Lee Love on tue 9 apr 02
----- Original Message -----
From: "Earl Brunner"
> I wonder how the rest of you found clay, gradually, or suddenly? I got
> it like a disease, a terminal case.
I'd been interested in clay for some time, but I decided to become a
potter at my late zen teacher's funeral. I moved from Michigan, where I was
living in a Tipi in the woods, to study with Dainin Katagiri Roshi in
Minneapolis in '83. I studied with him for 7 years. He died in '90.
He had a traditional Zen Master's funeral. We sat in mediation
in the zendo with his unembalmed body for 3 days. The person that came from
California to assist with the preparations for the funeral (she had also made
arrangements for Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Lama Govinda too), said that usually,
for cremation in America, you rent a casket and a cardboard liner in placed
inside the casket. The body and the cardboard box are put in the crematory
oven, but the casket itself is saved and rented to the next customer. But,
she knew that traditional Hassidic casket makers make pine caskets of nailess
construction, that can go right in the oven (orthodox Jews do not believe in
cremation, but this type of casket serves the function well.) I helped
attend the body during the 3 days of mediation (it was keep cool with blue ice.
We also used frozen green peas when we ran out of blue ice! *Haha!*) and got to
know the casket well. It was the first time I touched a dead body.
I was impressed with the skill of the craftsman that made the
casket. I was going to become a zen priest, but my teacher died before I
completed my studies. I didn't want to start over with another teacher. I
decided instead, to learn pottery and make crematory urns with the same
devotional mind that the casket maker made his wooden caskets.
I've made urns for Akita dogs. When I am finished with my
apprenticeship, I will then be ready to make them for people too.
--
Lee in Mashiko
"The lyfe so short, the craft so long to learne." - Geoffrey Chaucer (c.
1340-1400).-
._____________________________________________
| Lee Love ^/(o\| Practice before theory. |
| Ikiru@kami.com |\o)/v - Sotetsu Yanagi - |
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"All weaves one fabric; all things give
Power unto all things to work and live." - Goethe -
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