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The first ideas about Eastern Philosophy came to me through movies. There was the Star Wars from George Lucas (I wrote about in an earlier post), and as an elementary school kid I watched the TV series Kung Fu, telling the adventures of a Shaolin Monk (performed by David Carradine).

Me and my friends did not much like the fighting scenes,  since (hard to imagine today), using your feet and legs, even during most severe fights in the school-yard, was absolutely banned as being girlish and mean. But I was much impressed by the hardships the young novices had to endure, before they were allowed to enter the temple.

Especially one scene engraved in my early memory: when a few selected boys, after waiting outside the temple for days, were eventually let in and offered tea. Thirsty as they were, all kids drank immediately, all except the one, who was then allowed to stay in the temple: he waited, until the old master put up his cup …

The message, the little boy I was back then took from watching Kung Fu on TV: aside from paying a certain amount of respect, observing your seniors with full attention is the best (if not only) chance to learn something from them!

Today, fortunately, a first encounter with Zen and Zen-Arts is possible through authentic teacher, not just the TV. But watch out, when the old master offers his young want-to-be student some tea!

“Every Day is a Good Day” is a common English translation of the Japanese proverb 日々是好日 (often pronounced nichi nichi kore ko jitsu).

I came across nichi nichi kore ko jitsu around the time my interest in Zen and Calligraphy became more serious, and assumed it must describe an advanced state of mind (maybe after Enlightenment), when whatever happens to you is just good.

Alas, after years of practice, I still experienced a considerable number of bad days. I started to hate this “Every Day is a Good Day”, since it reminded me every day of my very limited progress. Not even my number of good days significantly increased!

This must be part of Orwell’s Newspeak, I finally concluded, where by erasing certain words (“bad day”) one attempts to re-define the reality, well in opposite to the obvious facts.  “Every Day is a Good Day” is simply a lie, which does not become more true when repeating it over and over again! No matter its source is the famous collection of koan, called Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku) …

But eventually, I realised that the third Japanese character in the proverb, namely the 好 (“ko”), has a variety of connotations, aside of the usual “good”. It is often used in a sense of “to like” or “to have an intimate relation with”. Composed of the two elementary characters for “women” (女) and “child” (子), it maybe evokes the intimate relation of mother and child: an unconditional, fundamental affection, but not a statement about “good” or “bad”. Actually, (most) parents love their kids, also on days when they do something bad!

Understood this way, the 好 (“ko”) has an active component, of to like something, or to be engaged in a friendly, affirmative relation with something. It reflects my personal, emotional attitude!

Nowadays, I translate 日々是好日 (nichi nichi kore ko jitsu) as “Every Day is Welcome”, or “I Like every Day”, be it a bad or a good day!

Yesterday, the Japanese team won the women’s Football World Cup. Against whom did they win?

In case you have a chance to visit the Engakuji Temple in Kita-Kamakura, let me suggest to leave the beaten track and turn left before passing through the big wooden Sanmon-gate uphill. You will find a small sub-temple, which functions as a Kyudo Dojo (a place to practice Japanese archery).

Isn’t archery exemplary for sports competition, winning or loosing, hitting the bull’s eye or failure?

The answer is given by the head-master of the Kyudo Dojo, the old priest Suhara Koun (I was so lucky to meet and talk to several times during my visits the past decade). In the show-case right hand side after entering the Dojo grounds, he hung a newspaper article about the 1960 and 1964 Olympic marathon winner Abebe Bikila. 

Suhara Koun quoted in his own calligraphy from that article:

Words of the athlete Abebe: The other 69 runners were not my competitors, I myself was my competitor. Therefore, I won against myself.

Congratulations to the Japanese soccer team, for not giving up in the face of disaster and invincible opponents, and winning the World Cup competition against themselves!

Gion Matsuri, one of three big festivals in Kyoto, will be at it’s peak from tomorrow on. It always makes me a bit sad, not to be in Kyoto around this time! The streets are crowded with cheerful people, you can hear the ancient festival music played everywhere from the floats, and the scent of delicious food is in the air. After the end of the rainy season Kyoto gets steamy hot with a humidity close to saturation, the typical Kyoto-in-the-summer atmosphere!

I remember strolling down Shijo-street towards Kamogawa-river with my friends, watching a dance performance, and later in the evening arriving at Yasaka-shrine next to Gion. Many many times I have been walking that route the past decade, but it is never as pleasant as during Gion Matsuri in the evening, when the streets are reserved for pedestrians, and all Kyoto seems to crowd within a few blocks of the old down-town.

