Customer Reviews

Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity

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on the day that i received this book, i found that i had read it from cover to cover in matter of a couple of hours. roshi morinaga's words left me with the realization that, although his widom may appear to be quite simple, it takes a lot of learning from erroneous mistakes throughout one's life in order to put zen training into action. after blazing through this book i had found myself drawn to give it another read a couple of weeks later. reading it again, i became aware that the roshi's simple wisdom was not to be taken in stride but to be pondered more deeply. the translation of his words is unpretentious and terse, the way zen literature, in my opinion, is best transmitted. roshi morinaga opens our eyes to the initial tribulations of a zen novice such as the feelings of inadequacy in comparison to one's zen teacher, the stubborn fight that the ego plays among other things. i would strongly recommend this book for the serious zen student. may it help us all see our teachers in a more human light.

This posthumous memoir follows the life of Soko Morinaga Roshi (1925-95) from novice to Zen master, teaching us lessons of dedication, sacrifice and determination along the way. Soko Roshi served in the Japanese Army at the start of World War Two, before training in the monastery at Daitokuji from 1949 through 1963, and his life as a soldier seemed easy when compared to his difficult monastic training. His approach to Zen practice is refreshingly honest; meditation offers no quick fixes, he tells us, nor shortcuts to liberation. Confronting death daily is the only way, he tells us, to live life fully. In the end, this short book is not so much a memoir about Soko Roshi's forty years of "stupidity," as a book of lessons encouraging us to measure the extent of our own stupidity.

G. Merritt

The best darn zen book I've ever read. It has 2 or 3 pearls of wisdom applicable to anyone's life experience while also giving a detailed picture of traditional Japanese zen training at one of the oldest and most prestigious monasteries in Japan. Hard realities are delivered with a gentle demeanor unlike none I've ever encountered before.

Rinzai Zen master Soko Morinaga talks to us in very funny and frank language about the strains he's encountered in his own Zen training over the years. We are left without any doubt that he began as bemused and puzzled as you and I are perhaps in our own current practice. And it's ongoing! He is a Zen master, but still experiencing the limits of his own stupidity. It's wonderful news for you and I! We can take a sigh of relief now!

There is one particularly hilarious segment where he discusses pissing. He began addressing an audience who received a short break between talks. Out of concern for them Morinaga said, "Did you all have time to urinate?" The audience seemed a little stunned by this question. Maybe they were surprised that the person saying this was a monk. "Pissing is something that no one else can do for you. Only you can piss for yourself." He said this in front of this pretty large audience, and they all broke out in laughter! Yet this is a very critical statement. Dogen Zenji once had said something along very similar lines. He had been out in the field one day and a young monk said, `master, you should not be out here in the hot field doing work, you are master. You should go inside, leave the work for me." Dogen replied with something like, " If you did it I would miss the experience, I must work for myself." This is not a word for word account, but you get the picture.

I cannot capture all of the wonderful teachings you will find in this book for you in such a short review. You will have to purchase it and see for yourselves. This book makes practice abobe anything else, FUN! Enjoy yourselves! Zen master Soko Morinaga makes my sides hurt all throughout here. But the most precious part of it all, is how insightful it is. Not only does it make you laugh yourself silly, but it helps us all come closer to tackling the great question of life and death. Enjoy this book.

This wonderful book reads like novel and leaves the reader subtly transformed by the author's insights. Along the way, Morinaga paints an evocative and often quite humorous portrait of monastic Zen training as it functioned in Japan at the end of World War II.

Though the setting and culture may seem distant and unfamiliar, Morinaga's elegant prose shines with gentle and generous wisdom that easily transcends the specifics of time and place, bringing another world vividly to life.

There is undoubtedly something for everyone here whether you're looking for inspiration, dharma teaching, or just an enoyable read. I would recommend this book highly to anyone at all.

this book adds very necessary layman emotional elements to the canon of often removed zen buddhism texts which focus on things that seem so far away from the lives of ordinary people who get up and go to work every day and don't shave their head. yet it is still able to capture the essential points without being like zen-lite. it reads like novel, and teaches like einstein. one of the most original around.

What a great read. The roshi gives his history as an aimless student in Japan who ends up at the monastery, where, despite his obstinacy and mistaken notions, the master there sees something in him. Morinaga details the stringent daily life of the monks, and also the joy of awakening, in simple, generous prose that can touch the beingness that is beyond the exhaustible and the inexhaustible. It made me happy to read it.

I want to commend the translator of this book. She has given us a lively and literate version from a very difficult language and tradition. This memoir could have been opaque in a less skillful translation; her version makes an entertaining, moving, and educational addition to the growing literature of Zen biographies.

In this autobiography, Soko Morinaga gives us a feeling for living in the real-life daily struggles of practicing Zen. Morinaga takes us behind the abstracted mystifying experience one is left with from zen koans by telling us about his actual life. He recounts how hard it was to follow his master's instructions and fulfill the standards of _samu_, the Zen discipline of work. Morinaga starts out by proclaiming the difficulty of the task of verbalizing the inexpressible and then approaches fulfilling that task by sharing the everday details of his process. His earthy opening story dashes at pretense. As the second speaker at a conference in which the first speaker had spoken at great length, Morinaga asked the audience if anyone needed to go to the bathroom. Morinaga then explains that like going to the bathroom, enlightenment is something noone else can do for you.

In one very touching scene he recounts how as a child he struggled with watching his gradfather's death. Later he tells of a woman who seems at peace with her oncoming death. The book, as the subtitle suggests, is divided into two sections: first his novice years; second his years as a Zen master.

Because Morinaga gives us a real picture of Zen, this is an important, valuable, and enlightening book.

"Novice to Master; An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity", is an autobiography of the life of Buddha Master, Soko Morinaga. It was translated to English by Belenda Attaway Yamakawa. This small book is 153 pages in length.

This book uses a series of short anecdotal tales to reveal some of the trials, tribulations and dedicated perseverance required to train to be a disciple and eventually a Buddhist monk.

I guess as an outsider, both to the Buddha mantra and also, in general, the far-eastern, oriental life style, I had difficultly understanding why anyone would put themselves through this prolonged, regimented and extremely Spartan existence...all done of their own accord.

And yet, if your a non-believer (religious) but still believe in a basic 'spiritual' goodness that lies deep (often hidden) within the entity of what we wishfully call the human spirit or soul, then the Buddhist philosophy does make some degree of sense.

During the course of this work, we witness brief glimpses into some of the perspectives of thinking that has taken Soko Roshi (Roshi, being the honorific used to refer to a venerated master) years of training to achieve...and from these brief examples I can, towards the end of this book, begin to appreciate that a lifetime of self-denial and deprivation might be the only way to a formulate some of these ideas and impressions.

However, it just left me wondering if there might not be a somewhat less austere way accomplishing this objective. Certainly the minds of young acolytes... many filled with the want of a better life style, more money, better clothes etc. would have to undergo an abrupt 180 degree reversal of thinking, requiring years, if ever, to accomplish. It's not easy to attain and live a life of 'enlightenment'.

Conclusion:
An interesting book; not always easy to comprehend...especially the philosophical musings. In addition, it gives some details into the harsh training and will power needed to become a Buddhist monk. I think any attempt to explain the ideology in greater depth, may have made many 'unenlightened' readers, such as myself, totally lost. I did however, come away with a feeling of a little better knowledge of Buddhism and it's ideals. 3 1/2 to 4 Stars.

Ray Nicholson

P.S.
Thanks to amazon friend, 'Miz Ellen' for suggesting this book