Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

hi Chris,
I am christian too.

Back home I was music director for my church.

peace,
Geni

I am working on a version of Poor Wayfering Stranger,
I will be done tonight, I will send it to you.

Peace
Geni

Toffe...., with all due respect; I am dismayed to read these posts here on this forum. I hope we do not have to endure an evangelical Christian vibe here. Many people read this forum from many cultures and beliefs with a common interest; shakuhachi....... Can we keep our personal spiritual beliefs.... personal?

Perhaps a new forum... "Christian Shakuhachi" would be in order.....

In Peace... Slainche

George

Last edited by gmiller (2006-11-13 19:53:15)

amokrun...  No I'm not joking.  I like this forum the way it was set up; a discussion about shakuhachi. Secondly, thank you, but I'll read any thread that I wish. Simply put: I do not like the "Christian" ideology, but respect "Christians" and all others, et. al.      All I'm saying is; forums tend to go far afield of the oringinal purpose. it would be a shame to see this forum take that direction.

Ps. I don't have knee pain w/zazen. but I'll take the 10 zen pts anyway....

Last edited by gmiller (2006-11-13 20:46:57)

Me either.... Geni, I respect your moderation.

Peace

George

Thank you all for your input.
Gmiller... it was not my intentions to offend anyone. But it is important for me to find some connection with other christian shakuhachi-players,
just as it is important for others that practise buhhdism to connect with eachother.

I really don't believe that you have to be afraid of any "evangelical vibe" here, just because me and a few others say that we are christians.
There is a forum about Zen here which of course is natural since there is a very strong connection. There is also a forum here that says
"miscellaneous" which I would really say that this is. There would be no need for a "christian forum". I am here as a guest.

I am a christian and when I practise, play and build shakuhachi I do it as part of my spiritual expression. I can't "unchristianze" what I do.
Of course I have a deep respect for other peoples beliefs. I mean... I could choose not to touch the shakuhachi because it has connections to Zen.
But I am here... Beacause you guys are here. I am here to learn, not to preach. This thread was a wish to connect with people, not going on
a crusade. I love the instrument. And I love God! So I play to the glory of God. I am also very interested in learning how other christian
musicians view their playing, and this is the only place I know of where shakuhachi players around the world meet.

So gmiller, I'm sorry if you are offended that I am a christian. But maybe you could somehow see this as an opportunity to learn how people
with other beliefs and philosofies than Zen, also grows and deepen spritually by the shakuhachi music. There is nothing wrong with knowledge.

There are shakuhachi players deeply involved in the christian-buddhist dialogue. Since there are many connections.

But yet again... this thread was started to connect people not to offend. If you read the first post again, you'll see that there is
nothing offensive with it. It's just a humble request. Isn't it amazing that the shakuhachi can mean so much and express so much
for people no matter what beliefs they have?

In love.
// Chris.

When Ken and I set up the forum it was specifically designed to deflate these kinds of arguments which frequently occurred on the shakuhachi mailing lists. Because everybody has a different idea of shakuhachi. On the lists when someone would write, "I am zen" or "I am Christian" people would respond with "What does that have to do with shakuhachi?" or "It's just an instrument". And huge arguments and defections ensued.

That's why we set up categories, so people would not try to impose their idea of shakuhachi upon others and people could post in the appropriate category.

Toffe's question fits comfortably within the topic of "Miscellaneous" and is probably more relevant to shakuhachi than "Off Topic" might be.

Even if someone wants to say something that has nothing to do with shakuhachi, that's what "Off Topic" is there for, except spam.

I'm not a Christian, I'm a Buddhist, but if anybody wants to talk about how they express Christianity with the shakuhachi that's fine as long as they keep it in the right topic. This seemed to sort itself out civilly, which is wonderful. In the future remember to post in the correct topic and if you don't like what you read, you can just ignore it.

Toffe, John Roff, who is on this forum, is a devout Christian and thinks that God led him to the shakuhachi. You might want to contact him, he's a great guy.