ePub Your History: From the Beginning of Time to the Present by J. A. A. Rogers in History

Description

What motivated Sodo-san to spend the last twenty years of his life in a “temple under the sky”― a corner of a public park where he taught passersby what it means to be forever young through the funky tunes he played on his grass flute? In The Grass Flute Zen Master: Sodo Yokoyama; we are seeking not only a truer understanding of this well-loved monk; but of zazen; Zen meditation; itself. In his search for insights into Sodo Yokoyama’s life; Arthur Braverman skillfully weaves a tapestry from seemingly disparate threads―the brief taisho period into which Sodo-san was born and where individualism shone; his teachers; both ancient and contemporary practitioners of Zen Bhuddism; the monk’s love of baseball; and the similarities Braverman finds between Sodo-san and Walt Whitman; who both found the universal in nature.Through conversations with Joko Shibata; Yokoyama’s sole disciple; and careful study of his teacher’s poetry; an intriguing tension between the personal and the universal is revealed. The Grass Flute Zen Master is a meditative examination not of just one life; but of many. The lineage of teacher and protégé is traced back through generations; contemporaries are drawn up from unexpected places; and Braverman examines his own long journey in Zen Buddhism; confronting his own expectations and surprising disappointments (the monk lived in a boarding house and later took a cab to his park when he could no longer walk the whole way) and the understanding and acceptance that followed. “When you play the leaf;” Sodo-san once wrote; “you’ll usually be a little out of tune. That’s where its very charm lies…”