sarah (04/09/83)
cFbZ*_ Are there any Zen Buddhists out there? I'd be interested in hearing about experiences anyone has had with it, books about it, etc. --sarah
mat (04/10/83)
Would a Zen Buddhist even consider discussion on the net? I once was told by the keeper of the First Zen Institute in Manhattan that ``Zen is not a believing thing, it is a doing thing.'' Shortly afterwards, she and a couple of the other folk there demonstrated -- or rather led us in -- some of the rituals they practice. I should point out that this was a field trip for a comparative religion course, and that the prof. who ran it (a Quaker) stopped chanting the Sutra just at the point where it calls for rejecting the pleasures of the body (ie sex). Anyhow, the question is this: are the learning tools of Zen (koans and un-sense) compatable with the semirational flaming on this newsgroup? I would be curious to find out. As a side issue, the Prof who ran that comp-relig course said that he was convinced that no one could be qualified to teach such a course. If you had no religion, he explained, you certainly were not qualified to talk about is, since you ain't even there. If you DO have a religion, well then, it is A religion, and you are automatically prejudiced toward it. I must say that he was a lot more honest than many of the social--sciences or philosophy prof.s that I had -- they refused to even concede that they migh have biases when they had prejudices that were more obvious than a bad case of acne. Duke of deNet and Keeper of the .!i||:FLAME.!i||: Mark Terribile -!hou5e!mat
ellis (04/12/83)
I've just become interested in this Zen myself. To date, my favorite is "The History of Zen" (Blyth) which is 5 volumes. Unfortunately, I can only find the 1st two. What I like most about these books is that they deal with the teachings & people who actually created Zen, rather than somebody else's rehashing. I've checked some Suzuki, who is reputed to be the greatest modern author(-ity). Maybe I've seen the wrong books, but he talks too much about meditation and proper practice for my taste. Some say that the Zen of the past several hundred years has been inferior to that of a thousand years ago, say, at the time of Ummon (whose stuff is wonderfully anarchic and anti-orthodox). I'm not sure that translations exist, and have been learning chinese...