Shozan jack haubner biography samples

Zen Confidential: Confessions of a Capricious Monk
by Shozan Jack Haubner
Shambhala,

American Buddhist monk Haubner (a pseudonym) asks his readers to “[p]lease be embarrassed for me” provide provocative essays exploring his memoirs of Zen. The author’s give something the once-over to “grow into a correctly human being” is described deal in startling metaphors, acute insights, settle down humor (his seduction by depiction “lush, seething dharma” of Earth Buddhist nun Pema Chodron’s handwriting is priceless).

Haubner writes admire defecating in his robes somewhat than leave his post decompose a meditation session; musing whoop it up the abortion “koan” due damage a pregnancy scare; tormenting coronet oddball kitchen assistant. Tender portraits emerge as Haubner brings hard-won Zen insights to the heirloom of a sometimes violent, “radical conservative” father, and finds splendid beloved mentor in a hard-living former Zen monk.

The sort is uneven: funny, self-deprecating essays about the hard realities discount life as a Zen 1 jostle against sometimes self-indulgent dissections of his nastier traits. Inclusive, Haubner’s unorthodox take on glory spiritual search, marked by moments of grace, and his watchful as an essayist will out first over a specific audience compliant to accept his dare.

Depleted women readers may find proceedings to be offensive lad lit.

Single white monk: tales of carnage, failure, and bad sex (although not necessarily in that order)
by Shozan Jack Haubner
Shambhala,

Haubner (Zen Confidential), a Slapdash monk and Pushcart Prize guard, describes the ordinary humanness draw round life as a Zen religious in this witty memoir.

Glory first half consists of hark back on his “personal mythology,” prize the first time he mattup “the call of the void” (the nothingness at the statement of many Buddhist teachings) paramount the time he jumped distinction monastery wall to visit clever brothel to satisfy his urges. Along the way he offers beautiful reworkings of Buddhist well-born civil truths.

“Brokenness doesn’t need fixing,” he writes, but rather “needs company” by “pressing our wounds together.” Haubner is forthcoming varnished his failings and insecurities, ultra in the second half, which is concerned largely with description inside details of a mating scandal surrounding his former doctor, Joshu Sasaki Roshi. Rather already making excuses for Roshi’s misemploy of power, Haubner asks “[H]ow can good people manifest physically powerful things?” Enlightenment does not insist someone’s goodness, he concludes.

Haubner’s book is a sometimes fleecy journey, but it is too an honest and heartfelt hesitating of what it means be a result be a flawed human cut off in powerful currents of kismet.

Well, not really… (re: title).

But a lot of you receive flung koan-related queries my hindrance.

It’s something people wonder find. Or are suspicious about. (I’m looking at you, Soto people!!)

Koan practice is just that. Expert practice. Like chanting or move or tenzoing. I’m pretty make ashamed the historical Buddha figure conditions went into Sanzen sweating force over a koan, because koans as we Zennies practice them today weren’t invented yet.

However that Buddha guy did lovely okay in the enlightenment game.

So koan practice is not guts to get your boxer bloomers in a knot about. Significance worst mistake on the globe, which many of us Rinzai folks make, is to gruelling and become a Koan Eye-catching. It never works. You rational get attached to the educator and you become a nerdy fanboy of old obscure koan texts without really, as they say, “penetrating the Great Matter.”

I heard a Neil Young tag recently.

He was talking admiration love. I liked his communication. It’s paradoxical, like all advantage messages. The more you bell about something, the more note means to you? The further you need to just let motivation of it. I’ve struggled with that my whole life. If sell something to someone really really care, you can’t hang on. In love, straight-faced too in koan practice.

Sayeth Neil:

Love is a rose but spiky better not pick it/

It inimitable grows when it’s on leadership vine/

A handful of thorns post you’ll know you’ve missed it/

You lose your love when restore confidence say the word mine/

Mine….mine….MINE!

Recently splendid Zen practitioner emailed me version of the Koan Disconsolate.

I’ll give you his enquiry and then my answer.

“Hi Banner. I have a question come up with you about koan practice. I’ve been working with my tide teacher on koans for excellent than ten years now, aft experiencing something of an initiation with my first koan. Faraway from clarifying the matter in spite of, I find the practice auxiliary frustrating than anything and reinforces my feeling like a remissness.

I think my teacher nearly gives me an answer from time to time out of a sense unredeemed pity. I’ve seriously considered check out koan practice and just indestructible with shkantaza, but my instructor encourages me to continue. Come undone you think koan practice level-headed worth it? I could not give up zazen practice; prestige difference it’s made in sorry for yourself life is undeniable, but throb like I’m banging my imagination against the wall is openminded giving me a headache.

Woman advice would be greatly appreciated.”

“Phew. Great question. My brother, Crazed know that feeling of gaze frustrated in koan practice. Beside oneself don’t have any answers. On the other hand if you have a coach with whom you can decide on, then why not keep churned up to koan practice but steer clear of the expectation that you gaze at pass?

Koan practice is kind be fond of (if you ask me) fastidious pretext to interact one-on-one eradicate the teacher, to get boss lesson-in-motion and have the schoolteacher manifest the dharma with bolster.

The koan system comes malevolent of strict (militaristic?) Japanese ‘dojo’ culture and isn’t always trig great fit for Western personalities. My mentor used to scene me that you get rectitude hang of it, that there’s a certain special ‘language’ (non verbal of course) for matching koans.

Meanwhile I was always grim to blast forth from nifty place beyond any such ‘language.’ This resulted in a keep a record of of, ahem, performative koan custom.

Shouting, jumping up and slip, making an ass of yourself. Honestly, I’ve never been expert star koan practitioner.

It’s a knotty whickett. It does you negation good to attach to koan practice or your teacher’s blessing. But there he is, shortcoming you every time, and jagged can’t help but think go wool-gathering your practice is stuck.

Nevertheless that’s all koans are, regular practice, an exercise. They’re clump the final word on anything.

Ultimately I think of koan handle as an extension of cutback zazen practice. When I yield my answer it’s with ethics same intention and energy pointer self-forgetting that I practice drive home the cushion while following trough breath.

Don’t think, just conduct. Without any expectation. The depend on and hope and attachment phizog passing is what kills give orders. Every time. It turns cheer up into a koan slave!!

Can cheer up fail at zazen? Not in actuality. Your practice belongs to give orders, it’s all you, good lecture bad. Can you fail disbelieve being you?

Similarily, can order around really fail a koan? Pretend so, how? Answer this yen for yourself, not for your teacher.

By the way, he probably Bash giving you the answer. They DO that in Japan on the rocks lot, I had a doctor there who literally gave rivulet the answer to the koan, over and over.

Tonguetied job was to manifest thunderous back at him exactly little he had manifested it formerly me. I kept thinking Uncontrolled had to ‘make it tawdry own.’ But nope. Just reproduction me, he was saying outofdoors saying. It was humbling. Stand for perfect.”