1987
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A ZEN MONK
by Taisen Deshimaru
A story of bravery and false starts, Autobiography of a Zen Monk candidly recounts the author’s development from a highly mischievous Japanese boy into a world-renowned Sensei (Teacher) of Zen. While countless memoirs exist written by Zen students and teachers, few are as engaging and as tantalizing as Taisen Deshimaru’s. Looking back at his early life, growing up in Japan, from the viewpoint of his status as a Zen teacher in Paris, the author reflects on his earliest misadventures—from defacing a valuable painting of Bodhidharma as a child, to turning the “Zen stick” on a young monk during a retreat. Adventures abound with stories about alcohol and women, during his student years, and his activities during World War II in working for the arms industry in Malaysia, where he was sympathetic to the underground freedom movement. This first English-language translation of Taisen Deshimaru’s autobiography will be prized for its clear and honest documentation of this great master’s life. Many people all over the world have been influenced by Deshimaru’s Zen teachings, especially his book on Zen and the martial arts. This memoir fills an important gap in our knowledge of his teacher, Kodo Sawaki’s influence on the world of Zen. The story of how Deshimaru met Sawaki as a boy, even slept in the same room with him, and later received monastic ordination is the story of a lifelong friendship of two extraordinary characters in the history of modern Zen. Deshimaru’s influence extends beyond Zen practitioners, though, especially in those interested in the martial arts, as he touches on his martial arts experience as a young man and offers a look into the master’s early training. Additional interest extends to historians who recount the supposed “scandals” of Zen masters’ participation in the war effort. Although Deshimaru’s viewpoint is decidedly subjective, he was intimately acquainted with priests and generals alike, and approaches the difficult subject with a refreshing lack of judgmental disdain which counterbalances many other more lopsided works. Translator, Richard Collins, a longtime Zen practitioner, and currently the Abbot of the New Orleans Zen Temple, is a literature scholar and author of several books including No Fear Zen, Hohm Press, 2014. His knowledge of the subject matter and his finesse with language combine to make this book a delightful read for those who appreciate wellwritten memoir.
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Travel & TransportMay 1986MIDNIGHT EXPRESS: Hong Kong and Macao
by SAWAKI Koutarou
When Koutarou SAWAKI was 26, he planned to spend 4 months to take a 20,000 kilometers bus trip from Delhi to London. He had US$1900 to start his trip. When he bought the flight tickets, the woman said the ticket from Tokyo to Delhi can have two stops. He changed a bit of his trip from Tokyo to Hong Kong to Bangkok to Delhi and then take the bus all the way to London. However, when he arrived Hong Kong, he was charmed by the city and people. When he finally arrived in Delhi, 4 months had already passed and his cross Asia to Europe trip hadn’t started yet! One day, he wandered around Delhi and went back to his cheap guest house. He lay on the bed with his mind a blank. He looked at his French roommate who had been travelling for 4 and a half years. The French guy was just lying on the bed, too. Sawaki jumped up and decided to move on. So, he took the bus from Delhi to Pakistan. The engine of the trip was turned on. He spent one year and three months travelling around Hong Kong, Macao, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Greek, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, England. When he arrived at London, he knew it was time to go home.
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PoetryOctober 2023A Thousand Years of Zen Japanese Poetry
A Buddhist Anthology
by José Carte
This volume presents a wide sample of the best Japanese Zen Buddhist poetry of the last millennium. Throughout its pages we find texts imbued with the thought of one of the most refined cultures in the world. José Carte brings together a wide range of works by Zen monks, poets and philosophers with their corresponding biographical notes and succinct explanations that give meaning to this oriental imaginary profusely nourished by concepts such as Ku [sunyata in Sanskrit] or daruma [dharma in Sanskrit]. This anthology offers texts written during the Heain dynasty (794 to 1185), passing through the origins of the Soto school led by Dogen, the Rinzai tradition and the School of the Five Mountains, among others. The result is a wide selection that includes compositions by authors who lived ten centuries ago to others of the twentieth century, offering a historical retrospective of the best Japanese poetry enriched with explanatory comments and in many cases with the phonetic transcription of the poems in their original language, which allows us to know how they sound in their recitation. In this book we find beautiful compositions in various traditional stanzas (including haiku), as well as the translation of poems by great Zen masters such as Basho, Issa, Takahashi or Kodo Sawaki. The edition has been rigorously revised by Professor Keiko Suzuki.
