sesshin with Eido Shimano

Having been run out of town on a rail provided by the Shimano Archive and other tar-and-feather appreciations of his sexual and other depredations, Eido Shimano apparently enjoyed a return to grace May 10-15 during a sesshin (retreat) at an undisclosed "country mansion" participants dubbed "The Hidden Zendo."

Judging by the perfumed recounting of the event in the link above, the dozen participants were well pleased and duly grateful to Shimano and his "most distinguished career as the founder/builder and Abbot of the Zen Studies Society." The fact that Shimano is currently suing Zen Studies Society for $2 million and is being counter-sued for a similar amount and the history on which those suits are premised ... well, as the fictitious and flummoxed TV news commentator Emily Litella used to say, "never mind!"

An authentic Rinzai Zen teacher...
Selflessly giving of himself ...
Kindly consenting to guide the footsteps of others...
Overseeing the propagation of the True Dharma...
At a "Hidden Zendo"...
With "The Rinzai Zen Sangha" ...

I no longer have the energy to reprise the dismal facts.

I no longer have the energy to ralph.

The best I can do is remember American humorist and social observer Will Rogers who said,

There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

PS. And for those wishing to hear them, here are the teisho delivered over the five days.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

PPS. And, as a footnote that may sound familiar to those who have endured the Shimano style in earlier times, the public relations material accompanying this glowing announcement asserts, "We have strong connections with Japanese Zen monasteries and Zen Centers around the world."

That same public relations material states, "we declare the establishment of a new organization, the RINZAI ZEN SANGHA, which does not affiliate itself with any other Zen Buddhist organization."

To the ordinary mind, putting these two assertions together may sound contradictory or as if someone were trying to lay claim to supportive benefits without taking any personal responsibility ... childishly self-centered in other words.

Naturally, in the hands of a 'true' Zen master, it has a deeeeeeeeeeep meeeeaning that cannot be comprehended by those with lesser insight.

If it looks like bullshit and smells like bullshit, why then of course it is Shangri-La.