My Finnish Doppelgänger

If you're cruising the internet looking for cool Zen sites, you could do a lot worse than checking out Zen - The Possible Way, the very interesting and entertaining blog by Uku from Espoo, Finland.

You might notice that Uku's blog has a similar format to this one - text below, with an ironic picture above. You might notice that his texts discuss Zen, Master Dogen's teaching, and life in the 21st Century, the same topics generally discussed here.

You might also see that he's recently posted about Dogen's Bodaisatta Shishō-hō (Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance), the very source of the material for my much recycled, slightly soiled, and not-so-virginal dharma talks of the last two Sundays in Atlanta and Chattanooga. In fact, I may use his discussion on kind speech as the basis for my follow-up talks on February 15 and 22.

On November 5, he provided a pointer and link to Mount Shasta Abbey's new on-line translation of the Shobogenzo; I provided a link, although much less pronounced, on December 15.

Lately, he's taken to posting some occasional music and other videos; lately, I've taken to posting some occasional music and other videos. He posted a nostalgic, Christmas-themed video last month; I posted a nostalgic, Christmas-themed video last month. You might notice that he's posted one of the Alan Watts animations by South Parks' Parker and Stone - 10 days before I posted the exact same video.

Oh look - iconoclastic Zen teacher Brad Warner's visiting his town later this year. Iconoclastic Zen teacher Brad Warner visited my town last year (2006, too). I wonder if I can convince my Swiss-relocated Zen teacher to join me at Warner's Helsinki sesshin . . .

I could go on (he speaks Finnish, which along with Hungarian, is one of the rare Uralic languages, and I've been to Hungary), but you get the point - I apparently have become co-located, and have a meditating doppelgänger living in Finland.