Word: zenning
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This small and admirable memoir records the experiences of a young Dutch student who spent a year and a half as a novice monk in a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery. As might be expected, the author shows a deep respect for the teachings of Zen. What makes his account extraordinary, how ever, is that the book contains none of the convert's irritating certitude, and no suggestion that the reader rush to follow the author's example...
...monastery that Van de Wetering found was in the holy city of Kyoto. He appeared there without introduction and was accepted without surprise. In a brief interview, the resident Zen master said that he was to stay at least eight months, a shorter period would be worthless. The strain of monastery routine was much more severe than he was prepared for. The monks were allowed only four hours of sleep. There was rough physical work to be done, and six to eight hours of meditation each day. Meditation suggests tranquillity not torture, but sitting motionless for even a few minutes...
With his life, Nagare's artistic style has changed. In his bachelor years between marriages, he conceived a stylized image of a kimonoed man in contemplation (Thoughts and Angles), derived from youthful memories of his apprenticeship in a Zen temple. Long contemplation also produced the series he calls Bachi, reflecting the shape of the pick with which Japanese geishas play the samisen. Actually, Nagare says, "Bachi tells the importance of being broadminded. The lines spread out as they climb higher...
Died. Alan Wilson Watts, 58, onetime Episcopal minister who became a leading exponent of Zen Buddhism and a counterculture hero; of heart disease; near Mill Valley, Calif. Born in England, Watts came to America in 1938, lectured widely on college campuses and occasionally lived on a houseboat in San Francisco Bay. His concept of inner peace and release from what he termed "the chronic uneasy conscience of Hebrew-Christian cultures," made popular through The Way of Zen (1957) and his essay Beat Zen, Square Zen and Zen (1958), earned him an enthusiastic following that ranged from hippies to psychoanalysts...
...Hakuin (an 18th century Zen monk...