Being at my Dojo in the cold and rainy north-west of Germany right now (we had 17 degrees Celius maximum today), it does not help much longing for Kyoto, for the warmth and beauty of Gion Matsuri.

Better gardening a bit in the rain, I believe, instead of dreaming of a warm festival somewhere else!  Not some other place, some other time … right here, right now is our Zen-mind! Though, still, it is so beautiful …

Zen is very generous: it does not require us to know or believe much. Just how to sit on our pillow in a proper and healthy posture, breath deeply and be not disturbed by thoughts and ideas coming and going, is enough. The rest is daily practice, cooking, eating, working, a social life …

A friend of mine, who became a Buddhist Monk in Thailand, recently wrote to me that I don’t understand anything about Buddhism … that Zen people anyway don’t understand enough, and how important it is to study and strictly follow all the rules defined by the historic Buddha, established over two millennia ago for monastic life in ancient India.

There are always so many people around us, who willingly share their specific view of the world: re-birth, God’s all-mighty power, Buddhas of the past, present and future, scientific and non-scientific systems of ideas and understanding, UFOs and angles, why it is important to join the fire-fighters … so much, so detailed information, down to the temperature of the hell fire and the exact amount of years until the world’s end! Catalogues of rules for conducting each detail of our daily life, telling right from wrong in any thought or action we might have or do.

Zen is also: not being disturbed too much by all these ideas (and their advocates). They are like the birds singing, my neighbour’s dog barking, the sound of wind in the trees outside my house: part of our world. Enchanting at times, annoying at others, but no need to spend too much thoughts on it!

I get up each morning, practice Zazen, Hitsuzendo, Iaido … prepare breakfast, go to office … doing all this, day by day, until the end of my life, is likely the horizon of my understanding.

As a teenager, like so many of my generation, I was much impressed by the first of George Lucas’ movie of the Star Wars Series (Episode 4: A New Hope). Besides all the metaphysical super-duper power stuff and beautiful Princess Leia I loved, the possibility of drifting to the Dark Side of The Force made me think a lot.

Could it really be, that after years of studying hard all the techniques of (laser)sword fencing with the good ones, due to a bad character and unlucky circumstances, you eventually change sides and become evil? What consequences does that have for me, as a teacher of martial arts (I once was)? Is there a danger, I show a student how to use the katana (life blade Japanese sword), and he or she will use his skills learned at my Dojo to harm others?

I brought these questions to my former Iaido teacher, and his answer was quite simple:

“We welcome everyone to our Dojo who is willing learn. And especially the bad guys should be given a chance to improve their character!”

So, I understood, no need to fear that after years of working hard with a good teacher, you suddenly will turn evil and use what you have learned against others. A good teacher, and be it a fencing teacher, always offers the chance to get rid of even the worst habits acquired earlier in your life!

Said that, a certain problem (especially in martial arts) might well come through those teachers, who are focussing on technique alone, neglecting all moral and spiritual aspects of their art. They can indeed bring their students to a medium skilled, yet potentially dangerous, technical level.

This is, why I especially welcome the bold and strong want-to-be Samurai from the martial arts clubs to study Zen at my Dojo! There is always a chance to learn something new …

—

P.S.: My interest in Star Was (and Princess Leia) vanished, after I discovered the blueprint for George Lucas’ movies, namely The Hidden Fortress (隠し砦の三悪人) by Akira Kurosawa (featuring the considerably less cute Princess Yuki Akizuki).

Aside from teaching Zazen and Hitsuzendo, I am working in the field of research and education. Being a scientist is much more than just a bread and butter job, allowing me to eat and drink and have a roof over the head.

In science, we never believe anything. Whatever some authority in the field tells us, however famous the old master might be whose message the young student is supposed to hear: the first and most important thing for a scientist is not to believe!

Instead of learning a canon of old sermons by heart, take them as ultimate truth and repeat them over and over again, we must gain our own experience and re-derive and understand the contents and meaning of the words handed down from previous generations ourselves. And while doing so, we scientists by and by meet the old masters, be it Newton, Einstein, Hilbert, Curie or Crick, on eye-level.

During a scientific discussion (which can become a wild and almost violent thing, as I just witnessed on a conference last week) the ultimate call is: “Show it!” Give the proof yourself, in all detail, until I can understand it! If you fail to do so, regardless of your academic status or rank, your message is nothing worth, and be it the original and authentic words of some godfather of science himself!

