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eBook Category: People/Spiritual/Religion
eBook Description: The Laughing Buddha of Tofukuji examines the life and teachings of living Zen Master, Keido Fukushima. Fukushima is known as a master koan trainer and calligrapher whose penetrating insight has awakened many disciples to an awareness of Zen. Roshi Keido Fukushima is the current Abbot of Tofukuji temple-monastery in Kyoto, Japan. Combining the central teachings of Roshi Fukushima's Zen with illuminating biographical details, Harris' book serves both as a wonderfully fresh introduction to Zen for Western readers and a compelling biography which never fails to convey the radiant spirit of one of the most remarkable spiritual masters of our time. In these pages we see deeply into the Zen tradition and we feel the pulse of the Zen master as a flesh-and-blood human being. This book is as much about understanding Zen as it is about the life and work of Keido Fukushima, the current Abbot of Tofukuji temple-monastery in Kyoto, Japan. Prof. Harris first came into contact with Fukushima, a Rinzai Zen monk, in 1973. By combining key aspects of the Roshi's Zen with a compelling narrative containing many stories from their long and rich friendship, the author has created a work which is both an excellent and accessible introduction to Zen and a biography of one of the most important living Zen Masters of our time. The Laughing Buddha of Tokufuji also contains numerous photographs of Roshi Fukushima, and six original calligraphies by the Master of his most well known Zen Koans

eBook Publisher: World Wisdom, Inc, Published: 2005
Fictionwise Release Date: March 2005

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Available eBook Formats [Secure Mobipocket - What's this?]: SECURE MOBIPOCKET FORMAT [1.2 MB]
All formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
Mobipocket Reader ISBN: 57DA5169D6

"Zen mind. Many Westerners have a vague concept of what it means. Relatively few, however, will have the opportunity to meet an authentic Zen master in order to experience such a living exemplar of Zen Buddhist life. In this concise and accessible volume, Harris (Ghandians in Contemporary India) presents a rare look into the life and teachings of Roshi Keido Fukushisma, Rinzai Zen master of Tofukuji monastery and accomplished--calligrapher. Biographical details of his life form an effective background for a living demonstration and elaboration of Zen ideals: nonattachment, the precepts of mu (the state of non-ego), and focusing attention in the present. Ultimately, the book specifically aims to demystify and "personify" the concepts of Zen for Western audiences (indeed one of the Master's primary aims) and achieves this objective admirably. The book ends with an appendix of brief tributes and impressions from colleagues. Recommended for public libraries, specifically as an addition to Eastern religion collections."--Library Journal

For years I have noticed that whenever Roshi Fukushima writes me a letter, he always signs it with the statement, "With my Zen mind." Every time I read that signature statement, it forces me to examine my own state of mind. I cannot help but focus on my "contaminated mind," overloaded with ego, attachments, and distractions. Once during a family discussion, one of my daughters remarked, "I like you more when you return from Tofukuji." When I probed further, she explained that then I was more agreeable, less prone to losing my temper, and pleasant to be with. Her statement is a constant reminder for me to continue to examine the state of my mind. No wonder the first line of the Dhammapada reads, "You are the result of what you have thought."

So what is the state of mind of Roshi Keido Fukushima? When I posed this question to the Zen master, I knew that we had a long discussion at hand. He began by suggesting that perhaps we could focus our conversation on the condition of his mind "before satori" and "after satori." That seemed to be a good place to start the discussion which was to take us on a long journey of exploration into his Zen life. "I have always tried to follow the Buddhist dharma. But before my satori experience, now I can say, my life was a life lived with ego. After the satori experience, I have no ego. This has brought a new freedom in my life." As we probed further, he explained that before satori he was attached to dharma. The monastic rules seemed difficult, though he believed in them and tried to follow them. However, there was "no joy" in keeping them. They were part of a daily routine. Intellectually he understood their function and the necessity to follow them, but emotionally they brought no satisfaction. After satori experience however, everything changed. In his Zen mind, he now feels that he has risen above the dualism of the dharma. In order to explain this further, he began to make a distinction between "freedom from" and "freedom to." Before satori, there is a tendency to think that one should be "free from" various attachments (including the attachment to the dharma). After the satori experience, one is "free to" act without attachment and non-attachment. For Roshi Fukushima, this is a new freedom that Zen experience brings. In Japanese Zen, it is explained with the notion of ji yu, meaning "to depend on myself." However, this self-dependence is without ego.

The Zen mind is also "spontaneous mind." Before satori experience, as the Zen master explains, "The mind is attached to so many things that it loses its ability to act freely in the present. That means that the mind is not in its natural state. It is in the defiled state." As it turns out, the master holds that without the Zen experience, people are preoccupied with so many things that they cannot live fully. If we analyze this condition we will discover that most of us either live in the past or in the future. As a consequence, we negate the present. Being in the past means that we worry about the mistakes we have committed that produced our current miserable condition. Living in the future means that we plan ahead for things that will give us joy. Zen wants us to see that the "present" is the real moment. The present is the past of tomorrow and the future of yesterday. So, why not live in the present? I once asked a psychologist what was the secret of joy ... "To look for the joy you already have," he responded, "rather than to try to find it in the future." I thought that was...