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Ekyo's Blog Sharing form the heart
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Bodhisattva Kanzen |
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April 15, 2008 My recent days are filled with nostalgia of early days of our Polish Sangha. Andrzej invited everyone who did zazen or helped in our very first zendo to meet in the end of June in the same place. Perhaps I will write another post about it. Because of this planned meeting friend sent me several very old photos from sesshins in Poland we did over thirty years ago. Our golden age of Zen, as we call it… Living my solitary life her apart from business maters I rarely talk, but couple of nights ago Jan in Poland and myself spent close to three hours chatting at midnight using free Skype. We were trying to remember everyone we could see on these photos. Jan does seem to know all of them and what are they doing these days… I have to say I am much out of touch…
And here is Kanzen! Lost in translation… He is a founding member of our Sangha and did zazen in the very first zendo. I feel ashamed that until now I have not written and shared anything about him. His quiet work to introduce Buddhadharma to Poland is very inspiring and impressive… Note: Kanzen absolutely demands that I do not call him Bodhisattva… I don’t know what to do… I see him as Bodhisattva. Recovering from this rebuff took me a while. Our Sangha had a quite dramatic history and today there is only one person left from original time. In the middle of eighties Kanzen left for Japan together with several others. He spent several years training in huge temple for Soto Zen priest. His is a student of Tangen Harada Roshi and continues to go to sesshin in Bukkokuji several times a year. Perhaps more than ten years ago he and Nyogen decided to help Dharma seeking people in Poland and founded organization called Buddhist Mission. Kanzen moved back to Poland, while Nyogen is still in Japan. They both have a lot of connections in Buddhist world and this is helpful to accomplish some goals of the Mission. They invite authentic Zen teachers from Japan to Poland to conduct sesshin. This is very helpful to so many Polish people because very few can afford to travel abroad. Thanks to Kanzen’s and Nyogen’s effort Shodo Harada Roshi, Murakami Roshi and Yamada Bunryo Roshi were in Poland several times already. These teachers do not speak English but Kanzen is a superb translator, he interprets teisho and dokusan. Teachers from four major Tibetan traditions come to Poland frequently as well. I did ask Kanzen to send me a picture so I can present it here, but there are no pictures. He does not stand in the center next to Roshi as the most important person everyone can see. Having no other choice I was able to crop him out from the zendo raw while he translates teisho given by Murakami Roshi. There is much more dharma activities inspired by Kanzen and Buddhist Misssion. Take a look at web pages in section Buddhism in Poland in my Blogroll. And I hope I do not get another punch… Gassho Bodhisattva!
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