Saturday, August 21, 2021

Willem and his father

 

Willem wrote: His name was Klaus Malten, a dermatologist and professor. He taught me many many things, iron discipline in the first place. Not that I have much of that now, but he tried. And I did too. He visited Zen Center maybe twice or even 3 times. He was very skeptical at first, but started to like sitting after a few times, since it reminded him of being silent in the second ww, and hiding from the Germans (even though he himself was half German and  spoke German as fluently as a natural).

DC: I've hear people say that zazen reminded them of many things but this is the first time I've heard that it reminded them of sitting still to avoid be discovered by the enemy. Makes sense.