just checking mike..re shark fin soup...yes i know
Confucius is chinese..i was there in china and went to the temple of Confucius.. from what i gathered about the japanese in my early education at school art they borrowed a lot from the chinese...good copycats i had a japanese pen friend when i was in my teen years. ... his father was a dentist.. i was fascinated with japan for many long years... especially the gardens and maple trees.. here in the garden there are the flowering weeping cherries i have a friend who is japanese..she is 40 plus.. married to an australian for last 20 years...she's very nice indeed i had japanese exchange students when i was teaching art..and a director of a japanese school came into my classroom with a bunch of students to visit one morning... japanese was the language to be learnt at high schools at one stage.. i could never see the point to this... it is chinese we need to learn: mandarin.. only NOW has come the realisation in the australian education system... merle...i note the japanese youth are big on cartoons and cartoon type caricatures Merle, As a society the Japanese are very confucian in their outlook and structure. This makes them an incredibly polite people. At heart, they're just like an other people when it comes to kindness and caring. As for shark-fin soup - that's the Chinese. Mike Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPad ________________________________ From: Merle Lester <[email protected]>; To: [email protected] <[email protected]>; Subject: Re: [Zen] Re: What is Enlightenment? Sent: Tue, May 21, 2013 3:08:37 AM mike..thanks for the update.. let us not forget what the japanese did to the chinese either...... well that is nice to know they are now all well mannered, kind and caring... we could all learn a thing or two... yes the whales and do they do the shark fin soup as well...? merle Merle, The world today is not the same as it was during WW2 and this is certainly true in Japan. Back then (and beyond) to die in service of the Emperor was the highest honour - to back down from this service was to bring shame to yourself, your family and the nation. Loss of face in Japanese society is a huge factor in self-policing. Being such a densely populated nation there was no escape from this duty. I don't think the Japanese today though share this same sense of duty as their grandparents generation (MacArthur saw to that!). Loss of face is still evident though. It's amazing that you can go into a packed shopping centre food-hall and leave your wallet, iPhone etc unguarded on the table while you get your food and still have it there when you return. Guaranteed. Lost property i.e, wallets will be returned with the contents untouched. I remember being shocked when I first went to a train station around 11pm and saw a young girl in school uniform unaccompanied catching a train. Now that is a familiar sight. In 8 years of going out (most weekends!) I didn't see *one* fight! That to me is the heart of the Japanese people - honest and peaceful. The cruelty of their grandparents in WW2 was, I hope, an aberration caused by the tendency to militarism experienced by many countries of that era (whales and dolphins might disagree with this!). Mike Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPad ________________________________ From: Merle Lester <[email protected]>; To: [email protected] <[email protected]>; Subject: Re: [Zen] Re: What is Enlightenment? Sent: Tue, May 21, 2013 2:06:45 AM butting in..what about their attitude to war...they fight to the death and first correct me if i am mistaken...suicide bombers......merle Joe, Oh yes, It's so easy to the Japanese mentality expressed in the zendo. But that's the Japanese way. They don't just make a cup of tea - it becomes an elaborate ceremony. They don't just have a punch up - it becomes a fighting system. They can't just put a flower in a vase - it becomes ikebana. . Even a garden displaying the 'wild' beauty of nature takes hundreds of years to perfect. And they can't just sit down and relax - it becomes zazen! Do you think "universal" Zen could just be another way of saying "Western" Zen? Mike Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPad ________________________________ From: Joe <[email protected]>; To: <[email protected]>; Subject: [Zen] Re: What is Enlightenment? Sent: Mon, May 20, 2013 5:55:39 PM Mike, That's Chinese incense: not Japanese! ;-) And definitely not Indian! I don't know much about Japanese Zen as it is taught and practiced authentically , because I have only studied with the American successors of Japanese teachers (and sat a bit with Maezumi Roshi, in USA). But I can tell you there is a certain earthiness and egalitarianism in Chinese Ch'an, in teaching situations. And a very ready and solid presence. The Ch'an teacher does not stay locked-away, in some sort of formal fashion -- that's a Japanese accretion, I think -- and is always well aware of what's what with anyone. Some say at times, "TOO aware". ;-) Not saying which is better, ...or who has the more congenial incense. Just telling what I know by intimate, and grateful, experience. Ch'an teaching seems to suit many Westerners better than Japanese Zen teaching ways. Of course, everything's changing in the West. In a thousand years, there may be a genuinely Western, or even Universal, Zen teaching tradition: "Universal", if the school does not die out in the East. --Joe > uerusuboyo@... wrote: > > Would it be fair to say that Cha'n still retains more of its original Indian > Mahayana flavour than Japanese Zen? At least in it's outward expression, if > not in its stories. I can almost smell the incense from here! ( meant > respectfully).
