This is part two of my conversation with Hokai Sobol, a Croatian Shingon teacher, mentor for wayward Buddhists, path finder and original thinker. In this episode we talk about practice and the idea of mysticism, a term that I find problematic, but one that Hokai unpacks in interesting and straightforward ways.
Hokai is taking questions on the content of both episodes, so, if you find something interesting, curious, or even disagreeable, add a comment below the podcast episode at Soundcloud, here, or at the Facebook page and we will tackle it in a follow up episode.
The Imperfect Buddha 
Thank you for a beautiful interview. There is something ineffable about the things that Hokai talks about, but they feel familiar to me at the same time. We are so obsessed with getting concrete tangible results from practice (I have been as guilty of this as anyone) that we forget that so much of this is about exploring within, opening doors and as Hokai says creating intimacy with oneself and others. I certainly felt that way at the beginning before all the Buddhist dogma got downloaded on me. The sad thing is that my teacher was and is a mystic at heart. He’s meditated in caves and cemeteries and completed embraced that side of the tradition. And he has practiced across Vuddhist traditions in the way Hokai describes.I think he earnestly wants others to walk that path, but to earn a living and keep the lineage going he has had to fully embrace the therapeutic and religious sides. It was when the group became like a vicar’s tea party that I started to lose interest. But having seen him recently I am thinking that I may be able to practice with him again by going on retreats with him and touching base on Skype. Maybe that’s the way to keep walking the mystical path without having to ingest all the therapeutic and churchy stuff.
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Sorry for the dreadful spelling I write super fast without checking as I go along. Unfortunately, there is no edit facility on your site otherwise I would correct.
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