Question
I continue reading you and receiving your insights with joy. Thank you.
Soon I will have read everything, :-)) tra-la-la…!!
Here is my question. First, I quote you, an excerpt from an “answer to an Internet user”: ”…Master Kodo Sawaki gave, I believe, five shihos, but only three transmissions: ‘the flesh’ to a nun who cut off her finger to obtain permission to follow him, when she had previously been another master’s disciple and Kodo refused to accept her. She was the foremost disciple in the knowledge and sewing of kesas. A monk who was
expelled from the sangha following false accusations by Kodo’s secretary,
who at that time was Nishiyama Kocho. This monk lived the rest of his life as
a hermit in a small hut where he did nothing but zazen. My master loved and respected him greatly and visited him whenever he went to Japan.
He received ‘the flesh.’ He was foremost in zazen practice. And then
Deshimaru, who received the ‘marrow of Zen’ just before his master’s death…”
This makes me think of the three masters you are—Étienne, Roland, Stéphane—
for Taisen Deshimaru.
Unofficial direct transmissions and later shiho through the temple
guardians. Objective, subjective.
Did Taisen Deshimaru simply follow an ancestral tradition that makes
a human being unique and universal?
The three jewels?
Humbly,
P.S. “A scalded cat fears cold water.”
Master Kosen, your frank and direct language
encouraged me to put my backside back on the zafu.
Soon a sangha… Hmm, too bad there’s no
Master Kosen dojo in my town.
Knowing you are there, I will return to an AZI dojo,
then come meet you, become a monk, and open
a dojo in my town. Wow!!
Holy cow! I need to check whether there is an AZI dojo near me.
I shin den shin.
Jean-Luc.
Answer from Master Kosen
See you soon.
Kosen