Soto San To Soto Zen

Submitted by ub on

I’m the unicorn journalist with wings and a cyclops eye. I have been affected by multiple news stories, starting with Fidel Castro’s Cuban Communist Revolution in the ’60s, when I became a political refugee after coming to America.  

I continue to move forward until the present including TODAY.  I have traveled throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, wherein Shanghai, China I met my future mother-in-law and late father-in-law, Maestro Jiuhe Chen, and in Japan picked up the Soto San nickname given to me by The AP Tokyo Bureau Chief. My longtime friend and colleague Kazue Abiko, who I am still in touch with.  https://cimages.me/content/el-barbaro-del-medio

I’ve been a newshound and witnessed many clashes, so I ideally welcome better days ahead. I‘m blessed with unique talents and continue to enjoy multilingual media and non-fiction storytelling.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_FE_Soto

During my first, but hopefully, not my last visit to paradise, also known as Hawaii, I went to Maui and literally stumbled upon a 100-year-old monastery named Sōtō Zen or the Sōtō school, which is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism. As a longtime educator and the youngest son of a school teacher, I was interested in this institution. I entered and made myself at home until a monk asked if I needed anything, so I showed him my identification and explained that I felt the obvious attraction. I then joined in meditation and prayer.

Sōtō Zen is the Japanese line of the Chinese Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dòngshān Liánjiè. It emphasizes Shikantaza, meditation with no objects, anchors, or content. I am now reading The Book of Changes and The Teachings of Buddha...  And so to it goes.