ewkrzen

[ewkrzen]

It's weird but it's interesting... Do all the thinking on social media? Draft here instead of on the laptop?

. . . ...

The failures throughout 1900s Zen scholarship

Why 1900s scholarship funds and yielded so many translation errors and so little credible philosophical analysis

# symptoms

1. No Zen scholars with degrees in history or philosophy.

2. No clear definitions of Zen and Buddhism that address irreconcilable conflicts between the two historically and doctrinally.

* Buddhists lynched the second Zen patriarch

* Dhyana

* 8FP vs 4S

3. No peer review papers on translation and the wild claims religious translators made in their work

* Zen, Buddhism, mu, Comb

* Dogen's debunked Zazen retrofitted to Chinese history by Yamada

* Heine is not an academic but an apologist who prevents an honest engagement with cat shopping

# no professionals

No graduate degrees focusing on Zen

This century has seen no dedicated graduate program than anywhere in the world.... And not for lack of interest by the community or the public.

The many philosophical questions that Zen Masters repeatedly drive toward or simply not conducive to religious studies programs.

[ewkrzen]

I continue to be mystified by the process at which arguments are composed.

I took a couple of classes in feminist theory is part of my undergraduate obsession with philosophy. And the question is, if you're not part of the group, can you contribute to its academic endeavors?

If you're not a woman from a patriarchal culture, can you be a feminist philosopher?

It turns out this is a very personal question since we have a bunch of people with degrees in language and degrees in religious Buddhist studies who really do think that they are absolutely qualified to talk about Zen teachings when they probably have never even taken a class, let alone earned a degree in any kind of Zen that isn't about the eightfold path of Buddhism.

So I'm going to try to use this space to speculate about how I'm going to make the argument that 1900s Zen scholarship taken up by unqualified people was an unqualified failure.

[ewkrzen]

"The big questions are really the only ones worth considering, and colossal nerve has always been a prerequisite for such consideration." - The Columbian Exchange

https://youtu.be/HQPA5oNpfM4?si=9_85fYhN2_qlCRM3

That's what is going on as we sever Zen from Buddhism, and modern scholarship on the topic from the 1900's.

This severing includes rejecting religiously bigoted financially motivated cultural misappropriation of Zen by Christians (Alan Watts) and 8fp Buddhists (Thich Hahn), and by Zazen prayer-meditation followers of Dogen (Shunryu, Brad Warner).

[ewkrzen]

We have a ton of historical records that clarify 1900s religious propaganda and misappropriation, as well as mistakes of illiteracy and ignorance:

Dogenism = Zazen prayer-meditation gate

Buddhism = 8FP compliance gate

Zen = no gate

Christianity = 10C compliance gate

The larger issue here is how people end up being ignorant about something and yet willing to fight on social media with no ammunition or evidence.

I think that's why colonialism. I think that's just what the legacy is. Initially as an exploration culture we get white people in boats, sailing around and seeing fantastic stuff and it's travel. It's all the wonderful things, all the amazing experiences you get from travel.

But at some point you get the East India company and profit motives. And suddenly it's okay for one group to define another group without their consent and then it's okay to ignore history and then it's okay to just make up stuff about other people.

[ewkrzen]

# What is Zen about?

I've argued that Zen is characterized by:

1. Communities based on the 5 Lay Precepts www.reddit.com//r/zen/wiki/lay_precepts

2. Teachings that are described by the 4 Statements of Zen www.reddit.com//r/zen/wiki/fourstatements

3. A tradition of historical records (koans) necessitated by the practice of public interview (dharma combat)

If this is pretty incontrovertible, because we have 1,000 years of *historical* records that prove this over and over... where does the confusion come from?

