Zen monk-musician Leonard Cohen (video)

Lee Thomas-Mason (faroutmagazine.co.uk, June 18, 2019); Armelle Brusq; Leonard Cohen ("Famous Blue Raincoat" via Uncovered Emotions); Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

A day in the life of famous musician Zen Buddhist monk Leonard Cohen

There's a time in life for searching for satori.

For a spell of five years beginning in 1994, the great American musician Leonard Cohen lived at the Mount Baldy Zen Center, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles.

At the time Cohen was exploring life as a Buddhist monk, living on 10,000 foot Mt. Baldy to study and assist Rinzai Zen Master Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi.

The best place to look for satori is within.

“I don’t think anybody really knows why they’re doing anything. If you stop someone on the subway and say, ‘Where are you going – in the deepest sense of the word?’ you can’t really expect an answer,” Cohen once commented when speaking to author Pico Iyer back in 1998.

“I really don’t know why I’m here. It’s a matter of, ‘What else would I be doing?’ Do I want to be Frank Sinatra, who’s really great, and do I want to have great retrospectives of my work? I’m not really interested in being the oldest folksinger around,” he added in reflection.

Back in the spring of 1996, French artist Armelle Brusq was tasked with filming a documentary of Cohen’s daily routine at Mt. Baldy.

Leonard went Zen. I went Tibetan (Bowie)

“Cohen’s cabin with his Technics KN 3000 synthesizer and computers are shown, and he sings his new song ‘A Thousand Kisses Deep.’ He also recites three unpublished poems, two telling about Roshi (one titled ‘Roshi at 89’). The third was titled ‘Too Old,’” the documentary’s Director Brusq once explained. More

LYRICS: "Famous Blue Raincoat"

It's 4:00 in the morning, the end of December

I'm writing you now just to see if you're better

New York is cold, but I like where I'm living

There's music on Clinton Street
all through the evening

Leonard Cohen and daughter Lorca, Mt. Baldy

I hear that you're building
your little house
deep in the desert

You're living for nothing now

I hope you're keeping
some kind of record

Yes and Jane came by
with a lock of your hair

She said that you
gave it to her

That night that you
planned to go clear

Did you ever go clear?

Monk Leonard Cohen, Mt. Baldy Zen Center, LA

On the last time we saw youyou looked so much older

Your famous blue raincoat
was torn at the shoulder

You'd been to the station
to meet every train

You came home without Lili Marlene

You treated my woman
to a flake of your life

And when she came back
she was nobody's wife

Well I see you there
with a rose in your teeth

One more thin gypsy thief

Well I see Jane's awake

She sends her regards

And what can I tell you
my brother, my killer

What can I possibly say?

I guess that I miss you
I guess I forgive you

I'm glad you stood in my way

If you ever come by here
for Jane or for me

Leonard Cohen with Suzanne (pinterest.it)

Well your enemy is sleeping
and his woman is free 

Yes and thanks for the trouble
you took from her eyes

I thought it was there for good
so I never tried

And Jane came by
with a lock of your hair

She said that
you gave it to her

That night that you
planned to go clear

Sincerely, L. Cohen