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Enlightenment and the Dark Night of the Soul
Elly’s support for Brad was unconditional, even after he turned the temple trip into a competitive sport. The monks had beaten him at every form of spiritual practice, which made him bitter. “They played me,” he said, as they prepared for the 10 hour flight back to California. “They set me up for the hardest practices, and then laughed at me when I failed.” “Honey, nobody was trying to win anything. And they weren’t laughing at you. They are actually happy! You should try it. How can you expect to beat monks who practice every day for years? They didn’t go to medical school, you wouldn’t expect them to come…
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Throwing oneself to God
The monks were in constant motion, chanting scriptures, maintaining the temple grounds, and doing Gyo. The Master did not believe in being idle. He would explain that Gyo was the practice of “throwing oneself to God,” and would purify the spirit. Eventually it would bring Enlightenment which was the goal of all monks. When foreigners came, they mostly did basic forms of Gyo, like walking around the temple grounds lighting candles, or sitting in the hall chanting for world peace. The more energetic ones might do the Hyaku Gyo, walking back and forth between two engraved marble posts 100 times, while chanting blessings, which took about 2 hours. Brad had…
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Wanderers to a Buddhist Temple
The naked monk, holding nothing but a plastic bucket, stepped into the small pool at the foot of the little waterfall. Brad could hear him gasp as the shock of the icy water went through his body. Following the path of the flashlight held by another monk, he waded in and sat down, the water up to chest level. Then he began chanting the Heart Sutra. “Kan ji zai bo sa gyo- jin han-nya ha ra mi ta ji…” As he chanted, he pulled the bucket through the freezing water and splashed it onto his face and chest, again and again. his voice tremulous, shouting as if to fight off…
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Criticized by a kamikaze pilot
On his home turf, Otosan was the King. He seemed to enjoy bossing people and rebutting any opinion. At least once he had Elly in tears. Brad could not understand a word of the man’s fierce Japanese and would ask Elly to break it down. Then he tried to win the old man over. It was a mistake. Brad told Otosan, through Elly’s translation, about his childhood and how he had tried to help his family. He told about his father’s alcoholism, their poverty, and about how at the age of 16 he had left his family to go and work his way through school and become a successful doctor.…
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Honeymoon
The newlyweds took an all-inclusive honeymoon at a tourist resort in Mexico, where they went down a zip line over the beach, and Brad learned of Elly’s fear of swimming. The bond they had made the moment they met deepened. Anything that could provoke marital conflict was a ripple on the surface of a deep love, which made Brad muse that they had known each other in a past life. He told her about his childhood dreams of a girl born in a faraway land, and how she might be the one that made the dreams come true. She loved it and thought it was romantic. She believed in reincarnation,…
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East Meets West: Brad and Elly get married
Elly’s parents and older brother arrived at San Francisco International Airport from Okayama, Japan to their daughter and sister get married. On their wedding day, Brad went up to their room at a nearby Marriott, and Elly introduced them as Otosan and Okasan, which meant Father and Mother. They bowed politely and spoke in Japanese which Elly translated. Okasan was bent over, leaned on a cane with one arm, and gave Brad a kind smile. Otosan stood rigidly, eyes like coals burning through thick black framed glasses, supporting his wife by her other arm. They were slightly shorter than Elly’s 5’ 3” and almost as petite. The brother shook Brad’s…
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A match made on Earth
Brad complained to a female colleague at work that he had recently divorced. “She took it all, I couldn’t even pay the rent!” he said. It was stupid to mix his personal problems with work, but his co-worker gave him a big hug in their white coats and told him to hang in there. He almost asked her out but the old rule don’t get your honey where you make your money saved him. The following week she gave him a newspaper ad for a matchmaking service. “Don’t take any more chances. Let the pros find you the right,” she said. Her voice had a musical ring to it, and…
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Wanderers and the Law of Squares
Brad found himself with some free time after giving up his calling to be a health care reform activist. Patient referrals were steady, but not overly busy, and with occasional time to reflect, the old riddle “to become square, square yourself” came back to haunt him. A dream came where he was with the 3 beings who had appeared in a vision when he was 14. There were images of a barren and alien landscape, like another planet. He looked down at himself and saw that his body was blue like theirs. In the dream, he felt lighter, and faster than a human should. They were playing a 3-dimensional game,…
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When no one cared about Obamacare
Dr. Rosedale checked in at the front desk, where an attractive front office coordinator named Sandy, smiled warmly at him. Ever since his divorce, the ladies were treating him extra nice. Imagining that they felt sorry for him, he also dared to wonder if some wished to become the next Mrs. Rosedale. “You’re in room 3, doctor,” she said. “Let me get you set up.” She stood and waited for him to follow. Something on the television in the waiting room caught his ear in that moment, in September 2010. President Obama was announcing that he had just signed the Affordable Care Act into law, and now 50 million uninsured…
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The spiritual marriage that failed
Shaken by the death threat at work, Brad’s spiritual experience from the trip to India faded. The longing to find his soulmate returned, and he met a series of ladies through Match.com. The final one was a flashy, intelligent Russian named Natasha, who wore movie-star makeup and had ruler-straight, pressed blonde hair. He should have known better. Natasha was a proxy for her friend, Irenka, who refused to meet a man on a regular date. The shy lady was convinced that Mr. Right was going to swoop out of heaven and pick her off of her feet. Natasha enjoyed the elegant dinner that Brad paid for, going on about Irenka…