Summary: Episode Description: In this joint public talk offered on the first day of a sesshin (intensive meditation retreat), Sensei Kaz begins by introducing Brad Warner and then speaks a little about what a sesshin is. He then reads a poem by Eihei Dogen Zenji (13th century CE), the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen school of Buddhism. This poem serves to introduce the theme of the talk and of the sesshin, the "circle of the way." The circle of the way refers to the idea that every moment of practice is a circle, complete in itself. For Sensei Kaz, this is "good news;" the "bad news" is that we usually don't notice this. Brad then talks more about the circle of the way. Dogen started practicing Zen at an early age. However in Japan at the time, practice revolved around achieving enlightenment; practice was considered a means to an end. Frustrated by this, Dogen traveled to China where he encountered the notion that practice is "enlightenment itself." This radical notion is the crux of all of Dogen's subsequent thought, and encapsulates the idea of the circle of the way. For Dogen, practice is enlightenment, the means are the ends, the start is the finish, and perhaps in truth, there are no means, ends, starts, or finish lines. Every moment is continuous practice, every moment is the circle of the way. Kazuaki Tanahashi born and trained in Japan and active in the United States since 1977, has had solo exhibitions of his calligraphic paintings internationally. He has taught East Asian calligraphy at eight international conferences of calligraphy and lettering arts. Also a peace and environmental worker for decades, he is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. Brad Warner was born in Ohio in 1964. In 1983 he met Zen teacher Tim McCarthy and began his study of Zen while he was still the bass player of the hardcore punk band Zero Defex, whose big hit was the eighteen-second masterpiece "Drop the A-Bomb on Me!" In the 1980s he released five albums of psychedelic rock under the band name Dimentia 13 (that's the way he spelled it), though Dimentia 13 was often a one-man band with Brad playing all the instruments. In 1993 he moved to Japan, where he landed a job with Tsuburaya Productions, the company founded by Eiji Tsuburaya, the man who created Godzilla. The following year Brad met Gudo Nishijima Roshi, who ordained him as a Zen monk and made him his dharma heir in 2000. Brad lived in Japan for eleven years. In 2003 he published his first book, Hardcore Zen, followed by Sit Down and Shut Up! in 2007 and Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate in 2009. These days he travels around the world leading retreats, giving lectures, and looking for cool record stores. At last report he was living in Minneapolis with two rambunctious kitties.
