Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

General rule is is you want something just go ahead and do it.

The hut? A converted shipping container. Flute-jinashi of course. Then busk for your food. It's doable.

Oh, and a hair shirt.

Not to forget the hair shirt...

Get a hair cut and get a real job !!!

Go to Japan for a while and be a monk so #1 means you got the hair cut then once trained means #2 now you are a monk which is a real job in Japan then do the travelling all over with your flute. I can see this as somehow feasable. Much more than in North-America.

Last edited by Gishin (2008-08-25 22:55:36)

Benjamin wrote:

I did at one point want to join the Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-Ji and had a great interest in the monastic life.  However, in order to become even close to a monk these days you have to fork up as much cash as a you would have to for a semester at a local college.  Where is the verve?  I want something more than just a zen bed and breakfast.  Its bad enough as it is to see gift shops and catalogs where I can buy my zen in the form of some concrete likeness of a buddha, or display it on a t shirt.

As I said one needs to go to Japan,Korea or China, My trainings and stays at temples in Japan or China never costed me anything, the only stuff I paid for was my robes etc but generally I never had to dish out lots of cash. BUT before even starting to look into this any closer go get some decent japanese language skills. This should not be so hard anyway and would be considered as minmal effort expected by the teachers you will meet.

Thank you Gishin,  Your advice will be taken to heart.

I have a Japanese friend who busked for about ten years in various countries in Europe (and also the U.S.A. -- mostly Seattle, Turkey, New Zealand...) playing Delta style blues on steel guitar.  He met a shakuhachi busker in Amsterdam and they played together a few times.  Some years ago I busked a little in Cambridge, U.K.,  and in Kyoto and noticed that I did better in samue than in blue jeans.   If you can afford to buy a tengai (the beehive shaped hat) and the accompanying monk's garb I think you'd be sure to draw a crowd, but to to purchase a decent tengai these days is going to cost you about as much as a good shakuhachi.  Tengai making is a dying art; I heard there were only a couple of professional makers left in Japan.  Anyone with tengai making experience on this forum?

Last edited by Daniel Ryudo (2008-08-25 23:05:54)

Yungflutes wrote:

Tairaku wrote:

I think it would be possible to survive as a shakuhachi busker. Has anybody tried it?

The day after 911, I played in the tunnel at the 42nd Street Station. I made about $40 in two hours. The proceeds were donated to the families affected by the tragedy. I imagine that if I were to play 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, I would fare better than selling shakuhachi on eBay

If you played shakuhachi 8 hours a day you'd have arthritis, carpal tunnel, tendonitis and you'd be insane!

Daniel Ryudo wrote:

If you can afford to buy a tengai (the beehive shaped hat) and the accompanying monk's garb I think you'd be sure to draw a crowd, but to to purchase a decent tengai these days is going to cost you about as much as a good shakuhachi.  Tengai making is a dying art; I heard there were only a couple of professional makers left in Japan.  Anyone with tengai making experience on this forum?

Kurahashi-sensei once told me, there are no komuso - if you see any, they are fake. If you really want to dress up in a komuso costume though, you can buy a tengai at Mejiro for 17000 yen. Or the full kit for 45000 yen.

Benjamin wrote:

No doubt Geni that financial stability and a position in society would grant you a comfortable margin in order to cultivate and develop any interest.  but what I have a hard time understanding is the issue of greater monetary comfort in order to have MORE of anything, including shakuhachi.

Sometimes it can be good to do the money thing just so you know you can. That can give you a confidence. So you know you can do it. Also if you get a family, that really does come in handy. If you are really intent on living a poor wandering life, I guess it's best to do it while you are young. One way is to work damn hard to save money, then go to be free for a while. I met many people who work half the year, and wander the other half. They have the peace of mind that they can support themselves, and then also they know why they are doing it. It can become otherwise a habit to rely on other people, and getting stuck in that can end up in seemingly good reasons for justifying that actually being subtle ways of covering fear, etc. It seems safest to choose such a life when it is easily not the only choice.

