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by Luyolo
Mkentane, Weekend Post, Feb 7, 2009
Karoo,
South Africa
-- A COLESBERG-based human rights advocate and sheep farmer is giving the
ancient tradition of Chinese Zen a home in the dusty Karoo and has written a
book to tell his and other stories of leading a Zen life.
Antony
Osler is a poet, singer and photographer who also specialises
in labour arbitration. He lives with his family on
Poplar Grove, a sheep farm near Colesberg.
He
launched his 176-page Stoep Zen: A Zen Life in
South Africa in Durban last week.
Published by Jacana Media, Osler said the glossy,
soft-cover coffee table publication comprised a combination of South African
stories and old Chinese stories that I retell in a South African context.
Some of the stories are about my life as a Buddhist monk and some of the
stories are about South Africa in general.
I want to show that if we can live life fully with all our hearts, then in
fact we'd be living the Zen life right here in South Africa.
Osler trained as a monk in the mid-1980s but now leads a family life.
Zen is part of the Buddhist spiritual tradition. Basically, it originates
from China and it's a very direct form of spiritual discipline or philosophy,
he explained.
Practically, Osler said, Zen means to live your life to the full. That's what
drew me to Zen in the first place ... that's why I want to give it (Zen) a
home here in South Africa.
Being a Buddhist monk means you dedicate your life to living fully wherever
you are and relating fully to every person that you meet. Also it means that
you give yourself fully to the place in which you find yourself.
When you're a monk, you lead a very disciplined life
although the purpose was not to separate yourself from the world but to help
you live a life that's connected with other people and a life that also
connects with your own environment.
With the title of the book, Osler said, he was trying to give the Zen
tradition a new home in South Africa.
I live in a house that has a stoep where I love to
sit and watch the sun go down my Zen life is right there with me
Asked if the book had been well-received by the public, Osler said: I've been
very fortunate, all the reviews have been very generous
Osler, who was the first meditation teacher at the Buddhist Retreat Centre in
Ixopo, KwaZulu Natal, said he invited people to
come to his farm's guest cottage for a meditation retreat.
If the book helps people to live life fully, with all their hearts, then it
would have achieved what it?s
set up to do.
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