# Enter Religious Exoticism

https://munsonmissions.org/2011/11/19/religiocentrism-and-religious-exoticism-two-sides-of-the-same-coin/

> This story/parable is a model of Religious Exoticism. A person is raised up in a certain religious setting. It may be okay when one is young, but as one gets into High School and College, one begins to notice problems. Your church (or some other religious body) is full of hypocrites. They don’t live up to high beliefs. They seek to justify their pettiness with religious bumpersticker language. They, frankly, are a bit embarrassing to be around. BUT… then you run into people from some fringe religious group. You had never even heard of the group (or at least met an adherent) when you were young. But now you run into them in college, or on the Web, or TV, or bookstore or wherever. They seem nice and friendly. They express spirituality in a new and fresh way. They are sooo non-hypocritical. Their words are deep and like fresh water to your jaded soul.

> This is religious exoticism… the fascination with religions or religious beliefs that you are generally unfamiliar with.

There's more:

https://academic.oup.com/book/3538/chapter-abstract/144774469?redirectedFrom=fulltext

> explain why an overwhelming number of individuals adopt only a selection of doctrines and practices, remain superficially and temporarily involved, and may continue to explore other religious teachings and alternative therapies. The success of exotic religious resources is therefore both triggered and limited by their foreignness.

https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-currents/buddhist-studies-whiteness/

> Buddhist studies in the US is overwhelmingly white (and overwhelmingly male, although this is slowly changing), and has a certain level of privilege within the academy. This privilege is grounded in the whitewashing of scholarship related to Buddhism and the systemic erasure of Asian Buddhists within convert Buddhist communities. Historically, non-Asian academics who studied Buddhism relied on Asian Buddhist informants and translators to carry out their research, and these contributions have gone largely unacknowledged and uncredited. As a result, in the US, scholars with academic degrees are presumed to have a more authoritative understanding of Buddhist traditions than the Asian people and communities who have performed the “physical, emotional, and spiritual labor” of maintaining these traditions for the last 2500 years."

Understand *why* white males are struggling in our society, especially with religious exoticism, is key to communicating across a divide of race, class, and culture.

When we look at the biggest names associated with Zen in the 20th century, Alan Watts, Shunryu, Tich Hahn. these people are deliberately misrepresenting Zen for the benefit of their own religions.

When we look at the biggest scholars of the 20th century, they were all trained in Buddhist religious schools, much like learning about Christianity in Brigham Young University.

The only reason that these people haven't been #metoo canceled is that there's a massive amount of ignorance about Zen culture.

And that's not unusual at all because the metoo movement itself was really a shock to almost everybody who hadn't experienced it firsthand... Or who had experienced at first hand but thought it was them and not a culture.

[ewkrzen]

There are several different ways to evaluate the claims of any group (like Mormons/Scientologists) about other groups (Christians/Scientists) when claims of affiliation have been made.

It turns out that *whatever method we use*, there never has been any "Japanese Zen", as Japanese Mormon-Christian-Buddhists claim.

How 20th Century Scholars failed to discuss *any of this* is a combination of many factors, not the least of which is love of Japanese culture, which, like the most amazing dodo you've never seen, was in real danger of extinction in the 20th Century. We'll get back to that.

The big deal in this debate though is understanding that people who rely on claims of authority (church says, Jesus says, pope says) are not interested in history, fact, or critical thinking. They are engaged either in proselytization or explaining how an authority looks wrong, but isn't (Religious Apologetics).

Just like Catholics try to explain weird church stuff by "pope says", just like Evangelicals try to explain weird bible stuff by "church says", the ***says*** claim is always going to be BS.

All you have to do to neuter those beleifs is "why are they right without reasons?"

# Defining Terms

The 20th Century's biggest failure was an inability to define terms. I'll give some examples of how we are able to define these terms in the 21st Century, the modern internet age of searchable databases, electronic records, and instantaneous AI translators, but keep in mind NOBODY DID THIS AT ALL in the 20th Century. It became such a problem in Western religious studies programs that other disciplines just abandoned Buddhist Studies as "less than scientific". Check out this infamous quote as an example of that: https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/wiki/buddhism#wiki_academia.3A_.22buddhism.22_not_meaningful.3A

When *other disciplines* tell you that your *entire department* lacks the rigor to even define terms, that's a cultural fail. Buddhist studies is in the middle of an epic failure in the West, as Hakamaya pointed out by simply defining Buddhism.

