[book] Eat Sit Sleep: My Year At Japan's Most Rigorous Zen Temple (7/10)

[Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj]

An autobiography by a man in his 30's who decided to leave his girlfriend and his job to become a monk at Eiheiji. Eiheiji is one of the oldest Soto Zen temple in the world and was founded by Dogen. This book gives you a 1st person view of what it looks like there, and it is not as chill as you think... Beeing a Zen monk is one thing but beeing a Zen monk at Eiheiji is a compleatly different thing!

[Helena4]

Wow, as a Japanese student and a budding slef-actualiser interested in meditation, this is sounding really interesting. I remember at one point a long time ago I was considering studying in Japan and I found this temple that will let people (but its specifically aimed at first year students) stay in the temple completely free and receive their training part time. I thought that would be a really interesting living arrangement. Living as a monk outside of study time. But to go full on with it is a whole other thing! I was thinking that it might be something I'd like to try at some point in my life so I would like to read this book.

[Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj]

On 2016-06-04 at 8:06 PM, Helena4 said:

Wow, as a Japanese student and a budding slef-actualiser interested in meditation, this is sounding really interesting. I remember at one point a long time ago I was considering studying in Japan and I found this temple that will let people (but its specifically aimed at first year students) stay in the temple completely free and receive their training part time. I thought that would be a really interesting living arrangement. Living as a monk outside of study time. But to go full on with it is a whole other thing! I was thinking that it might be something I'd like to try at some point in my life so I would like to read this book.

Give it a try! The book can be a good source of inspiration but maybe it will scare you away from Eiheiji. 

Edited June 7, 2016 by Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj