Tokyo Bar Offers Cocktail Of Booze And Buddhism

[sabaijai]

Tokyo bar offers cocktail of booze and Buddhism

12:55am EDT

By Hyun Oh

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Buddhist monk Yoshinobu Fujioka enjoys bringing his congregation together, one cocktail at a time.

Fujioka owns the 23-seat "Vowz Bar" in central Tokyo, where Buddhist chants replace karaoke songs and the shaven-headed bartenders serve up sermons and homilies along with the drinks.

"People would gather in a Buddhist temple and drink together, we've just updated the tradition to fit our times", said Fujioka, who also works at a temple just outside Tokyo.

"They become totally different believers here, the distance between them and myself diminishing. They are more connected with each other," he added, dressed in traditional black robes.

Vowz Bar has been going strong for 13 years and the cocktail list includes the vodka and cognac-based "Perfect Bliss" as well as "Infinite Hell" - a vodka, raspberry liqueur and cranberry juice concoction with a splash of tonic water.

The special is called "Enslavery to Love and Lust" and costs around 800 yen ($8.51).

"Every day, my heart gets tainted by dirt in the secular world, so I come here to repurify it over some drinks and fun," said regular patron Noriko Urai, a 42-year-old businesswoman.

"Vowz" is a play on the Japanese word for monk.

(Editing by Elaine Lies and Miral Fahmy)

[Several]

Yeah. No. The owner needs to hear the sound of one hand slapping him across the back of his head. Its not Buddhatainment. Anything else I say would be wrong speech.

[fabianfred]

''"People would gather in a Buddhist temple and drink together,...''

Well in many temples here they allow drinking and gambling during funeral three-day when held in the temple grounds, especially those who 'guard' the coffin overnight... by allow I mean they don't stop it happening. Drunks are often in the procession of a new monk to be during the three times around the Viharn, lots of singing and dancing....

Often temple festivals allow stages to be set up on temple grounds with boxing and dancing girls etc...and much drinking in progress.

It is often claimed to be customary....but that is just an excuse because morals have slid from the days of the grandparents times.

People will always bend the rules to suit their own defilements....but it isn't Buddhism.

[sabaijai]

Zen monks have different vows, they can marry, etc. The drinking habits of the average Zen monk don't differ much from tbose of the average Japanese male. But looking at it from Thailand, where monks strictly avoid alcohol, it does seem strange.

While one may personally prefer the relatively more puritanical Theravada school, I wouldn't be so quick to judge this endeavour or to appoint myself final arbiter saying 'This is not Buddhism'". It is a form of Buddhism, one we don't fully understand or sympathise with, perhaps, but within the Japanese context maybe it's a good thing. I wouldn't be attracted to a bar-cum-temple myself, but perhaps it works in Japan, perhaps some of the folks involved make some progress along the way that they might not otherwise have made. On the other hand, maybe not. If you're not there on the scene taking notes, it's difficult to say.

The Zen tradition has a long history of 'mad monks', drinking monks, etc, such as the legendary Ikkyu. In the Tibetan tradition, Trungpa Rinpoche often taught his ''crazy wisdom' while his brain was soaked in sake.

[Several]

Oh I like Ikkyu, and Drukpa Kunley who was probably the maddest of them all. Its fine for the enlightened to engage in all sorts of behaviour as they get no kamma from it. But they should have kept it quiet because their behaviour has become an excuse for others to carry on as they please. Entertainments happen here, but no monks are present and there are no religious activities at that time. People arrive a little drunk to ordinations, we are not providing them alcohol. This character in Japan is selling booze and using chants and homilies? Wrong livelihood. Are drunk patrons improving mindfulness? Preaching Dhamma while mixing cocktails? I wouldn't care if the owner wasn't a monk. I have no idea why a monk owns a business in the first place. This guy is obviously following the 8-fold farce. I have a lot of respect for Zen but only a few are crazy yogis. Too many are just clowns.