* **Buddhism: 8FP religions, where 8FP is backed by faith in Causation, Defilement, and Conversion.**

* **Meditation: A religious practice based on faith in Defilement, Authoritative Practice, and promised Attainment.**

* **Zen: Four Statements teachings as interpreted by engagement with the historical record.**

It might seem like these are childishly simple, and that's the point. When we look at the failures of 20th Century scholars *to even attempt definitions*, it's clear that Buddhism in the 1960's, 70's, and 80's was like the 1800's of paleontology: [A total @#$#ing shartshow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Wars#Legacy).

# Proving the assertion: Meeting Criteria

X = Y is an assertion, and with these definitions in mind (OR ANY DEFINITIONS) we can turn toward proving assertions. Was any particular "school" of Japanese Buddhism 8FP or 4 Statements of Zen in it's fundamentals?

Easy question to answer. Japanese Buddhism is 8FP all the way.

1. Defilement is a primary element of all Japanese Buddhist groups.

2. Authority is a defining element of Japanese Buddhist traditions.

3. 8FP teachings are present throughout.

# Disproving the assertion: Debunking

But what about the other side? What evidence is there that **Zen is not found in Japan**?

1. History of fraud in Japanese Buddhism:

* Dogen's short life - a history of plaraism and pro-Tientai propaganda marketed as "Zen".

* Hakuin's Secret Manual of Koan "answers" used for political promotions

* The historical and ongoing fealty to Dogen and Hakuin as "defining authorities" of Japanese Buddhism

2. Failure to produce anything like the Zen records of China

* Japanese Buddhist parables are performed rather than arising from constant Zen Public Interview practice

* Communities based on classism rather than socialism; even Alan Watts, the poster boy for 20th Century failures, remarked on how Japanese monastic communities were fundamentally different than Chinese Zen communities.

3. Historical Aborrations in Japanese Buddhist history

* Banning of books, particular *Wumenguan*.

* Dogen's church becoming a funerary business *before* the 20th century

* Public reaction to the leaking of Hakuin's secret manual

# Failure of Representation

We can drill into the incredibly difficult to dispute evidence supporting all of these definitions, assertions, and denials, and indeed any competent academic would... but why *nobody wants to discuss these questions* let alone the evidence in the 20th Century also has to be examined, and it comes down to at least these three:

1. Love of Japan, desperation to see Japan survive WW2.

* Send food or bullets - few people realize Japan almost didn't survive WW2.

* Just as Chinese culture was complete lost after WW2, Japan could have faced a similar fate.

* Anyone who has been to Japan will understand; or just read Lafcadio Hearn

2. Buddhist religious bigotry

* Majority of Western 20th Century Buddhist scholars were affiliated with Japanese religious schools: www.reddit.com/r/zen/wiki/fraudulent_texts

* Buddhism's traditional feud with Zen was ignored/suppressed, like Buddhists never lynched the 2nd Zen Patriarch

* Evangelical Buddhism pushed by Western Academics, which is why we see no basic definitions in the 20th Century Western Academia

3. Anti-Chinese devaluation of Chinese history

* Communist party actively destroyed records and dismantled academia

* Japanese history is full of misappropriation of Chinese history

* Without the Chinese to advocate for Zen records, there was nobody to do it. Until D.T. Suzuki.

The two champions of 20th Century Zen scholarship, D.T. Suzuki and R.H. Blyth, struggled with all three of these problems, along with the lack of Western education in philosophy, history, or comparative religion necessary to be truely scientific.

# No Discussion? No Disagreement

The fact that we don't find ANY evidence of these questions being discussed ANYWHERE in the 20th Century is enough to certify the 20th Century as **a failure to meet any academic standard**. It's important to acknowledge that when religious people refuse to engage in debate at all that their positions are no longer academic. The 20th century Western Buddhist scholarship is less credible than 1800's Paleontology... there weren't any Bone Wars, no competition, and thus no need for critical thinking and argument.

[ewkrzen]

Just finished a podcast on the famous case of Zhaozhou investigating the old woman.

