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Koan: The Truth under Your Coat [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-23
Rev. Master Jiyu Kennett often told me “Careful how you go with the truth under your coat.” This was not originally a koan, but a line from a Bertolt Brecht play. But let me tell you how it applied to the Buddhist Society of London, since koans are where you find them. First, Brecht.
Look after yourself when you pass through Germany, with the truth under your coat.
Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo
Galileo had been given the second degree by the Catholic Church authorities, not only being threatened (the first degree) with torture (the third degree) but taken to the torture chamber and shown the instruments ready for use. Then he was put under house arrest for the rest of his life, where he continued his researches, but could not publish them. In Germany, Martin Luther had also condemned Copernicus, and so it was equally dangerous in Germany to teach any of Galilean astronomy—sunspots, mountains on the moon, the moons of Jupiter, the tilt of the Earth’s axis, all of which come into Brecht’s play.
Galileo Galilei by Brecht (2:01)
Then, the Buddhist Society rejecting Koho Zenji’s offer of Kennett Roshi to teach Soto Zen in London.
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