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November 2015

Surgery or No Surgery

Lasik or Cochlear implants, people are now offered corrections to old disabilities. Some do not want to avail themselves of these new solutions. Grandmaster Yao Xin reveals how he reached his own decision, a valuable guide to others who are considering such procedures.

Hagakure (#7)

We all know the dry mouth that comes with fear. We have only to stand up before a group to give a speech in order to find our mouths go dry and our lips stick to our teeth. But fear means more than a dry mouth to a Samurai. There is a secret in spit to the seasoned warrior.

The Squatters (#3)

The Squatters, like most people, do not regard an act of retribution against them as the second act. To them, the first was justified and stands alone; therefore an retribution is always a new, undeserved act. But Squatters lack moral proportion, and Rick gets more than he deserves.

The Journey Home

At the suggestion of the Ven. Yao Xiang, Ming Zhen watched the YouTube conversation in which an orthodox Catholic priest traces his life from drugs and motorcycles to his present ministry. His recommendations are somewhat different from the Zen prescription, which Ming Zhen responds to in her essay.

The Squatters (#2)

Rick and Helena think that they can fight fire with fire, and do dirty tricks to their antagonists. In Part II of The Squatters, Ming Zhen Shakya shows how pitifully inadequate such actions are.

The Squatters (#1)

Rick (evil genius of The Money Lender) gets ‘his turn in the barrel’ when he tries to retreat to a house he owns and finds it filled with very nasty squatters. Rick thinks he knows how to fight fire with fire. But that remains to be seen.

The Sale of the House

Common sense promises made with the knowledge of our diminishing volition are safeguards against the irrational deals we make when we are higher than a kite…especially when we’ve been plucked from the jaws of death-by-drowning. An important lesson on the recognition of our limits

Hagakure (#6)

It is never too late to adopt the Samurai Way of Life, to abandon old selfish ways, to embrace new principles, and to devote one’s life to being loyal to those principles. Especially after a surviving a critical challenge to one’s existence, we experience a great need to find a better way of living, a code to live by that will impart indomitability to us. We are done with being weak. In her review of Jim Jarmusch’s film Ghost Dog, Ming Zhen Shakya shows one man’s conversion to the discipline of righteous beliefs.