It's funny how a short paragraph can upset so many people in so many different ways.

Here's Wonderwheel's trans:

Zhaozhou: Because a monk asked Madam Old Woman "What place do I go for the direction of the path to Lookout Mountain?”

The Old Woman said, "Go straightforward full speed ahead."

The Monk only walked three fives (15) steps and the Old Woman said, "A good teacher’s monk again goes in this way?"

It happened afterward that the monk raised this in appearing to Zhou. Zhou said, "Wait, I’ll go for you to investigate any faults of this Madam Old Woman."

The next day he then went also with the identical question. The Old Woman also had the identical reply.

Zhou returned and called the assembly saying, "I investigated Madam Old Woman of Lookout Mountain for you.

Wonderwheel's translation is wrong in a number of places, but this is not so different from other translators and chatgpt can really make it clear where the issues are.

Still just working with the text as it is now. You can understand how some people are like. How is this the Pinnacle of Zen teaching??

[ewkrzen]

Zen Master Foyan: "I am exhorting you in utter seriousness; I am not lying, I am not making up rationalizations to trap people, I will not allow people to oppress the free. I have no such reasons. If you recognize this, that is up to you. If you say you also see this way, that is up to you. If you say that everything is all right according to your perception, that is up to you. If you say your mind is still uneasy, that is up to you. You can only attain realization if you don’t deceive yourself."

[ewkrzen]

We spend a lot of time in any conversation about Zen explaining to people how the West got Zen so wrong in the 20th century.

1. There is no meditation that goes on in Zen historical records from China.

2. There is no Buddhism in Zen historical records from China. If by Buddhism we mean 4nT-8FP, and it's pretty tough to argue that Buddhism is something besides that.

And now the conversation forks into two very distinct different discussions.

1. What is Zen if it's not meditation and it's not Buddhism?

2. How did we get confused into thinking that Zen was meditation and Buddhism?

What's interesting to me is the way that these two conversations are satisfying or dissatisfying in very different ways.

What is then? If it's not, meditation or Buddhism involves a deep dive into one of the greatest collections of historical records of a subculture of all time. Not just that, but a socialist subculture. Not just that, but a subculture that persisted because of a unique strategy for choosing leadership generation after generation.

On the other hand, how do we get confused? This just boils down to a history of cultural misappropriation by Japan and Buddhists that happened after world war II in the vacuum of China's Communist revolution. When China had no intention of defending its past and Buddhism had every intention of spreading itself across the West, it was pretty easy for Buddhists to say that Zen was Japanese and Zen was Buddhism because nobody was there to say Wait a minute! That's not historically factual!

As 20th century scholarship is being debunked left and right one of the things propelling that process is the translation of Chinese records from 550 to 1500 ce. Unlike Buddhism, which is mostly based on myth, Zen is mostly based on history. And the history is fascinating stuff where real people have real conversations about what matters to them in these conversations were recorded as Koans.

That's right.

Koans our historical records of Zen Buddhas' teachings. Unlike the sutras which are crowdsourced collections of various different kinds of teachings subjected to generations of rewrites.

[ewkrzen]

Posted a podcast episode this morning, on Wumenguan aka Gateless's Gate, aka Wumen's Checkpoint

https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/s/fI1vzyvXlR

A ELI5 zen koan: ggg

Zen. Nearly offensive.

[ewkrzen]

Yunmen said, “Had I witnessed infant Buddha saying at birth "I alone" at the time, I would have killed that infant Buddha and fed [his infant corpse] to the dogs in order to bring about peace on earth!”

Japanese Buddhists convincing everybody that Zen involved. Meditation wasn't just fraud and misappropriation, Buddhism takes all the history out and all the METAL out too.

Zen Masters are not nice.

It turns out that meditators aren't that nice either, but that's a different story.

[ewkrzen]

He said Tumblr and I said sure. I'll sign up for that.

He said noooooooooooooo.

I said too late.

I study Zen.

Like actually read books and know history and @#$&.

So tumbler needs me.

He said it isn't spelled like that.