I don’t recall where I heard about this book but it was in my “to read” list. I enjoy books written pre-1900 because it gives me insight into history. With only history books and a few videos taken in the early days of video recording the past feels formal, dry, without any feeling. Reading books like this bring the past to life and in this book particularly I see there was a healthy sense of humor.
In Japanese history books the major figures, usually very stoic people, such as samurai, shogun, military men are written about. The only reference I had previously to a sense of humor in pre-1900 Japan were art paintings of people farting. Now I have this book as an additional reference and their humor suits me greatly.
Here are my highlights and notes.
“Well, the baldness might be tolerable but you’re also uncommonly dumpy, and that is certainly unsightly.”
The husband called his wife “dumpy.” I asked my own wife how to translate this to Japanese and it seemed understood that it was a humorous insult but had no answer. Unfortunately the standard dictionary on my phone didn’t include this translation so I asked AI.
ずんぐりした – Unattractive or short and stout.
みすぼらしい – Shabby or rundown (for a place).
That is a hilarious word that I’ll have to incorporate into my personal lexicon to be used whenever possible, but not for the wife of course.
So who the hell is this that has so blithely appropriated the cushion which was destined, sooner or later, to have eased Suzuki buttocks?
It’s with reference to that grunting Goldfield and his piglet daughter.
The prizes awarded at Greek contests were worth more than the performances that earned them, for the prizes were intended not only to stimulate effort but to reward achievement. Consequently, if one were to give a prize for intellectual prowess, for knowledge itself, one would have to find something to award which was more valuable than knowledge. But knowledge already is the rarest gem in the world.
Bodhidharma came to grasp such brilliantly stylish truths as the notion that, since Zen is of itself so vast and so illumining, there can be no appreciable distinction between saints and mediocrities.
The ancient Greeks and Romans were culturally accustomed to nudity, and it is highly unlikely that they recognized any connection between nakedness and public morality. But in northern Europe the prevailing climate is cold. Even in Japan there is a saying that “one cannot travel naked,” so that, by natural law, in Germany or England, a naked man is very soon a dead one. Since dying is daft, northerners wear clothes. And when everyone wears clothes, human beings become clothes-animals. And having once become clothes-animals, they are unable to conceive that any naked animal whom they may happen to run across could possibly also be human.
This explanation seems entirely plausible to me. The other reason I’d guess is due to religion. These apply to same sex nudity situations. As for co-ed situations I’d think the reason is apparent with men being unable to control themselves due to very human instincts.
Now, though teachers are not actually kept on chains, they are very effectively shackled by their salaries. They can be teased in perfect safety. They won’t resign or use their teeth on their pupils. Had they sufficient spunk to resign, they would not originally have allowed themselves to sink into the slavery of teaching.
Applies to corporations as well. To live we need money and it can be a terrifying experience to switch jobs if any other jobs are available at all. We all have to do the dance, with only the very lucky doing something they really enjoy and being able to keep that job throughout their career.
“This method of fostering happiness, whereunder a man becomes perfectly content not to cross mountains, is perhaps best understood by Confucianists and Buddhists of the Zen sects. Nobody, however mighty, can do as he likes with the world. None can stop the sun from setting, none reverse the flow of rivers. But any man is able to do as he likes with his own mind. Thus, if you are prepared to undergo the disciplines that lead to control of the mind, indeed to its ultimate liberation, you would never even hear the racket kicked up by those graceless imps at the Hall; you would care no whit to be called a terracotta badger; and, knowing your fellow teachers for mere fools, you would smile your disconcern upon their pitiful pavinities.
Agree. But I would switch the word “happy” for “contentment. In our modern culture everyone talks about the quest for “happiness.” I’d think it unnatural to be happy all of the time. To me, that state of mind is reserved for those without complete mental faculties. That isn’t a put down either. There are worse things than going through life being constantly happy because you cannot understand how the world works. Instead, being content, is stable, a serene state of mind and I find that preferable. Being happy all the time sounds exhausting.