Benjamin wrote:

Is there not some ascetic aesthetic that is present within the shakuhachi?  A most pure life such as the great zen rebels seems most fit in order to fully appreciate the shakuhachi.  It just seems like that would be what everyone who approaches the shakuhachi with a spiritual appreciation would attempt, or want to attempt, at least for a short while.

A pure life in the end has no connection to the external life. Or at least, no direct connection. Some of the most attached people are renunciates (many of the komuso even were thugs), attached to what they don't have, or even attached to their scriptures or whatever, and some of the most non-attached people are ordinary householders with regular jobs and families. That's not to say it can't be the other way round. It is to say that purity is internal. The external can definitely help. The internal work however is the vital part.

Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh has written a book on this topic of living "alone", "Our Appointment with Life: Discourse on Living Happily in the Present Moment".
http://www.amazon.com/Our-Appointment-L … amp;sr=8-1

You can also read a talk online:
http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebsut038.htm

Benjamin wrote:

I did at one point want to join the Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-Ji and had a great interest in the monastic life.  However, in order to become even close to a monk these days you have to fork up as much cash as a you would have to for a semester at a local college.  Where is the verve?  I want something more than just a zen bed and breakfast.  Its bad enough as it is to see gift shops and catalogs where I can buy my zen in the form of some concrete likeness of a buddha, or display it on a t shirt.

"Spirituality" is big business. Not just the new stuff but the old too - you've got loads of new age stuff, and all the Christian commercial stuff, etc. In Japan also Buddhism is mainly just a business. I think the best masters ended up going overseas, such as Suzuki Roshi to the U.S.

I recommend you go to Adyashanti. If you spoke fluent Japanese, I honestly think you would not find a better teacher here in Japan.

http://www.adyashanti.org/

...

Is this the new Zen forum?

Seriously though, this is an inseparable part of shakuhachi, or the shakuhachi tradition. Zen is inseparable from the honkyoku, and for many Japanese, Buddhism is important for them in this connection. It is nice to see the same overseas.

Best wishes

Justin
http://senryushakuhachi.com/

Benjamin wrote:

I love the shakuhachi very much and often wish that donning a tengai and robe could be a possible lifestyle in todays society.  I dont want a degree, I dont want a paycheck.  A Ryokanesque hut, a bowl, and a flute.  That would be nice.

It all makes me very sad.  I am at a loss.

Ben

The best advice I've received in school, shakuhachi and life is, "Do what you think is right."

From my perspective, I'd say, "Try it now.  Later, you may not be able to."  I love writing poetry and spent a long time studying it in school.  My professors all told me I had talent, and I even was published a few times and won some awards.  But, I always told myself that there would never be a way to make money with poetry, so I'd have to get a real job (I also never wanted to write for a living, as I'd have to write what sells as opposed to what I wanted to write.  I was pretty short sighted, admittedly).  That way I could support myself and write poetry during my time off.  Now, I find little time to write (recently because I have been practicing Kyorei during my off time ).  Things pile up, and if you don't take time to cultivate your interests, they may just stop being your interests and get replaced with things that seem lke necessities.  Of course, it is nice to have things like air conditioning, a wife, and a roof.

Tairaku wrote:

I think it would be possible to survive as a shakuhachi busker. Has anybody tried it?

I remember Richard Donner as a regular busker in San Francisco and the East Bay in the Eighties and Nineties. What a character! From what I understand, that's all he did for money.

I've asked before but has anyone seen him lately?

Justin wrote:

Zen is inseparable from the honkyoku

I'm not sure what you're getting at with this statement Justin.  Are you suggesting that if one plays honkyoku, one is practicing zen, or in order to play honkyoku, one must practice zen formally?  Also, are you suggesting that honkyoku are different from  other forms of composed music in that they inherently somehow reflect the player's "zenness" , or that when one plays a honkyoku piece correctly, they are in some  state that can be identified with something attributed to zen?  Or, are you suggesting something completely different?
...just looking for clarity.
cheers