John visit's a Japanese S&M place...

oops, I mean a Zen Temple.

That old monk fella seems to be enjoying hitting white people just a bit too much. Could be some hard feelings left over from the 1940's.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• safran
• S&M
• zen
• temple
• sadism
• sadomasochism
• japan
• hit
• strike
• smack

[mickeymephistopheles]

The kyosaku isn't used to punish people; it's used to help wake them up. Getting smacked with the stick is a _good_ thing.

As for its relation to BDSM, doubtful. Buddhism doesn't have that kinky sin aspect to it that Christianity does. The context is different.

[kengtsu]

@mickeymephistopheles A very Western take on the situation. Kink and Christian guilt have nothing to do with it for sure. S&M or some form of masochism in daily life, work, etc. is big in Japan AND it's the country that created this particular form of Zen. The more I've dug into both, the more I find that the two are very deeply related. The Zen spirit in daily life in Japan (training temples aside) and the masochistic streak are inseparable in my opinion.

[kengtsu]

Besides, people who are into masochism have the same take on it as your take on the kyosaku stick. It's good. And they don't tend to think of it as sexual or kinky, but fun and therapeutic.

[kengtsu]

There's masochism at one end of the scale and maybe what we'd call "patience" or "forbearance" at the other end. But basically there's this quality in Japanese which ranges from extreme (get dressed up in leather and get whipped) to common (getting crushed every morning on the train and somehow "taking it"), and I think it's strongly rooted in Japanese Zen. 

[renaissancesquared]

I suspect there was no way this footage could have been edited to make john appear as anything other than a blocked up fool worthy of laughter for other than his crude attempts at comedy.

[Io1564]

Religion, not even once!