Shakyamuni called the source of everything emptiness. “Only when you have realized the source of God, the source of Buddha, the source of human beings, can you say that you have studied Zen. He also speaks of the source of God, of Buddha Nature, of the Center of Gravity all of these things, for him, seem the same. The title is on the front cover, and on the back is a quotation from Sasaki, “Buddha is not the Center of Gravity.” That is like his now-famous statement, “There is no God, but He is always with you.” I have in fact never read another Zen teacher who uses the word God so frequently it appears on almost every page. So what do I make of the man’s teaching, after all that? It’s hard to say, because there’s so much in the way. People should at least consider the possibility that one person isn’t the whole problem. I just found the attacks distasteful, the same way it was distasteful when the world savaged Jerry Sandusky, and would happily have torn him to shreds, when chances are overwhelming that he himself was once the object of abuse. A rather prominent spiritual teacher once said to such a crowd, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” I found it unbecoming that people who-compared to Sasaki-hadn’t practiced or taught very much, and who probably weren’t absolutely perfect in all of their conduct, savagely attacked a man who had given his whole life to this work. There is a phenomenon in football known as piling on, an old expression about hitting a man when he’s down. It seemed a safe thing to comment on, and many people commented, often quite savagely. When the story broke, the American Zen establishment pounced on Sasaki in a unified chorus, which went on and on. It was a strange and-to me-sad end for the man who taught Shinzen Young and, rather famously, Leonard Cohen (who apparently wrote a song that reflects the teachings). He lived his final two years in disgrace, answering these allegations. He couldn’t have been doing much sexual abusing at that age if he had been arrested at that point, it would have been-as we used to say-for assault with a dead weapon. It’s weird to think that, if he had died at 103, the whole scandal might not have broken, at least not while he was alive. An account of the entire thing exists at Sweeping Zen, which broke the story. Seeing my mother’s long slow death made me not want to overdo it.īut Sasaki Roshi is more famous because, in 2012-when he was 105-a huge sex scandal broke about him, with reports that he had been sexually abusing female students for years. I love life, and want to live as long as I can, but the thought of another 40 years is staggering. I read the teishos one per night, and enjoyed them.Īt the time this book was published, Sasaki Roshi was, by an odd coincidence, the same age I am now, 67 (another reason it seemed propitious that I found the book when I did), and he lived-hold on to your hats-for another 40 years, dying at the age of 107. It’s a handsome little book, with some offbeat photos (of children walking off to go skinny dipping, Sasaki Roshi himself floating in what looks like a filled-in rock quarry), and I’m glad to have it. But the mildly battered volume I recently bought-the seller admitted it was in bad shape-sold for $40, so I snapped it up. He has spoken highly of this volume at various times through the years, and when I’ve checked in the past it was quite expensive on the Used Book market, upwards of $100. This is the book that gave Brad Warner the title for his most recent book. Whatever the science is behind it, it's seriously baffling the internet right now.Buddha Is the Center of Gravity: Teisho of Joshu Sasaki Roshi at Lama Foundation. A study by the Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling also confirmed that 'women commonly have an 8 – 15% lower longitudinal center of gravity than men' to provide women with more stability during pregnancy. With the Chair Challenge, US scientist Jeremy Johnson found that because of the difference in the centre of mass for men and women, it made balancing more difficult for men.

Because men are usually taller and have longer limbs, it's harder for them to keep their balance. Another factor is core strength and the length of limbs. Men are typically taller and bigger than women, meaning it requires more strength to keep themselves upright. There are a number of reasons why this may be.

You should either stay upright (and usually it's women who manage this), or fall down to the floor. All you need to do is kneel on all fours, with your pelvis aligned with your knees, and then quickly put your arms behind your back. If you want to participate in the Centre of Gravity Challenge, it's pretty simple. The Centre of Gravity Challenge explained

The center of gravity guy