“The Zen Diary” reviewed by Zen’etsu Clay Crowell
On Friday, April 7th, members of the All Beings Zen sangha attended the showing of the film ‘The Zen Diary,’ which is based on an essay by Tsutomu Mizukami, and directed by Yuji Nakae. Hosted at the Freer Gallery in Washington D.C., we and the sold out theater enjoyed the slow, yet deep film that covered Zen cooking, foraging from each season, and the work and energy that goes behind these. With exceptional landscape cinematography of rural Japan, viewers entered the life of the protagonist Tsutomu, who was a Zen monk in Kyoto, Japan as a child. Now in his 60s he is a writer. The Film follows his life over the course of one year. Through that year we see the various dharma gates that life brings us, such as: intimate relationships, death, service to the community, hard physical work and meeting and preparing for death. Whether preparing food for for one person or a whole funeral’s gathering of people, we saw the attention, respect, and reverence that penetrated Tsutomu’s meals. After the film concluded, three of All Beings Zen members offered an Oryoki demonstration for the audience. The demonstration included the explanation of Oryoki and acting out the forms of serving, chanting, and eating mindfully (no food was allowed in the theatre space). The ABZS Sangha had created take-home gift boxes for the audience which included high quality short grain (not cooked) rice, gomasio, and pickled plum. The ingredients were placed in a to-go box decorated with a calligraphy rabbit. Included were instructions for preparing the rice and condiments at home as well as the Dogen quote used in the film (from “Instructions to the Cook”). The film featured washing rice and making pickled plums, so it was fun to send people home with these items to remember the lessons and have their own zen cooking experience.
written by Zen-etsu Clay Crowell.
Groundhog Day reviewed by ABZS first guiding teacher Dairyū Michael Wenger
Seeing the Shadow
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes.
—Marcel Proust
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
—Bob Dylan
How to Cook Your Life reviewed by ABZS member Alex Langlinais
In a Zen monastery, or on a retreat, the tenzo is the person responsible for preparing meals for the community. Dōgen wrote Tenzo Kyōkun as a detailed set of instructions for the tenzo “covering a period of one complete day.” Maybe above all, Dogen’s key instruction is that we should “listen closely to what those who have done this work have to tell us regarding the details.” We should listen closely to Edward Espe Brown, a Soto Zen priest ordained by Shunryu Suzuki, a former tenzo at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, an accomplished chef, and the author of many best-selling cookbooks (including the acclaimed Tassajara Bread Book). Doris Dörrie’s film How To Cook Your Life does just that. The documentary follows Brown as he teaches cooking classes and gives dharma talks in Austria and at Tassajara.
A driving theme of the documentary is the felt need to control things and retreat from the world to protect ourselves from things we don’t like. On this score, I was moved by the way Brown shows us his sincere heart. Throughout the film, Brown is open with his imperfections, and he shares with us his lifelong struggle with impatience and anger. In the opening scenes, Brown shows us the back of his rakusu, on which Suzuki Roshi painted a cow “eating patience grass.” We later watch as he boils over with frustration at food packaging or students not paying attention. As Brown teaches, “sincerity is the quality where your imperfections show.”
For some invaluable details on how to practice Dōgen’s teachings in the modern world, I highly recommend How To Cook Your Life. See Alex Langlinais full review here.
Photo by Alveena Bakshi
Isle of Dogs reviewed by ABZS member Lydia Linker
Isle of Dogs (2018) is the second animated feature film from writer/director Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel) and was nominated for an Academy Award. Isle of Dogs references traditional Japanese folklore as well as Hamlet-esque characters set in a dystopian future.
