For Father’s Day 2019 my son, Morgan, created a website for my hobbies of experimenting  with Japanese brush painting (sumi-e) and Japanese calligraphy (shodo).  It has become a home for the antique Japanese  scrolls (kakejiku) that I have collected over the last 15 years, and of course my photography, of which I have been a devoted amateur since I was a teenager.   

 

I work full time as a psychotherapist and for many years I have been a student of Buddhism.

In the Tibetan tradition I studied with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and then for two years lived with Lama Kunga Thartse Rinpoche at the Ewam Choden Tibetan Buddhist Center.

 

I have been practicing the last eight years with the EveryDay Zen Sangha in Northern California and Norman Fisher is my teacher.  In April of 2021

I received the Buddhist Precepts in the Jukai ceremony and was ordained as a lay Buddhist monk. 

 

I have always been interested in questioning “what is life all about?”  Zen has been a welcoming home to the great questions of “life and death.” How do I live a life of meaning? How can I be helpful in this world? What am I doing here anyway!!!? 

 

A spiritual practice is more than studying a wisdom tradition, it is a daily practice. For Zen it is Zazen, sitting meditation with no goal, just sitting quietly and observing what happens. But it is not just sitting on the cushion or the chair in my case...  everything is practice!!!

 

Zen philosophy and Zen aesthetics hold a unique position in the history of world culture. I found my practicing shodo (calligraphy) and sumi-e (Japanese ink painting) and also Ikebana (flower arranging) are a way to discover a release from certain attachments, in particular, a materialistic approach to life. The Zen arts reveal the dynamic process of the Zen tradition. 

 

There is a great beauty and charm in the Zen brush and many monks and nuns and priests

of Japanese Zen have found it was a "way"  to deepen their spiritual practice. If you include

cooking and landscape gardening you find a complete discipline to engage the awakened mind in every activity of your day. 

You can become a real human being...not just a human doing!   

Every action and reaction we have is significant…can I pay attention?  As my calligraphy teacher, colleague and dearest friend  Sensei Kazuaki Tanahashi says “every brush stroke is your life.” 

 

Thank you for visiting my “Floating World Studio.”  I am happy to share my art and practice with you. 

 

And thank you, Morgan,  for the great Father’s Day present!

 

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