- As for the blog's name: -


I was @ Gustav Ericsson's sight, - Anzenkai, and I was looking at Nishijima Roshi’s calligraphies over there. Particularly there is one - "seki shin hen pen" - about which Gustav has earlier said in a blog post that it is Nishijima's favorite phrase from Master Dogen.

This seemed strange to me. It was not what I would expect Nishijima Roshi's favorite phrase to be. It seemed it could be some Rinzai master's favorite quote, - it seems to express continuous and constant sincerity, - but it did not seem to fit my view of the way Nishijima Roshi saw things.

So - consequently - I tried to think what would I expect his favorite quote to be. But all phrases I could think of did not seem to fit just what I might have had in mind.

So I tried to come up with what I would see it as, - and what I have come up with - is - "this universe out here".

- And this seems to be the right name for this blog here too.


- Definitely.                                                 ________________________

Three Times “No”

          On the occasion of Kalo’s death, I wanted to relate to a certain story I heard of Kyudo Nakagawa Roshi, who also lived and taught in Israel, from 1970 to 1984.

          Kyudo Roshi is a “Zen” master from Ryutaku-ji, - Rinzai sect; - also mentioned here at the blog earlier.

          He was my first teacher, he lived and taught on the Mount of Olives, as I understood, - I only arrived after he left for NY.
          I started sitting on ’85.

          I heard the story from another member of his Sangha, - after that Sangha no longer existed actually - I think it was on in ’95. (- it could be either ’95 or ’96)

          It is about how Roshi came to come to Israel.

          One day, his master, Nakagawa Soen Roshi, (no family connection) came to him, at the monastery, - as it must have been, - and asked - [“Do you”]want to go to Israel?”
          - “No”, - was the answer.
          A month later, again, Soen Roshi asked Kyudo Roshi the same question: - “Want to go to Israel?”. - Again, - “No” was the answer.

          Then, another month later, - a third time - Soen Roshi again asked our teacher this very same question - “Want to go to Israel?”. - Kyudo Roshi, - this time, - replied - “Yes”.

          Consequently, he came to Israel, and taught as I said, - until 1984, when he moved to New York (I think instructed by the Rinzai head council, or something of the sort) and established “Soho Zendo” there.
          However, - one day, when he was still teaching in Israel, - he told his Sangha this story. - Btw, - the Sangha was called “Dead Sea Sangha”. - As far as I understand the Dead Sea could be seen from up the Mount of Olives.
          Then they asked, - why did you reply two times “no” and the third time “yes”?
          Roshi replied - “Three times ‘no’ is a fix mind”.

          I might refer sometime further to that, - perhaps, - but this is the story as I heard it.

          Kyudo Roshi entered Nirvana in 2007. - 29th of December 2007.
          I only heard of it much later.

          It seemed right to post this now, as it might tell something about Shlomo Kalo too, who started teaching about the same time, (I might assume) and continued in Jaffa until the day of the date heading the last post.