remembering Sasaki Roshi

"Sex with Roshi," a remembrance by one of Joshu Sasaki Roshi's former women students, has just been added to the Sasaki Archive, a site similar to the Shimano Archive that relates the sexual and other improprieties and malfeasances of a once-high-profile Zen Buddhist teacher.

Where the Shimano Archive is enormous by volume of documents, the Sasaki Archive is just getting its footing. Anyone concerned with the issues involved may be delighted or infuriated or exhausted or concerned or sorrowful or in denial or in support or ... whatever all else...

Generally, I like to steer clear of emotional reactions to what is involved because they tend to cloud the issue at hand. (Saying "I like to" does not mean I am always successful ... I try.)

But in the case of "Sex with Roshi," I won't even try. When I read it, I felt that I were in the presence of an adult addressing adults. Adults are sometimes weak, sometimes crazy, sometimes earnest beyond their means, sometimes vindictive, sometimes heroic, sometimes venal, sometimes full of fun, sometimes tearful, sometimes ... well, sometimes anything at all.

I don't know who wrote "Sex with Roshi," but I wish I did. This is an honorable and courageous person -- straightforward without the stuffiness or analytical eyewash. Hell, it was just someone I was honored to meet, if only on the page.