NOTE: The email address I had for the Nijmegen event before was wrong. It has now been corrected.This is a photo of me in front of a porno shop in Helsinki owned by the father of the lead singer of HIM. Note the HIM logo in the window.
I arrived in Amsterdam last night and am now safely ensconced in a secret location near the German border. Below are the events I'll be doing while stationed in this location. First I will undertake a dangerous and highly secretive border-crossing into Germany under cover of night (or possibly by train in the morning) for a talk in the city of Wuppertal. Then I will attempt to return the Netherlands under heavy enemy fire, crouching to avoid the barbed wire for a day of Zenning in Nijgemen. Here is the schedule and pertinent contact info:
GERMANY
•June 12, 2010 - Wuppertal "talk and zazen afternoon" from 1 to 6 p.m. Talk from 1 to 2 p.m. 6-8 € for the talk or 20-25 € for the whole day info at http://yoga-schlossluentenbeck.de/seminare/zazentag.html
HOLLAND
•June 13, 2010 - Zazenkai in Nijmegen 9am - 5 pm - Kapelruimte, Erasmusiaan, Nijmegan. Contact: hannyvandeweerdt@gmail.com
As always, the full schedule of my tour can be found at http://web.me.com/doubtboy/Site/BookTour_2010.html.
The Internet Gods are being bitchy and refuse to allow me to update my page at the moment. But the only important thing missing right now is that the first upcoming date is in Wuppertal, Germany. I left out the name of the city, so that on the current version I just appear to be doing a gig in "Germany" without any specific location (though there is a webpage listed where you can get that info).
Of course, as an American, I am inclined to believe that Germany is a city somewhere near Australia (also a city) and that they drink lots of beer there and dress in yak fur while using giant axes to fight off packs of ravenous wolves. Holland is where lesbians come from.
Some have asked why there's no event planned in Amsterdam. That, my dear Grasshopper, is a tale in itself.
The folks who invited me to The Netherlands did set up a day of Zen for me at a Zen place in that sinful city of hash smoking and prostitution. However, it turned out that the Zen place was run by a dharma heir of Genpo Roshi. I didn't know this until I posted my recent piece of criticism about Big Mind®. That's when the folks who were setting things up told me.
I said I was a little apprehensive about running a Zazen-kai at the place but that I would still do it. I told the folks who were organizing the event, though, that they ought to tell the people who run the center about who they were dealing with (i.e. me, a person who is known to hate Big Mind®). I had no intention whatsoever of using the event as any kind grandstanding tirade against Big Mind®. I'd have just done my normal thing, which people who've seen me live and in-person can assure you, is rarely* any kind of forum for Big Mind® bashing.
My understanding is that the aforementioned dharma heir himself was not too fussed about my using his place (I could be mistaken, I'm just relating what I was told, please don't take what I'm saying here as authoritative concerning his opinions). But some of the folks who go there thought it was just horrid that someone who so disrespected Mr. Genpo would be allowed to set foot in their space. As a result the people who had arranged the Zen day for me -- and not the folks from the Zen center in question or its teacher -- canceled the event so as not to hurt anyone's feelings.
This is an interesting example of how an idea can control people in much the same way a domineering and authoritative leader can do so, thus allowing the leader himself to seem above such things. Which is my way of saying that while Genpo Roshi himself does not appear to have given any orders to his followers to ban me from Amsterdam, the results have turned out quite the same as if he had. In other words the idea that I might offend someone succeeded in barring me from a place to run a standard-issue zazen-kai in Amsterdam. I'm not barred every place in town, certainly. But in the real world you don't have access to every place in town. And when you set something up & it gets canceled at the last minute it's hard to get something else together. This is something the folks who complained about me understood.
Now please understand me. It is their place. They have every right to decide who can and cannot use it, for any reason they choose. They owe no one any explanations. Absolutely none. If Genpo wanted to run a Big Mind® thing at a place I owned I would certainly say "No." If, on the other hand, he wanted to give a talk or run a standard zazenkai there, I would probably have no problem with that. I say "probably" here because I do not have such a space to offer Mr. Genpo or anyone else. So this is purely hypothetical. Problems like this are a big part of why I do not have any permanent Zen center of my own.
In the end the zazenkai I'm running in Nijmegen is actually filling up so fast it helps make up for the lack of a venue in Amsterdam. We're already way over the number of expected sign-ups and quickly nearing capacity for the space that has been rented (so sign up soon if you want to come). Even so, I do not attract anywhere near the crowds that Mr. Genpo does when he hosts an event in The Netherlands. I am told he gets literally thousands of people at his Big Mind® events and retreats here. I don't even get a tenth of that.
Which is to be expected. Fantasy sells. Excitement sells. The promise of Enlightenment sells. Actual Zen practice is hard to sell. And that's a fact.
I mention this not because I'm jealous of Mr. Genpo's popularity. If you want to assume that I am, I can't stop you from assuming that. I'm saying it to point out that I am just a little lap dog yapping at a line of tanks here. Nobody really cares much what I think, which is why I'm not weeping big tears whenever someone makes a comment about how awful it is that I would dare criticize such an eminent master. What I say about Big Mind® will make no difference at all to Mr. Genpo's bank account. There's no need to worry about him. It's just me expressing my opinion to an audience that in his world counts as "nobody" (i.e. you nice folks)**. And, by the way, I am right.
I've explained what I feel about Big Mind® enough already. So I'm not gonna do that again. If you think you can get Enlightened just like Buddha in a single day for a bunch of money, I can't help you very much anyhow. I would prefer not to have to deal with people who entertain those kinds of fantasies.
And I also want to point out that my problem is with Big Mind® and how it presents Zen in a deceitful way, not with how Genpo and his lineage practice when they aren't doing Big Mind®. Being a strict Soto guy I'll admit I also have some minor quibbles about that, too. But those I consider to be relatively unimportant and not worthy of discussion. It's when you try to dishonestly sell Zen as spiritual fast food that you incur my impotent and largely meaningless wrath.
Anyway, a couple people are trying to set up a small scale talk or some such thing in Amsterdam on Thursday. I'll keep you posted as to whether that happens.
Oy! Can you believe it took me all God damned day to write this piece of shit? I really need to get going. My host said there's a cool heavy metal shop nearby that I just have to see! Bye!
FOOTNOTES
*The word "rarely" here equals never, ever.
**I was told once by someone who knows about the spiritual celebrity business that I "don't even show up on the radar" as far as the "big boys" are concerned.
