エドワード・モレノ

Read Part 1 >>

“Fengtian was my castle of dreams,” we heard Yoshiko say in our previous chapter, and she had myriad reasons to feel that way. Fengtian, also known as Shenyang (and Mukden to Westerners), was evolving into a marvelous new city. This very old place—which Qing Dynasty founder Nurhaci¹ (1559-1626) made his capital in 1625, converted into the center of Manchu China, and promptly discarded—had become China’s fourth largest city and its most significant northeastern economic center.

During the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901), Russia lurched to occupy it. She held it in her clutches until March ...

Introduction

On the 75th anniversary of the tragic bombing of Pearl Harbor, don’t you think it’s time to put to rest all the misinformation about Japan that is currently treated as “historical dogma?”

One of the most blatant misconceptions, which really irks me as an insatiable history buff, is the shibboleth that relations between Japan and China have always been antagonistic and tragic, because Japan has been China’s eternal enemy and worst oppressor, and China its childlike, innocent perennial victim. (Or words to that effect.)

Since the 1950’s, much has already been written to enable us ...

Read Part 3 >> 

Writing on the Heart 

Thanks to the interviews with her consociates, Dr. Arai found numerous rituals, used by the interviewees, on their own interpretations of the Fourth Noble Truth that there is a path that leads to the end of suffering. Consociate Ms. Honda’s preferred the ritual of 写経 shakyo¹, or sutra copying.

In the Nihongi, we find the Buddhist practice of shakyo early in the long history of Japan. It started officially during Emperor Shomu’s era (701-756). At the behest of Komyo, his pious and devoted Empress, Shomu created the Office for Copying ...

Read Part 2 >> 

Bringing Zen Home 

—This book took root, Arai says, on December 18, 1996, the day my mother died. After months of listening to the whir of the oxygen machine, a vacuum of silence filled her bedroom. Even though I had known she would die, when I stood looking at the threshold of life and death, I felt as if any wrong move would send us off into an abyss of despair… How was I to insure my mother’s passage through this perilous transition?

Frantic for some clues about what to do, what would be the proper ...

Read Part 1 >> 

Arai’s circuitous route to find the Buddha began at Kalamazoo, a “Christian-centered college,” where her major interest became Ethics. Coming from a church “very culturally activist, very concerned about social issues,” college was wonderful for the friendships, but disquieting for the practice of “Christianity” among those in the “Christian Fellowship” group on campus. In a world so complex and diverse as the current, holding to a “this is right—that is wrong,” position was unsettling. Arai began asking a lot of questions, which made people quite uncomfortable;

“…they wanted to insure that I didn’t lose ...