New Japan Blog - Making Monks

October 7, 2008 on 11:43 pm | In Culture | | Email This Post

Heads up everyone, a fascinating new Japan blog created by my former IUC buddy called Making Monks just went live.

Behind every interesting blog is an interesting story… now tell me this story isn’t interesting. I quote.

On October 27th last year, I had my head shaved and I was given the dharma name (hōmyō, 法名) Jōji (盛慈) by my master the aged and respected monk Seiyū (盛雄) in a ceremony known in English as a tonsure and in Japanese as a tokudoshiki (得度式). At this moment, I entered an esoteric lineage of Buddhism that is hundreds of years older than Zen which consists of secret teachings and rituals passed from one generation of monastics to another for thousands of years. I am the first American in history to achieve this honor and enter the monastic lineage. However, this is not where a monk’s journey ends but where it begins.

I always knew he was a little… different. In class, every time there was an opportunity to make a speech in Japanese on a topic of our choice, he would always speak about some arcane concept relating to some minor Buddhist sect in Japan. It was from him where I first learned the most useful Japanese verb… 成仏する jyoubutsu suru, which means… to become Buddha, or according to my dictionary, “attaining Buddhahood”, or “entering Nirvana”. Indeed.

When his journey is over and he reaches Nirvana… I wonder what will happen to his blog!

- Harvey

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