Dear zen friend

1)    January mini sesshin:    from  01/12   to 01/14. 

       February mini sesshin:   from  02/09  to  02/11.  

2)    The year 2023 ends soon. New year is 2024 by Gregorian calendar. We have to write down 2024 in checks, driver’s licenses, and many documents during new year. The number 2024 dominates our lives and brains in the US.   

Year 2024 is the year of dragon, too.  Dragon was born in China. Chinese calendar uses 12 animals including dragon to apply each year. In my diary there was a year of dragon 12 years ago. The diary refreshed my memories. Using a concrete animal to remember events is more vivid than counting number only. 

In Shobogenzo, Dogen Zenji wrote about the beginning of importing Buddhist texts. It started during the era of Kinmei emperor. When I read that article first, I was stunned at its precise record. How did he know that historical fact which happened 700 years before!?  He’,at least,  must have studied both animal calendar and imperial transmissions. He did not know Gregorian calendar nor scientific mathematics.  Modern day historians refer to Shobogenzo for confirming these historical events. 

We feel odd when we hear that muslim countries use a different calendar. For them the year 2024 passed long time ago. Is it possible for a different calendar to exist? 

Using different calendar other than Gregorian method is actually not rare. Americans use presidents to record historical events. Huge Louisiana was purchased in the era of president Thomas Jefferson. FRB  was set up under Woodrow Wilson presidency. ..etc.  

Some people know everything about Babe Ruth. Same thing is going to happen for the era of Shohei Ohtani. There were the times of Montana, and the days of Brady for football fans. Concrete person comes first, number, second.  

In the Bourne Ultimatum movie, there are words, operation Treadstone, operation Blackbriar, and more operations. I thought names of  operation were created to make stories more interested, It is a fiction in the end. 

When Gulf War started, operation Desert Storm was announced on TV. I learned that In a real military battle, a specific name is given. They don’t say operation 1989 nor operation 2011. Fiction followed facts. 

There were Thirty year war, or Hundred year war. These names don’t show why and where people fought. A concrete name is easier to understand a historical event than an abstract number. 

Buddha Dharna? It includes both abstract concepts and tactile things. 

A Happy New Year! 

Regards. 

Eishin Ikeda

Valley Zendo