Tag Archives: monk

BOOK: “Kindred Spirits” by Edward C. Sellner

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Kindred Spirits: Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, and ZenKindred Spirits: Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, and Zen by Edward C. Sellner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site — Monkfish Books

Release Date: July 28,2026

This book intertwines the biographies of two prominent 2oth century American authors, Beat novelist Jack Kerouac and Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Besides the two writers’ general interest in Eastern philosophy and mysticism and the fact that they had broadly overlapping lifespans, I wouldn’t have placed them in the same basket (despite having read works by each and found both writers’ works enjoyable – though in distinct ways.) However, Sellner dives down into other points of commonality — e.g. Columbia University educated, lifelong Catholics, love of drink, ladies’ men (at some point, at least,) desire for a hermetic existence, etc. Of course, another important commonality was dying young, Kerouac at 47 and Merton at 53.

This book is a fascinating look at two authors who forever changed American perception of Zen Buddhism and Eastern philosophy more generally, though who did it through the lens of Catholicism. At its heart, however, it’s the tale of the struggles of two men to find something, something elusive yet for which they each felt a strong compulsion, something which even successes only left them hungering for more.

If you’re interested in the lives of writers, this book is an excellent read and I’d highly recommend it. Regardless of what you might feel about the connective tissue between them, both of these writers had an interesting life.

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Second Eyes [Free Verse]

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Photograph of the roof of the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple taken from the upper floor of the Xiang Lin Si Temple in the Jonker Walk / Chinatown area of Malacca, Malaysia.
From the dark depths
   of a temple,
      eyes open & blink
   against the sunlight
       pouring through
   a narrow second set
       of eyes.

What shapes form across
    the way?

It's the roof of a second -- 
    more ancient -- temple
        that stands across 
    the street.

This monk has opened 
    eyes on that view a 
       thousand times before,
    and each time has 
        forgotten the centuries 
    old neighboring temple
        existed.

BOOK: “The Young Monk” [Vol. 4 of the “Journey to the West” Series] ed. by Jeff Pepper / trans. by Xiao Hui Wang

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The Young Monk: A Story in Simplified Chinese and Pinyin, 600 Word Vocabulary (Journey to the West Book 4)The Young Monk: A Story in Simplified Chinese and Pinyin, 600 Word Vocabulary by Jeff Pepper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site — Imagin8

This book, Volume 4 of the Journey to the West series, takes a turn from the books thus far. While the first three volumes (Ch. 1-7) focus on Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, this volume leaves him under the mountain where the last volume left him, and — instead — focuses on the origin story of Xuanzang — the monk who is sent by the Buddha to India to get scriptures in the original book — based on the real-world monk who did travel to India to complete the selection of Buddhist scriptures available to Chinese Buddhists.

The monk’s story might not sound like it would be as thrilling as that of the superpowered immortal monkey, but it’s a gripping tale. The story begins before Xuanzang is born and ends in his eighteenth year. So, before he is assigned to travel West to get scriptures.

As I’ve said in earlier reviews, I really like the approach of this series. It has Simplified Chinese script, pinyin, an English translation, and a full glossary of terms used, and it’s organized so as to facilitate reading by a language learner.

I continue to recommend this series for language learners who need a linguistically simplified text to be able to read.

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Worldly Concerns [Kyōka]

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Buddha's lap,
 a pigeon lands: 
  a monk shoos
 the bird away,
 but Buddha didn't mind.

Fēnggān [Senryū]

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the monk rode in
 on a bright-eyed tiger, and
  started hulling rice.

Monk’s Limerick

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There once was a virtuous, old monk
 Who never, ever had sex or got drunk.
   He lived in silence,
   And practiced non-violence...
 Till one day, in a funk, he kicked a young monk
      In the junk.

An Echo of Monks [Haiku]

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walking past 
 an echo of monks,
  i seek distinction.

Four Seasonal Haiku of Ryōkan [w/ Audio]

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Spring

rainy days
 make the monk Ryōkan
  feel sad.

Summer

the moon in my window
 is all the thief left behind.

Autumn

an autumn wind
 chills the dangling persimmons,
  and my testicles.

Winter

little birds have
 gathered in the brushwood
  on a snowy morn.

Footprints [Haiku]

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footprints in stone --
 outside the temple; how do
  Buddhists step so hard?

Ikkyū’s Poetry: The John Steven’s Wild Ways Selection / Translation

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Wild Ways: Zen Poems of IkkyuWild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu by Ikkyu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the John Stevens selection and translation of poetry from Ikkyū’s Crazy Cloud Anthology. Ikkyū was what might be called a mad sage of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism. He once showed up at a temple in his vagabond rags and was turned away, when he came back the next day in the ceremonial robes that revealed him as a preeminent monk and was subsequently treated like royalty, he took the robes off and told the abbot that it was apparently the robes that were honored and deserving of a meal. Ikkyū was known not only for his rejection of dogmatic and highfalutin approaches to Buddhism, but also for his love of sex, brothels, meat eating, and poetry. Much of the poetry touches on those two subjects (disdain for dogma and pretension and love of pleasure,) though there are also poems that explore nature and the kind of imagery one might be more likely to expect in Japanese poetry.

Ikkyū mostly wrote in quatrains, using a Chinese style of verse. Though Ikkyū was no more dogmatic about following poetic protocols than he was following monastic precepts, and often went with the flow.

I read the Stephen Berg translation, Crow with No Mouth several years ago. I would put this one on par with that one. There are actually several translated selections from the Crazy Cloud Anthology poems that are available. If you are interested in Ikkyū’s poetry, this is as good a place to start as any. It should be noted that while some of the poetry is around sexuality, it’s not particularly graphic but more suggestive.

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