An example of Pure Land Deficiency Syndrome: Natalie Goldberg's @tricyclemag essay on Chiyo-ni never mentions that she was a Pure Land nun. It generically calls her Buddhist while naming Goldberg's Zen in the third line. This makes Chiyo-ni seem Zen too tricycle.org/magazine/chiyo…
It's part of a decades-long pattern of anything Japanese being subsumed under an umbrella of Zen, such that all good Japanese things are revealed to be Zen at heart, and all Zen things are good. This has been good PR for Zen but caused massive misundertanding and erasure.
The origin lies with D.T. Suzuki, whose romanticized Zen writings laid the foundation for what English readers took to be Zen, Japanese culture, Buddhism, etc. Without competition from other writers, he was able to shape (and warp) the conversation permanently at an early stage.
We're still dealing with the effects over 100 years after he started his campaign to associate everything good in Japanese culture with Zen. Zen, a minority Buddhism, is taken to be the essential Japanese Buddhism. Pure Land, the majority Buddhism, is erased. This is bad for both
Zen has benefited massively from the cultural cache and financial opportunities created by Suzuki's distorted presentation. But it has also resulted in grotesque commodification of Zen. In many ways the conditions for serious Zen Buddhist practice are harder due to this.
Pure Land has been marginalized, misunderstood, mocked, and spoken for (inaccurately), rather than being seen and heard. Even when it is speaking, such as in Chiyo-ni's haiku, it is invisible to English readers. The fog of Zen obscures all.
Meanwhile, other Buddhisms such as Nichiren, Tendai, Shingon, and Kegon are forced to the very margins. They either exist only in relationship to Zen ("Tendai was Dogen's starting place, until he got something better," "Nichirenism doesn't meditate") or don't exist at all.
It's hard to dismantle generations of cultural misunderstanding. But for the health of all Buddhisms, Zen very much included, it's necessary for English speakers to develop a more correct understanding of various Japanese Buddhisms and their places in history.
@threadreaderapp unroll
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
