NOBODY MASTERS ZEN
I'm gonna start using this blog as footnotes to my articles, stuff that's not a big deal enough to make a whole article about, but that might need to be addressed somehow.
ANYWAY, in my first article I said that I was what the writers from the old Kung Fu TV series called a "Zen Master." There really is no such thing as a "Zen Master." In the words of my first teacher's teacher, Kobun Chino, "Nobody masters Zen!" As near as I've been able to determine, the term is a bad translation of the Japanese word "zenji." This just means "Zen teacher" and is generally applied to a monk who has been given permission by his teacher to teach in what is called a "Dharma Transmission" ceremony.
I was attempting to use the term ironically. I think there's too much mystical stuff attached to people who've become Zen teachers. Not usually by the teachers themselves, but in cultural terms, generally from people who haven't got a clue in the world about Zen. I wouldn't ever seriously call myself a "Zen Master." I'm using it more to say, "Look, even a twerp like me can get this title, so stop thinking it's something magnificent and mystical."
I'm gonna start using this blog as footnotes to my articles, stuff that's not a big deal enough to make a whole article about, but that might need to be addressed somehow.
ANYWAY, in my first article I said that I was what the writers from the old Kung Fu TV series called a "Zen Master." There really is no such thing as a "Zen Master." In the words of my first teacher's teacher, Kobun Chino, "Nobody masters Zen!" As near as I've been able to determine, the term is a bad translation of the Japanese word "zenji." This just means "Zen teacher" and is generally applied to a monk who has been given permission by his teacher to teach in what is called a "Dharma Transmission" ceremony.
I was attempting to use the term ironically. I think there's too much mystical stuff attached to people who've become Zen teachers. Not usually by the teachers themselves, but in cultural terms, generally from people who haven't got a clue in the world about Zen. I wouldn't ever seriously call myself a "Zen Master." I'm using it more to say, "Look, even a twerp like me can get this title, so stop thinking it's something magnificent and mystical."
They asked me to write for Suicide Girls. Tits, ass, and Zen -- a winning combination for sure. Not sure how this is gonna work out. But we'll see once I start posting.
Here's a promo for the movie I made. It's called Celeveland's Screaming! It's all about the tiny, short-lived but furiously energetic hardcore punk scene in Northeast Ohio in the early 1980's. To me, punk rock was always about the local scenes. I cared way more about local bands like Starvation Army, The offbeats and Agitated than I did about Black Flag, Dead Kennedys or even Minor Threat. But, in spite of a zillion movies out there about hardcore and punk, nobody's ever done one about aany of the thousands of local scenes that were the real heart of the movement. So I did. And it rules, OK.
Here's a promo for the movie I made. It's called Celeveland's Screaming! It's all about the tiny, short-lived but furiously energetic hardcore punk scene in Northeast Ohio in the early 1980's. To me, punk rock was always about the local scenes. I cared way more about local bands like Starvation Army, The offbeats and Agitated than I did about Black Flag, Dead Kennedys or even Minor Threat. But, in spite of a zillion movies out there about hardcore and punk, nobody's ever done one about aany of the thousands of local scenes that were the real heart of the movement. So I did. And it rules, OK.
