Ikkyu Sojun - Crazy Cloud

I've been reading about this lad recently. I'm a big fan of disrupting norms and whatnot, so controversy is right up my alley. Ikkyu Sojun seems to have done a good job in this regard. Renegade poet, partly/mostly responsible for what we know today as zen gardens and tea ceremonies. Unwanted son to the emperor, he had to stay at a zen monastery to remain safe. It's a great story that I thought was worth sharing. It's through the links below.

"Ikkyu was one of Japan's most interesting and unusual Zen masters. He had a lasting effect on the society, popularizing Zen and helping to invent artistic fields which were imbued with the spirit of Zen. He fought against institutionalized corruption and taught that the individual experience of enlightenment was more important than societally mandated forms of behavior."

Now for some controversy! "The prostitute is mindless, but the man (her customer) has a mind. ... Ikkyu was implying that the prostitute is closer to a true state of Zen enlightenment than her customer." How is this do you think?

"Looking at the world thus, an enlightened person could do anything at all, and still be enlightened."

Really? I guess this kind of ties in with the other thread about zen and war. Is any action justified for an enlightened person? I guess it's a bit more extreme in the case of war. This guy seems to have been set on exposing falsity and promoting thought in general. Even if he expressed it through anger. As it says in the thing, even anger has buddha nature.



http://www.dharmaweb.org/index.php/Paper:_Zen_Rebel_Ikkyu:_Ikkyu_was_a_Zen_monk_of_Muromachi

More: http://www.disinfo.com/2011/12/sex-sake-and-zen/

Enjoy.