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October 28, 2010

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a little research reveals Ohta to be a virulent anti-Semite and Communist

The famous Japanese revisionist historian and Buddhist Ryu Ohta passed away in 2009 at the age of 78. Before he passed away he wrote an open letter to the new age fanatic David Icke about the Mind. In this letter Mr. Ohta explains many things westerners have got wrong about Buddhism and especially the reality of nirvana versus the false realities of the senses.

Before you read this letter I have to ad that there are six different Japanese alphabets, with the most predominant being Kanji (old style from China), Hiragana (Japanese writing style when Kanji has no equivalent word or sentence structure), Katakana (when referring to something foreign and not Japanese), and Romaji when they spell using our alphabet. These are used in every day Japan and there are even older ones that are not even studied until high school or university, those being Hentaigana and Manyogana.
 
Suffice to say the Japanese are trained to think, act and speak precisely due to the complexities of their own culture and language.


http://www.pavc.ne.jp/~ryu/english/articles/openletter_to_davidicke.html


So what is the method then? What is the aim? I cannot speak for Zenmar, but my lineage is Soto. Sitting, do not seek. The practice itself is Buddha Nature. There is no attainment and no attainee. That is the usual Soto mantra in my experience. I fail to see where Zenmar is incorrect, nor do I see implications of perfection. I do see some emotional clinging, per your defense of Soto. It is just a school. An immaterial and insubstantial conception is it not?

"Quickie Buddhahood" - are you kidding? Soto is the gradual school. Most of us convert Soto folks aren't walking around thinking we're Buddha, despite the repeated pointing to it in the teachings. Dogen isn't the perfect teacher too many Soto teachers and students hold him up to be, but your recent posts about him make me wonder how much you have actually studied of this guy's work.

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