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Title:     A zen student writes to his hindu father
Creator: Joshi, Dhananjay
Catalan subject: Budisme zen
English subject: Zen Buddhism
Abstract:  The following letter to his father in India was written in 1980 by Dhananjay Joshi, a director of the Chicago Meditation Center, shortly after he sat his first Zen meditation retreat with Soen Sa Nim at Providence Zen Center. Following this retreat, Dhananjay and Dixie and Bob Ray started the Chicago Meditation Center, which offers a blend of Vipassana and Zen teaching. When asked if it was a problem practicing Vipassana and Zen together, Dhananjay said he didn't find a difference. "Coming from India, forms don't intimidate me. You can always look behind the form and see the unity. What Vipassana teaches and what Soen Sa Nim teaches is the same" Dhananjay was brought up in India and came to the United States in 1970 when he was 23. His was a devout Hindu household in which his father performed a daily Puja (devotional service) to the deities and to the family teacher represented on the altar in the family shrine room. In Indian philosophy, Dhananjay explained, a man goes through four stages: the son, the student, the householder, and the spiritual life. He must complete the responsibilities of each stage before he enters the next. In the household stage, the son has the duty of caring for his parents who have entered the spiritual life, or renunciation stage. Dhananjay's father was amused by the following exchange between his son and the Zen Master, but felt the retreat was very moving experience for his son
Source:  Primary Point 1984, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 6
Document type:  info:eu-repo/semantics/other ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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