{"id":305,"date":"2020-01-09T16:35:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T16:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shobogenzo.net\/?page_id=305"},"modified":"2020-01-09T16:54:11","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T16:54:11","slug":"handbook-of-authentic-buddhism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.shobogenzo.net\/index.php\/text\/handbook-of-authentic-buddhism\/","title":{"rendered":"Handbook of Buddhism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Handbook of Authentic Buddhism\ufeff<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Near the end of the\n1990\u2019s \u2013 around 1997 or 1998 \u2013 Sensei emailed me the manuscript of a book that\nhe had been writing, which he had titled \u201cHandbook of Authentic Buddhism\u201d. He\nsaid that he wanted to set down his complete thoughts on Buddhism as a handbook\nthat others could make use of, and he asked me to edit and publish it, as I had\ndone with all of his other writings. At the time I was spending a lot of time\ntrying to edit his translation of Nagarjuna\u2019s Mulamadhyama Kakarika (MMK), a manuscript\nI had been working on with him since 1992, and so I put the file in a folder on\nmy computer\u2019s hard disk as a future project. And that is where it stayed for\nthe next 20 years, until two months ago, when I rediscovered it when looking\nfor material to publish on the website we are creating for all Sensei\u2019s work at\nshobogenzo.net. I was deeply involved in his translation of the MMK for some 8\nyears, and finding it almost impossible to understand his way of translating\nthe work. I wanted to attend a summer course in Sanskrit at Harvard University\nin the summer of 1998 to deepen my knowledge of the language. This was to\nchange the course of my life, and of my relationship with Sensei. After the\ncourse at Harvard, I decided to return to the UK, in part to give myself space\nto complete what was to become my own translation of the MMK. I subsequently\nstarted another project that had been waiting in the wings for some 15 years \u2013\na translation of the 300 Chinese koan stories that Dogen had collected. The\nmany events of the next decade, and my worsening relationship with my teacher,\nmeant that I forgot of the existence of the handbook that Sensei had wanted me\nto publish for him. But it\u2019s never too late, and here at last is an edited\nversion that you may find interesting and valuable. I decided to only edit it\nwhere the meaning was not clear, or where the expressions he used could be\nmisleading. Although his English improved over the years, he writing was always\nidiosyncratic, and he would sometimes invent his own English terms for a\nconcept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The handbook reflects\nthe character of the man. He had read widely on Western history and philosophy,\nincluding the writings of all the great philosophers. He had studied the\nhistory of western civilization, and particularly Greek civilization, in great\ndetail. He was also keenly interested in world affairs, and could always be\nrelied upon to give you a clear and opinionated view of all aspects of modern Japanese\nsociety and global politics, as anyone who lived with him in the Ida Zazen Dojo\nin Tokyo in the 1990s will confirm. Some of the ideas he presents in this\nhandbook will seem outdated 20 years later. And his hopes for the future of the\nworld may appear to be just a dream. He would sometimes say that he felt like a\nmodern-day Don Quixote, but felt compelled to let the world know of his ideas\nof the development of world civilization, no matter how crazy people thought he\nwas. His views on relationships and sex were those of a man born in pre-war\nJapan \u2013 he was a man of his time \u2013 and difficult to accept in these liberal\ntimes. Although he was open-minded with his foreign students, his attitude to\nhis Japanese students was conventional. He would accept criticism from his\nforeign students \u2013 even welcoming it \u2013 but not from his Japanese students, who\ntreated him as Japanese people traditionally treat their \u201csensei\u201d \u2013 with great\nreverence, deference and respect. This was one of the reasons why he loved his\ndiscussions with foreign students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the book with an\nopen mind. Many of you will be familiar with his teachings on Dogen and the\nShobogenzo. Although his vision of the world in later chapters may seem far\nfrom reality, there is a thread of truth running through many of the things he\nadvocates. His idea of a global power that can bring peace, order and stability\nto the world might seem far-fetched, but he paints a picture of the world with\na large brush, in big bold strokes. And he was a proud man. Forty or so years\ndown the line, I realise that I believe in his vision, not literally, and not\nperhaps in the form that he imagined. But I think that history does have a direction.\nLife has a direction. Every moment has a direction. If only I knew where it is\ntaking me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you find anything in the book that you think needs changing or clarifying, would you please let me know at my usual gmail address. Thanks.
Mike Luetchford<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Handbook of Authentic Buddhism<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Handbook of Authentic Buddhism\ufeff Near the end of the 1990\u2019s \u2013 around 1997 or 1998 \u2013 Sensei emailed me the manuscript of a book that he had been writing, which he had titled \u201cHandbook of Authentic Buddhism\u201d. He said that he wanted to set down his complete thoughts on Buddhism as a handbook that others … <\/p>\n

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