[Buddha-l] How to help the Dharma grow in western cultures

[Vicente Gonzalez]

Alex wrote:

AW> Actually, I am serious. Playing the (wooden) flute (jigs, reels, slides,
AW> polkas, hornpipes etc) is my second interest after the dharma. Sometimes I
AW> feel there should be more connection between the two. I think that is more a
AW> problem in me, not perhaps a fundamental or theoretical one. I imagine there
AW> are others on this list with some kind of "artistic" (I use the word
AW> loosely, especially about my own endeavours) interest. Any thoughts?

Ikkyu, the famous Japanese Zen master was a flute player. Ikkyu was an
enlightened being without traditional values, and a frequent visitor of
brothels and sake bars.

There is a Manga master piece of his biography by Isaki Sakaguchi in 4
volumes: 
http://www.amazon.ca/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A1009320&page=1

I ignore if today there is an English translation. There are some hard
scenes related with the tyranny in some temples of those times, and I
wonder if it can be a cause for his absence in the English market when
it is comic format; I'm not sure. Anyway, it is very recommended. It
is a well documented, recreated biography, and one of the best Zen
books that I have read.

Also, there is a Sufi work of Rumi, the Masnavi. It is a poem of
24.660 verses devoted to explain the playing of flute as a mystical 
way to reach God. In Sufi mystics, God it's not far of an emptiness
notion, similar in example of what we find in the Christian Eckhart.


In both figures, the flute was a cane flute.


best regards,