For me, as a Japanese-American who never learned the Japanese language, I saw Isle of Dogs as an homage to Kurosawa. I felt Anderson was respectful in his version of Seven Samurai, using dogs and humans as samurai and shoguns. The imagery of cherry blossoms and Atari’s haiku were key elements to transition from hate to compassion and war to healing, as is found in traditional Japanese storytelling. I felt what some critics called over-the-top Japanese, parody of Japanese culture, or unnecessary to the story are just instances of not understanding the full style and elements needed to honor this type of storytelling. I am not an expert on Japanese folklore or structure, but I have noticed these styles and elements pervasive throughout Japanese literature. Anderson has skillfully incorporated all these elements, even the ones difficult for us as Americans to understand, and has also added a modern tension of pointing at how American culture appropriates Japanese (eating sushi out of bento boxes), and how Japanese culture appropriates American (American college student studying in Japan sporting a blonde afro and Harajuku Hip Hop style). As I watch Anderson push American and Japanese culture up against each other in Isle of Dogs, I wonder if we, as American Zen practitioners, can notice how we use Japanese language in our chanting and Japanese culture in our forms. I know my intention is to honor the spirit of the chants. I want to give voice to the chants and be the conduit for their actualization, as I have been instructed on how to chant. I know the forms are a way for us to embody the practice and a way for us to move in harmony with each other. My hope is that as I perform these forms and ceremonies traditionally found in Japan, that I am honoring their spirit here in the United States. Perhaps as we hold these forms, ceremonies, traditions, and cultures with respect and compassion we can also hold each other with respect and compassion, no matter where we come from or what we try to convey.
See Lydia Linkers full review here.
Departures reviewed by ABZS member Myoshin Annie Markovich
Spirited Away reviewed by ABZS member Elizabeth Bourne
Master animation film director, Hayao Miyazaki’s classic, “Spirited Away” is a beautiful, bizarre, and fantastical coming-of-age fable whose protagonist is a 10-year-old girl named Chihiro. Chihiro and her parents make a wrong turn on their way to their new home and find themselves in an abandoned theme park which turns out to be a bathhouse for the spirit world. In order to save herself and her parents Chihiro must trust a friend, take a job with the spirits in the bath house, remember her name, and overcome a series of other obstacles requiring courage, kindness, and wisdom. If you are an English speaker who doesn’t know Japanese, I highly recommend the English dubbed version which is excellent and will allow you to more easily appreciate and enjoy the awesome visual experience.
The Departure reviewed by ABZS member Carlos Cuenca
“The Departure” is a documentary on Japanese zen monk Ittetsu Nemoto, who, building on the traumatic loss to suicide of a loved uncle and the aftermath of a self-destructive youth, eventually puts much of his life to the service of the suicidal. In workshops at his temple in Gifu, group trips, visits to those in need and desperate phone calls, he helps them try rediscover meaning for their lives. Yet this is an all-absorbing and painful process, in which success is not assured and failure is devastating, driving Nemoto, despite his clear awareness, to severely neglect his own physical and mental health and his wife and young son. The story echoes the classic dialogue between Vimalakirti and Manjusri, in which the former, asked about his sickness, replies that it “will last as long as do the sickness of all living beings” and reminds that “the sickness of the bodhisattvas arise from great compassion”. Nemoto’s is the inspiring story of great compassion by a contemporary bodhisattva, yet is also a sad story of great neglect. It is a troubling mirror, in which are reminded that great men and women are great, but not perfect; that great compassion might, in real life, still create serious unintended suffering. It is a story that reminds us of the importance of humble and non-idealized practice.
Find more info about The Departure here
Golden Kingdom reviewed by ABZS member David Sarpal
Golden Kingdom is the story of four young monks in training who reside in a remote monastery in the mountains of Myanmar, where life proceeds with predictable patterns and stability. One day, the abbot receives a mysterious letter requesting his presence away from the monastery. The abbot nevertheless departs, leaving the young monks to fend off for themselves in his absence. Before his departure, the abbot asks young Ko Yin Witazara to assume tacit responsibility for the group. In the days that follow, the children face the ghosts of an encroaching civil conflict taking place all around them. Unsheltered from their adult guide, the children confront calamtiy and they learn about themselves, their resilience and the refuge that they can offer each other as they endure their difficulties. The film ends with stills of countless ancient temples dotting the Burmese landscape and close-ups of some of the ancient frescoes, reminding viewers that the challenges the children faced have been endured by many generations before them. A unique window into the world of Buddhist monks in training portrayed by non-actors and depicting the the clash between a spiritual path and civil strife.
The Sangha members viewed this film in June 2017 and had a rich discussion. Many people felt the film stayed with them into the week beyond. Amazing cinematography. A truely beautiful film. —Rev. Inryu
Other Films the Sangha has watched and enjoyed in the Buddhist theme genre which have yet to have a sangha member provide a review;
Dean Spanley
A Tale of Six Priests by Mary Scott