsorb the creature into her own mind. The tulpa proved very unwillling to face destruction in this way so that the process took several weeks and left its creator exhausted.

- Excerpt from "Body, Mind & Spirit - A Dictionary of New Age Ideas"