Question
Hello there! I have been practicing as best I can for more than three years now in a dojo affiliated with the AZI, although almost all its members are very skeptical about its current direction. Although I find him interesting, I do not think I will ever follow the master most of them follow. Ever since I heard about the history of Soto Zen in France after Deshimaru, I was immediately “drawn” to your independent spirit. Later I read your second book, which I liked. I recently got online and soon visited your site. I appreciate many aspects of your teaching, even some aimed directly at people like me. Your answer about the RMI, for instance; I did not take it as a condemnation in itself, because if one should not identify as a welfare recipient, I think one should no more identify with any profession one may happen to practice, nor probably with being a Zen monk. Your often abrasive, provocative side does not bother me—quite the opposite, since few people can tear through the veil by gentle means. Yet some of your answers have left me very skeptical. This is mainly because these messages are not delivered directly, live, but over the internet. In my view, a master is not harsh or mocking just on principle. When he gives someone a blow with a stick, he knows exactly whom he is striking and therefore why. And if he “makes a mistake,” triggering an unexpected reaction in the person before him, he can correct his course. With your email question-and-answer system, that is not the case. One example really shocked me: a guy who sees himself as a loser asks you a question. You make fun of him and suggest he get his DNA reformatted. Up to that point, perhaps, OK. Personally, it made me laugh. But where it becomes serious is when you are then asked whether you know a therapist who does this, and you shamelessly give a link to a scammer’s website without any further comment. And how many people read that answer? Among them, how many lost souls? Didn’t those lost souls have something better to read than this bullshit? Didn’t you take some vow about saving all beings? Unless you really believe in it. Because I have just read another answer of yours, in which this time I could detect no trace of humor, where you explain that, yes, you do not think it foolish to claim that some people can live for 300 or 400 years. (There is actually a good story you must know in which an old man asks a Zen monk to perform rituals to prolong his life.) I admit I no longer quite know what to think of you, which, with your ego as vast as the universe, you probably couldn’t care less about anyway. END of a message from a little grasshopper.
Anonymous
Answer from Master Kosen
Even if I may seem to be making fun of people and often answer humorously, there is always a serious side to my answers. If I say that DNA is not destiny, it is because I have good reasons to believe it. If I recommend visiting certain websites that look New Age, it is because once you get past the superficial layer, there are things that may prove interesting, or because I know people there who are effective in their
work or research. Moreover, it is a subject I am passionate about. Soon you will be able to find articles and links on my site that will give you more specific answers and solutions concerning genetics and health.
As for the immortality gene, it is the “Nanog” gene, dubbed the “immortality gene,” recently discovered
in mice and whose equivalent exists in humans. This gene is the key to keeping
stem cells permanently young and gives them the ability to divide ad infinitum while retaining their ability to differentiate, which is not the case for most cells in our bodies.
Kosen