Smoking Cigarettes While the World Burns (Yukio Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion)

The boys discuss the final entry in the "Monks" section of the season: Karl's pick of Yukio Mishima's The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. They talk about Mishima's fascinating life, the ins and outs of Zen Buddhism and how its ideas relate to the book's narrative, and problems of size, scale, and beauty in the book.

Note from Karl regarding the discussion of Zen meditation: "At one point I say that 'zazen meditation it literally means 'just sitting' you're just supposed to sit and meditate...' I was thinking of shikantaza, which is a sub-form of zazen. Also, in Sōtō Zen that's true that no koan/sutra is needed but in other schools (Rinzai) what I said is false."

 

Theme Music: "Shostakovich," by Mucca Pazza.