Monthly Archives: March 2009

Understanding Death through Buddhism

This is not morbid curiosity of mine, but lately I had a certain train of thought on the subject I wanted to post about before I forget. A while back, when I was doing a lot sutra study in the … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Jodo Shinshu, Religion, Theravada | 2 Comments

Zen Mind, Pure Land Mind

This title is a spoof of Shunryu Suzuki’s famous book, “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind“, which I had read a few months back. Suzuki Roshi’s notion of the “Beginner’s Mind” is something that resonates quite a bit in Pure Land Buddhism … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Jodo Shu, Religion, Zen | 3 Comments

やっぱり、食べすぎた

今、午前5時。僕はたいていに7時だけど今朝お腹が気持ち悪いので寝れなかったのだ。昨日の晩、友達が家にくるので妻がメキシコ料理を作った。皆がよく食べたのにいっぱい残っていた。そして、皿を洗ながら「おいしかっただな。残りがもったいないな。」と思った。それで、洗ってからブリと(burrito)をもう一本くって食べたのだ。でもやっぱり食べ過ぎた。(ー_ー) お茶をつくってからお腹が直しているけど。今、マミーとベビーがまだ寝ている。家がすごいしずかだな。仕事の前に時間がたくさんのでブログにするとおもった。そして、日本語を練習したかったのだ。 皆さん、おはよう! 南無阿弥陀仏 P.S. For English readers, I ate one too many burrito last night and got heartburn. So after drinking some tea (which helped a lot), I thought I would practice Japanese again.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Oh, the irony

Today, as part of my daily routine to memorize Japanese vocabulary words through Anki, I came across this word: 覚える I thought to myself, “Man, I’ve never see this word before. What the hell is it?”. Then, I clicked on … Continue reading

Posted in Japanese, JLPT, Language | 1 Comment

Taking Refuge in Pure Land Buddhism

After my wife and daughter go to sleep, I usually stay up to clean up the house, and do things like studying Japanese and writing in this blog. I also often do a late night Buddhist ritual, but that ritual … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Jodo Shinshu, Jodo Shu, Religion | Leave a comment

Progressing toward the JLPT, an update

A number of folks have been very supportive, both on the blog and off, of my efforts to study for the JLPT certification this coming December. Originally I had stated that I wanted to hedge my bets and focus on … Continue reading

Posted in Japanese, JLPT, Language | 5 Comments

Enter the Geisha: Mineko Iwasaki

Recently, I finished reading a biographical book about a famous geisha named Mineko Iwasaki, called Geisha of Gion. I admit I’ve never had a bit interest in geisha, as stated in a previous post, so I usually don’t bother to … Continue reading

Posted in Japan | 2 Comments

Zen, The Bendowa and the Nembutsu

The Bendōwa (弁道話) is one of the earliest texts written by Dōgen, founder of Soto Zen, composed shortly after his return from China, where he studied Chan Buddhism for years. A full text of the Bendowa can be found here, … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Jodo Shinshu, Jodo Shu, Religion, Zen | 4 Comments

The Level 8 Buddhist is back, sort of

This weekend, my wife and I took our daughter on a day-trip up to the lovely fishing town of Howth, but we couldn’t stay long due to strong winds and cold weather, so on the way back, we sat on … Continue reading

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Months in the Japanese Calendar

Normally in Japanese language, the months of the year are simply treated as numbers. The first month is ichigatsu (month 1), nigatsu (month 2) and so on. Like the West, Japan uses the Western Gregorian calendar, but the names of … Continue reading

Posted in Japanese, Language | 1 Comment