Hi Everyone,

If anyone knows of a good source for zen related vocabulary I would like to know it. I am also interested in obtaining A Japanese version of the liturgy (The four vows, the heart sutra, the identity of the absolute and the relative, the meal liturgies etc etc.) Even better; if it was also avaiable in audio form, chanted by a gravelly voiced monk that would be fantastic. MRO (an American Zen organization) put out an English CD. Where is the native version, so to speak?

Also what about the Shōbōgenzō (正法眼蔵)? When I want to read the Bible I click on Youversion. They have an audio King James edition and also a colloquial non-audio : ( Japanese edition. Again I would love to have an audio file of the Shōbōgenzō read or chanted in its native tongue. If this is unavailable, I could probably find someone to do the reading for me. Does anybody else have any thoughts in that direction.

In particular, I've been wondering what characters are used for writing "kiyosaku," the rod of "loving correction" used for whacking inattentive monks at Zen monasteries. I've been searching the net and couldn't come up with anything so I'll post the question here.

I've been missing this forum (and Japanese). lots of overwork here in NZ (and the Harpagornes needs to improve his / her time management skills). My father has just gone into a rest home; After 10 years of 引篭り生活 (ひきこもり・せいかつ) I have been offered a job; I am now also in full 長男 (ちょうなん) role, looking after Mum and resuscitating the long flatlined family business / finances.

Hope everything is going well for you all.

PS Is the antonym of 引篭 written as 押竜? Anyone have any opinions as to whether this linguistic indulgence works in Japanese?

OK, all that is maybe too much to ask. Does anyone know how to spell kiyosaku in Japanese however? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

警策　「けいさく／きょうさく」

CJ

Ah...Now I see!

Thank you CJ, I wasn't quite sure of the kana having only heard it referred to in transliteration.

Harpagornes Wrote:PS Is the antonym of 引篭 written as 押竜? Anyone have any opinions as to whether this linguistic indulgence works in Japanese?

No, I think 押竜 is just nonsense.

For the 正法眼蔵 this Youtube series, used along with the blog posts in the discription, is pretty good.
It might be a good idea to start with Buddhist podcasts though. The easiest one I've found is here.

Re: JimmySeal. Quite agree, and certainly won't be afflicting 押竜 on any Japanese people soon. That said, I quite like the image of the 引篭り (or, let's be honest here: myself) emerging from from his /her self imposed cavern, like a dragon, ready to start mixing it up and pushing things around. For some reason I am attracted to this sort of word-play but, realizing it is not everybody's cup of tea, try to restrain myself. I was fortunate however enough to be befriended by a Japanese person with similar tastes. i'll try it on him.

An aside: Are there female 引篭り or is it an entirely a masculine phenomena?

Re: Bokusenou. Thanks for the links. The YouTube series is fantastic! Seriously, I am deeply in your debt!

The trouble is, I have a hard enough time even beginning to understand Buddhism when people try to tell me about it in English. Like Christianity, it also seems to come in a myriad different flavors. I imagine listening to a Japanese teacher will be far from enlightening. Anyway, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I would like to at least follow the liturgy in Japanese as the stuff I do with MRO is presumably a translation.

Another aside: Has anyone spent any time in a Japanese monastery? If so, how did you get on? I must confess, after a hideous time staying in a Japanese dormitory, I have been rather wary of the full immersion experience. Instead, I became involved with MRO precisely because it offered Zen filtered through American consciousness. Japan light as it were.

Harpagornes Wrote:Re: Bokusenou. Thanks for the links. The YouTube series is fantastic! Seriously, I am deeply in your debt!

The trouble is, I have a hard enough time even beginning to understand Buddhism when people try to tell me about it in English. Like Christianity, it also seems to come in a myriad different flavors. I imagine listening to a Japanese teacher will be far from enlightening. Anyway, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I would like to at least follow the liturgy in Japanese as the stuff I do with MRO is presumably a translation.

Glad it helped. ^-^
As far as I know, the main schools of Zen in Japan are Soutou, Rinzai, and Oubaku, with the first two being the most popular. Dougen founded the Soutou school. You might want to do a search on Japanese Buddhist terms before reading a lot of Buddhist texts, to make it easier.

I think in this case, 出 would be more fitting than 押 for the opposite of 引, as 引 is being used in an intransitive sense. Nonetheless, 出竜 still doesn't mean anything.
Incidentally, from what I can ascertain 篭 doesn't represent a dragon enclosed in bamboo, but rather bamboo woven in a long cylindrical shape (as a dragon is long and cylindrical) to form a basket. I think the use of the character to represent 篭る emerged from that original meaning.

Sorry if I'm being too much of a killjoy.

The official Soto Zen site now has a glossary:
http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/eng/libr...index.html

also romaji versions of the sutras and dharanis:
http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/eng/prac...ations.pdf

in general, it is a very useful site.

Now, Shobogenzo is VERY heavy reading. If you are a relative beginner to Zen, it's not really the recommended place to start... .

You are in good hands with the MRO... .

I spent 4 years in a Japanese monastery for women... . It was rough, but if I had to do it all over again, I most definitely would. It was very much worth it.

Good luck in your practice.
Gassho