Sōtō

Sōtō Zen or the Sōtō school (曹洞宗, Sōtō-shū) is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Caodong school, which was founded during the Tang Dynasty by Dongshan Liangjie. It emphasizes Shikantaza, meditation with no objects, anchors, or content. The meditator strives to be aware of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference.

The Japanese brand of the sect was imported in the 13th century by Dōgen Zenji, who studied Caodong Buddhism (Chinese: 曹洞宗; pinyin: Cáodòng Zōng) abroad in China. Dōgen is remembered today as the co-patriarch of Sōtō Zen in Japan along with Keizan Jōkin.

With about 14,000 temples, Sōtō is one of the largest Japanese Buddhist organizations. Sōtō Zen is now also popular in the West, and in 1996 priests of the Sōtō Zen tradition formed the Soto Zen Buddhist Association based in North America.

History

Chinese origins

The original Chinese version of Soto-shu, i.e. the Caodong-school (曹洞宗) was established by the Tang dynasty monk Dongshan Liangjie (Ja: Tōzan Ryōkai) in the 9th century.

Eponym

An eponym is a person, a place, or thing for whom or for which something is named, or believed to be named. For example, Elizabeth I of England is the eponym of the Elizabethan era.

Many genericized trademarks such as aspirin,heroin and thermos are based on their original brand eponyms.

The adjectives derived from eponym, which include eponymous and eponymic, similarly refers to being the person or thing after whom something is named, as "the eponymous founder of the Ford Motor Company" refers to founder's being Henry Ford. Recent usage, especially in the recorded-music industry, also allows eponymous to mean "named after its central character or creator".

History

Time periods have often been named after a ruler or other influential figure:

Se (instrument)

The se (Chinese: 瑟; pinyin: sè) is an ancient Chinese plucked zither (string instrument). It has a range of 50-25 strings with moveable bridges and has a range of up to five octaves.

History

The history of the se extends back to early Chinese history. It was one of the most important stringed instruments to be created in China, other than the guqin. The se was a highly popular instrument during the Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn period. Surviving specimens have been excavated from places such as the Hubei and Hunan provinces, and the Jiangnan region of China. Other places include Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, and Liaoning. In Hubei, the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng (in the late 400's BCE) was a treasure trove of ancient Chinese instruments, including a complete set of bianzhong (bronze bells), se, guqin (plucked zither), stone chimes, and a drum. His musical entourage of 21 girls and women were also buried with him. By the Warring States Period, the early types of guzheng emerged, which was developed from the se. Thus, it is sometimes said that the guzheng is essentially a smaller and simplified version of the se (with less strings).

Love Is...

Love Is... is the name of a comic strip created by New Zealand cartoonist Kim Casali (née Grove) in the 1960s. The cartoons originated from a series of love notes that Grove drew for her future husband, Roberto Casali. They were published in booklets in the late 1960s before appearing in strip form in a newspaper in 1970, under the pen name "Kim". They were syndicated soon after and the strip is syndicated worldwide today by Tribune Media Services. One of her most famous drawings, "Love Is...being able to say you are sorry", published on February 9, 1972, was marketed internationally for many years in print, on cards and on souvenirs. The beginning of the strip coincided closely with the 1970 film Love Story. The film's signature line is "Love means never having to say you're sorry." At the height of their popularity in the 1970s the cartoons were earning Casali £4-5 million annually.

Roberto Casali was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1975 and Kim stopped working on the cartoon to spend more time with him. Casali commissioned London-based British cartoonist Bill Asprey to take over the writing and drawing of the daily cartoons for her, under her pen name. Asprey has produced the cartoon continuously since 1975. Upon her death in 1997, Casali's son Stefano took over Minikim, the company which handles the intellectual rights.

Love Is

Love Is may refer to:

Albums

Songs

Love Is... (song)

"Love Is..." is a song by avant-garde band King Missile. It was the only single from the band's 1994 album King Missile.

Content

In "Love Is...," a dirge-like track with elements of doom metal, frontman John S. Hall dryly recites several examples of what love is ("beautiful / Like birds that sing") and is not ("ugly / Like rats / In a puddle of vomit"). The chorus consists of Hall ominously chanting, "Love is beautiful."

Maxi-single

The "Love Is..." maxi-single was intended for promotional use only, and not supposed to be sold; nonetheless, copies are sometimes available in "used" sections of record stores, because some people who received the maxi-single sold it anyway.

Track listing

All lyrics by Hall. All music by Roger Murdock, Dave Rick, and Chris Xefos.