Gautam Sengupta

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Gautam Sengupta, India

Here is a scholar from India
interested in Bodhidaruma and haiku!

I quote from his homepage:

©　Gautam Sengupta

Echoes of time
On a dark street
Love sweeps away the years
I long for HER



Atha Dipa
Ana Sarana
Anana Sarana

- Buddha Gautama.
(YOU are the light, YOU are the refuge
There is NO shelter apart from YourSELF.)


I am a Theoretical Physicist specialising in Particle Physics and engaged in research and teaching at the Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT) Kanpur, India.


Buddhist Philosophy

I have a passion to comprehend the essence of mystic philosophies and mysticism. Buddhism has been almost a life long deep association especialy the sect of Mahayana Buddhism called Zen Buddhism which is mostly found in Japan and China. My interest in Zen originated from my deep love for Poetry especialy short Japanese poems with a Zen flavour called Haiku and also from Arts especialy Japanese Paintings and Woodcuts.

However there is a confusion about Buddhism and to most people Buddhism means the Yellow Robe and the Sangha of Theravada ( Hinayana; Lesser Vehicle) Buddhism. Mahayana ( Greater Vehicle) or the esoteric teachings of Buddha to his closest and spritualy advanced disciples is more Philosophy than a religion and allows practice without monkhood. Yet another development was the VajraYana ( Diamond Vehicle) which is known as Tibetan Buddhism.

This version is deeply esoteric and has strong connections with Hinduism. What is refreshing about Buddhism is that its not realy a religion but a Philosophy and a Way of Life that is spontaneous, natural and free. Zen Buddhism with its wonderful Poetry, humour and spontaneous flavour appeals to me. Zen which is often known as the "Sudden Path" to enlightenment is described in the words of its founder monk Bodhidharma as;

" No dependence on words or letters
No reliance on scriptures
Direct pointing to the heart of existence
And experiencing the truth. "

Bodhidharma was a Buddhist Monk in the Mahayana tradition from Southern India. Unhappy with the shift of Indian Buddhism away from the path of intense meditation to rituals, he travelled to China and after nine years of solitary practice received enlightenmnet. He founded the new tradition based on intense meditation and an effort to directly experience true reality. The word Dhyana which means meditation had the Chinese pronunciation Chan which later became Zen in Japan pronunciation.

So Zen essentialy is a deformation of the Sanskrit word Dhyana.

Zen flourished in China, Japan, Vietnam and Korea with some of the greatest and enigmatic teachers. Zen penetrated into every aspect of Oriental life including Martial Arts, Ikebana flower arrangements, Cha No Yu or Tea Ceremony, Gardening, Kabuki and Noh Theatre, Calligraphy, Painting, Woodcuts and extensive Literature with a major component of wonderful poetry of Haiku, Renga, Tanka, Waka and prose like Haibun.

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Look! The VVIP is Coming

Story was deleted, it is a different author.

Read the full story HERE
The VVIP is Coming
by Gautam Sengupta, March 14, 2004


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INDIA SAIJIKI

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