Zero Defex had a song called Schwinehundt Doggen aka Swine Hunt Doggen, aka Sine Hunt Dogen. You can listen to a sample of it on the CD Baby page I've linked to. The song is 34 seconds long but the sample they give you is like 30 seconds, so you don't miss much. But you do miss Jimi Imij shouting "Achtung!" at the beginning, which is what I think of every time I see that word written on something here in Germany.Today is my last talk here, in Berlin, by the wall, where I'm 5 foot 2 inches tall. And if anyone gets that reference...
I had the great honor to be introduced to Kaz Tanahashi by my friend Regina Obendorfer of Dogen Sangha Frankfurt. That's a photo of us on Regina's porch on the bottom of this page. The photo on the top is off a postcard I bought in Frankfurt that I thought was really funny.
I got no time to write today. But I've been trying to update this page every three days or so. So this is it.
I've been thinking of trying to write about a phenomenon I've noticed on this tour. It's that when I talk, people seem to come expecting me to sell them my religion. It's always exciting when someone does that. They make beautiful promises of what will happen if you accept their belief system. You can argue about it with them and watch them defend it. You can think about whether they might be right or not. I used to have lots of fun doing that kind of stuff.
But that's not what I do. I wouldn't say I don't care whether or not the people who come see me talk go out and start practicing zazen. It would be nice for them and for me if they did. But I don't want to waste my time, effort and energy trying to convince anyone to do it. It's none of my business, really.
Obviously I have yet to come up with a way to articulate what it is I want to say about this. Maybe one of these days I will.
Also, a lot of people I meet on the road want me to become their master. Like that dog in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons who follows Bugs around saying, "Will you be my master?" If anyone knows which cartoon that was, let me know.Anyhow, I always tell them that if they lived near me they'd ultimately be terribly disappointed in me. Disappointment is a necessary part of this game.
Oh shit. I gotta get outta here. More later, when I have a chance!