He is, after all, the very fellow who, when one of his pupils asked why people still say “Good morning” when the weather happens to be bad, pondered that knotty problem for seven days at a stretch. I remember, too, that he once devoted three whole days and three long nights to an attempt at establishing the correct way for a Japanese to pronounce the name of Columbus.
Reading the above I was instantly reminded of the quote from Gandalf in The Hobbit.
“What do you mean?” he said. “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
I’d say that we simply don’t have many choices in terms of greeting only changing slightly given the time of day. This is the case in the four languages I know and I’m having trouble thinking of anything other to say except “Hello.”
If he’s the kind of father who finds his children a bit too much, then he should never have produced them. But such behavior is all too typically human. It is painfully easy to define human beings. They are beings who, for no good reason at all, create their own unnecessary suffering.
I completely agree and have written a post about this back in 2011. I’ve always found it strange when people say “I want a child.” That sentence contains two words which are overly used but perfectly describe our society.
“I” – Our society focuses on the individual, not what is best for everyone. This word is like a plague and when I hear it my mind will whisper You again? What is it about you this time? I, Me, I, Me, I, Me. One need look no further than online where you can see millions of people uploading videos and pictures of themselves. If social media were a newspaper it would be called “The Daily Me.”
Want – This is the word that usually follows “I.” What is it you want this time. Everyday the world is filled with people wanting things. When they get the things they want, they’ll want something else.
With children however, there is another person involved. It is a pity we cannot ask the soon to be born soul what THEY want. But no, the parents WANT something with absolutely no consideration if the child wants to be born at all. What type of life will the child have? Is a child something the parents are prepared to sacrifice their own for? To me, the decision often seems not much more than a want and human instinct.
One finds in this sad world that among mean-spirited persons, the greater their incompetence and inefficiency, the sharper their sense of self-importance and the more virulent their ambition to occupy unsuitably high official posts.
Wonderful and over 100 years later this still applies to politicians. A long time ago I came to the conclusion that the smartest people are the best listeners. Those that know the least have all the answers and have a very hard time shutting up. For a very clear example please see our current political situation.
In these so-called enlightened days, debilitated by the poisons of Western civilization, even men have become somewhat effeminate. There are, alas, all too many now devoting their time and effort to an imitation of Western customs in the totally mistaken conviction that aping foreigners is the proper occupation of a gentleman. Such persons are, of course, deformed, for, by their efforts to conform with alien ways, they deform themselves. They deserve no further comment.
I enjoy the truthfulness of this paragraph. It is a reminder that the integration of Western culture was not always well received. This remains the case today with some groups in Japan yearning to return to its roots before Matthew Perry arrived on the scene. However, you cannot go back in time and Japan will continue to evolve just like us all.
“Well, if you’re asking me, my opinion of women is that the blacker they are the better. A light skinned female tends to grow more and more conceited every time she sees herself in a mirror. And all women, all the time, are incorrigible, so anything,” says my master with a heavy sigh, “that makes them less delighted with themselves is very much to be wished for.”
Fantastic. I learned this for the first time with a Korean girl with whom I studied in France. She would shield herself from the sun when outside. I was reminded of this in Tokyo where approximately none of the young ladies ever want to take on a dark color from the sun. I figured out the reason is because they do not want to be taken for a “country person,” one who works the fields. City people work and live in buildings protected by the sun. Anyone who is of a darker color would be one who works outside in the fields and thus looked down upon.
“No one seems to pay much attention when he’s being born, but everybody makes no end of a fuss about his departure.” Coldmoon offers his own cool comment.
We make a fuss about children being born now and frankly it has gotten out of control with that “gender reveal” nonsense. I think we have a harder time with death though because we know the person and it is a stark reminder of our own mortality. One day we’ll be in that box, our life departed.
Though Singleman behaves as though enlightenment had made him a familiar of the skies, his feet still shuffle, earthbound, through this world.
Great sentence bringing the aloof Zen master back down to earth. I still search for the enlightenment of Zen but my buttocks will still go numb and my legs fall asleep if I pursue it for too long.