[sabaijai]

Oh I like Ikkyu, and Drukpa Kunley who was probably the maddest of them all. Its fine for the enlightened to engage in all sorts of behaviour as they get no kamma from it. But they should have kept it quiet because their behaviour has become an excuse for others to carry on as they please. Entertainments happen here, but no monks are present and there are no religious activities at that time. People arrive a little drunk to ordinations, we are not providing them alcohol. This character in Japan is selling booze and using chants and homilies? Wrong livelihood. Are drunk patrons improving mindfulness? Preaching Dhamma while mixing cocktails? I wouldn't care if the owner wasn't a monk. I have no idea why a monk owns a business in the first place. This guy is obviously following the 8-fold farce. I have a lot of respect for Zen but only a few are crazy yogis. Too many are just clowns.

This would be a typical Theravada interpretation, and as someone versed in Theravada, I would at first pass sympathise with the position. Theravada monks don't drink; yet Zen monks do. So within that tradition, it's not so radical an idea.

You might ask, what/who is enlightened if it matters not whether one drinks after enlightenment? Who is drunk? Is it the mind that is enlightened or is it rather non-clinging to mind/body ie nama and rupa, that constitutes enlightenment? If drink doesn't affect the arahant, then one could propose the inverse corollary (from a Zen point of view, at least), that just as drugs/booze/intoxication cannot produce enlightenment, and cannot take it away, perhaps they can't prevent it either, even though it might seem so from the non-enlightened perspective. It's a perspective that we or the Buddhist school we are associated with might not accept, but which appears to be acceptable to Japanese Zen practitioners. In Thailand such a bar would never be allowed to operate.

I'm reminded of differing perceptions among Americans raised by different Christian denominations in the States. Church socials arranged by Episcopal and Catholic churches serve copious alcohol, a practice that the more puritanical, often teetotaling, Southern Baptists and Methodists find appalling.

I see your point, Several. I also see the Japanese Zen point of view, even if I don't fully grasp it. Maybe they're deluded, but cheers to Japanese culture for providing yet another interesting point of discussion.

[Several]

I'd say that the Arahant would wind up as drunk as anybody. I doubt if enlightenment prevents inebriation. Drukpa Kunley would teach Dhamma for beer and sex. In Bhutan they still paint penises on their houses in memory of him. Enlightenment, as far as I kno, does not stop physical effects. Headaches, sickness etc. Intoxication (previously one of my favourite hobbys) does dull mindfulness. But different strokes and all that so perhaps for me its a barrier and for others a lubricant. Same with intimacy. The right partner for the right person could aid progress on the path. I feel these personalities are rare though and masters like Ikkyu have opened a door that is being exploited by lesser individuals. But, if I'm ever in Tokyo I'll drop in to see it for myself. And have a water.

[Ijustwannateach]

Another cultural difference in Japan is the way small shrines and temples are 'managed'- many of them are privately owned by families who pass them down through generations. So there can be a lot of 'individualism' in the way they are run and many idiosyncracies.

A friend of mine whose mother was a mama-san in a Kyoto bar told me the 'naughty' monks from Kinkakuji would go there after hours........

[beautifulthailand99]

Interesting guy - Buddhism's equivalent of having your cake and eating it - didn't shave his head either.

Poems and songs of Drukpa Kunley

Poem about happiness

I am happy that I am a free Yogi.

So I grow more and more into my inner happiness.

I can have sex with many women,

because I help them to go the path of enlightenment.

Outwardly I'm a fool

and inwardly I live with a clear spiritual system.

Outwardly, I enjoy wine, women and song.

And inwardly I work for the benefit of all beings.

Outwardly, I live for my pleasure

and inwardly I do everything in the right moment.

Outwardly I am a ragged beggar

and inwardly a blissful Buddha.

Song about the pleasure

A young woman finds pleasure in love. A young man finds pleasure in

sex. An old man finds pleasure in his memoirs. This is the doctrine of

the three pleasures.

Who does not know the truth, is confused. Those who have no goals,

can not sacrifice. Those who have no courage, can not be a Yogi. This is

the doctrine of the three missing things.

Even if a person knows the way of wisdom; without practicing there is

no realization. Even if a master shows you the way, you have to go it

by yourself.

The five spiritual ways

I practice the path of self-discipline. I meditate every day.

I go the way of embracing love. I work as a mother and father of all beings.

I do the deity yoga. I visualize myself as a Buddha in the cosmic unity.

I read the books of all religions and practice all at the right moment.

The life is my teacher and my inner wisdom is my guide.

[PCA]

The one who painted this picture wrongly interpreted enlightenment or better said the work is not completed just as the artist himself.