- As for the blog's name: -


I was @ Gustav Ericsson's sight, - Anzenkai, and I was looking at Nishijima Roshi’s calligraphies over there. Particularly there is one - "seki shin hen pen" - about which Gustav has earlier said in a blog post that it is Nishijima's favorite phrase from Master Dogen.

This seemed strange to me. It was not what I would expect Nishijima Roshi's favorite phrase to be. It seemed it could be some Rinzai master's favorite quote, - it seems to express continuous and constant sincerity, - but it did not seem to fit my view of the way Nishijima Roshi saw things.

So - consequently - I tried to think what would I expect his favorite quote to be. But all phrases I could think of did not seem to fit just what I might have had in mind.

So I tried to come up with what I would see it as, - and what I have come up with - is - "this universe out here".

- And this seems to be the right name for this blog here too.


- Definitely.                                                 ________________________

I don’t understand

I travelled to Japan first in 1991. On April 6th I first arrived at Narita airport. - The season in Ryutaku-ji begins on March 15th but the first sesshin only begins on April 18, or rather on the evening before - of the 17th. - I went through three flights: - Israel to Greece, Greece to Thailand, and Thailand to Japan. I guess since not so many flights go through Israel, being such a small country. - When you get to Japan, assuming you have no earlier special arrangements, - you can get an entry permission for 90 days.

- In travelling through Greece, I had to change airports. There were two airports in Athens, the flight from Israel arrived in one, and the continuing flight was leaving from the other one. - As far as I recall I went from one to the other on foot. - The first incident was then. A person, just someone I don’t know, was walking straight toward me singing the Beatles song “Hey Jude”. He was kind of singing it at me. Nothing offensive, as far as I got it. I never spoke to him or responded in any way, I just went on. I guess he might have noticed I was from Israel, these things can sometimes be identified, - and therefore sang as he did.

- Before going to Japan I was very indecisive as for which path to pick.

I started sitting in ’85. But then - around 1990-1991 - I had the wish to then dedicate my life to the path, - to the way, - and therefore wanted to choose that which is best. [for me of course]

- I got very indecisive as for two paths: - “Zen”, - as the name Master Dogen tells us not to use, (though the reasoning for it seems to relate to the time and place then, and is not equally in place now, as far as I understand) and that which is called “DAT” (Initials in Hebrew, though it is interesting that the word you get in Hebrew is the Hebrew word for the Sanskrit “Prajna” - pronounced da-at - as two syllables - and not “dat”-  which is the Hebrew word for religion (spelled differently too)) taught and created by Shlomo Kalo, who died not so long ago on August 30th, 2014.

It does seem really silly looking back, - but at the time I was severely troubled. At last I made my decision and went to Japan. As I said above.

I got my entry permit for 90 days, arrived at the Ryutaku-ji on April 7th, - and stayed there thereafter. - It is possible to get 90 days twice, (It might depend on your nationality, this is the way it was for me) without leaving Japan. - As my 90 days were coming near the end, - the roshi had one of the monks drive me to the immigration office (which was quite far, it was a 2-3 hours drive as far as I recall) to renew it. We passed through a lawyer on the way, but he and the monk spoke in Japanese, which I could not understand, but it was for the purpose of it, as far as I understand. - We got to the office - handed in whichever papers we did, - and got what we came for.

As we were about to drive off, - when we were already in the car, either already started or not, there was a car with a few kids a few meters ahead of us, not blocking the way, just a bit to the side. - These kids were singing - or just started to sing - the same song, - “Hey Jude” again. What does it mean? I don’t know. I happened to be a monk who likes the Beatles. He knew the song. I told him about the first incident. As for people who think this whole shit is meaningless, - they might have not read it in the first place. I am not interested in arguing with these. But as for those who understand this need to have some meaning, - they are in place reading it. I won’t go further. I am leaving it at that. Time has a habit of telling, but it is not obliged. So far.