No student of Physics, for example, is supposed to learn by heart, or even read, the original texts written by Newton or Einstein. He or she can get an up-to-date edition of the polished essence of Newton’s and Einstein’s work in a modern fashion, written by a splendid and possibly still active scientist, in contemporary language in any university book-store. The young scientist is expected to become able to derive, and re-formulate in his or her own words and understanding, the core of his science, in the light of the current state of the art, by himself.

By this practice, I believe, we also do a good service for our ancestors. Besides remembering their cherished names, making generation after generation truly understand, we keep the wisdom alive and ever changing!

Even more, this way of living up to the understanding of the old masters, making their experience and wisdom ours by our own hard work, and not by learning by heart and believing, is truly similar to the Way of Zen! There is nothing we are supposed to believe in, unless it is acquired through our own experience.

Even if we happen to meet the Buddha himself, if he can not show it, if we do not give our best to catch up with his level of understanding, Buddha’s words have no value for us!

After 15 years or so of exercise with the bokken, shinai and katana (wooden, bamboo and life blade Japanese swords) I met a new, my final Iaido-teacher.  Though, not on eye-level, from expert to expert I met him. I joined his class as a beginner, put away my prior knowledge, my pride and my katana and started practising the basics with the wooden sword, the way he taught us.

“We say, you can’t teach an old dog news tricks”, he told us, “but you must become like old dogs learning new tricks!” After some years of working with him, and later using my katana in class again, before he left us, I got some old books from him and the allowance to teach his style in my Dojo to my students. (Alas, I must admit, I did not understand enough of his way of the sword, so I am still practising alone …)

When I do Zazen, I always try to improve my posture, my breathing. Every time on my pillow, I tell myself that me old dog must work hard on that new trick, called Zazen. This morning, at Gyoten Zazenkai (Zazen at dusk) at my Dojo, for the first time in my life I could sit in a full lotus posture (both feet upon the legs).  So far, I was convinced, this is impossible for me, due to the geometry of my legs. What a surprise! I am glad that I never gave up trying…

Though, it was painful, as always, when something new is about to happen, and beloved old habits must be given up.

Once I read the story of an old master who asked his students to break his legs, when he was about to die, so that at least once in his life he can sit Zazen in the correct posture. It seems, it is never too late for an old dog willing to learn, though it might be more painful and require more efforts later in your life.

Whether a person talks and writes a lot, or not, is likely a question of his or her character. Regardless of the quantity of our communication, in Zen, we try to be as clear as possible.

This clearness is of course not restricted to our words, it reflects as well in our actions, in all we do. Becoming more clear is going the Way of Zen.

Alas, for us social beings, in our daily life usually not so much is clear. Our circumstances might be a mess at times, our relationships unhealthy and abusive, and people we are in contact with might misunderstand our friendliness as an invitation to throw their own destructive behaviour upon us.
That is just how life is. It does not help much to complain about it.

Doing Zazen, practising a Martial- or Zen-Art, helps us to find our own way in this life. By becoming more clear ourselves who we are, and what our purpose in life is, our Zen-practice gives us the motivation and strength also to cut off ties; both, with unhealthy habits and unhealthy relations.

By and by, we become less dependent from others’ and from our own judgements, and enjoy a free and happy life.

The room is prepared: newspaper, neatly unfolded and secured by two stones, an ink-stone filled with ink and water, two big Japanese brushes … the scent of incense and black ink in the air. I still vividly remember my first encounter with Hitsuzendo, the Zen-practice with brush and ink!

After two rounds of Zazen we all gathered in a room above the Zendo. The teacher bowed, kneeled down in front of the newspaper, took the brush, loaded it with ink and took a deep breath while lifting the brush. A moment of absolute silence and concentration, and then, like the thunder following a flash, he wrote a big Japanese character in one single stroke. He stood up, looked at his drawing, bowed again, and now it was our turn to write…

Like this, I have been exercising for more than 13 years. Zazen – Hitsuzendo – Zazen – Hitsuzendo … the same rhythm, each Sesshin, each morning, year by year.

As a beginner, you learn how to take and hold the brush, draw a simple line or symbol, and put back the brush where it was without spilling black ink everywhere. Then, you practice to write with your whole body, to co-ordinate and unify mind and body with your breath.

By and by, you start to discover Your Self in the traces of ink you leave behind on the paper. Your strength, your weakness, your ego and desire to write beautiful (or more beautiful than your fellow students or your teacher). You see your concentration and your fluttering mind. Your ugliness and your beauty!

With years and years of writing, you slowly become your calligraphy. No difference between the stroke on the paper and the person you are. After writing, you stand up, look and bow: ah, that’s me today!

You can’t hide anything in a line
(Kazuaki Tanahashi, whom I unfortunately never met …)