It was a treat to stumble upon what appears to be a Japanese news story on Eiheiji temple founded by Dogen Zenji, the signal thirteenth century Soto Zen master on YouTube. Not much of a story, as light a bit of fluff as you could expect from the land of cute. But some lovely images and a worthwhile three minutes. I think. Now I’ve figured out how to post YouTube clips to this blog, but not how to add in my own comments. So, first was the clip and now the comments together with some pointers for those who find the temple and its founder interesting.
Eiheiji is one of the two mother temples of the Soto school in Japan.
If you’d like to know more the following links can get you started.
Wikipedia on Eiheiji
Scholar William Bodiford’s essay on Dogen and Eiheiji
Elsie Mitchell’s booklet that accompanied the 1960 Folkways recording of chanting at Eiheiji.
In case you might want to visit someday
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