Why They Say Zen Is Not Buddhism

Given that some people haven't read this essay since the last time it was posted, and other continue to refuse to address the points raised in it: http://ift.tt/20RQkoS

The wiki heavily references the scholarship in this essay and the book it was taken from: Pruning the Bodhi Tree, particularly:

1. /r/Zen/wiki/buddhism
2. /r/Zen/wiki/Dogen
3. /r/Zen/wiki/critical_buddhism
4. /r/Zen/wiki/hakamaya

Anybody interested in Japanese Cult Buddhism, Zen, or Western Dogen Buddhism will find this text a challenging and eye-opening experience.

The Table of Contents, for discussion:

The What and Why of Critical Buddhism

1. Why they say Zen is not Buddhism: Recent Japanese Critiques of Buddha-nature
2. Critical Buddhism and returning to the sources
3. Critical philosophy versus topical philosophy.
4. Topophobia
5. Scholarship as Criticism.
6. Limits of Criticism
7. Comments on Critical Buddhism.

In search of True Buddhism

1. The doctrine of Tathagata-garbha is not Buddhist.
2. The Doctrine Of Buddha-nature is Impeccably Buddhist
3. The Idea of Dhatu-vada in Yogacara and Tathagata-garbha Texts
4. A Critical Exchange on the Idea of Dhatu-vada
5. Core Elements of INdian Buddhism INtroduced into Tibet: Contrast with Japanese Buddhism
6. The meaning of 'Zen'
7. Critical Buddhism and Dogen's [Dogenbogenzo]
8. Is Critical Buddhism really Critical?
9. Metaphysics, suffering, and LIberate: Debate between two Buddhisms
10. Thoughts on Dhatu-vada and recent trends in Buddhist studies
11. A reexamination of Critical Buddhism.

Social Criticism

1. Thoughts on the Ideological Background of social discrimination
2. Buddhism and the Kami: Against Japanism
3. The Lotus Sutra and Japanese culture

I didn't read the whole thing. For example, the essay "Meaning of Zen" was written by Matsumoto, and fails to quote a single Zen Master. Not one. It also fails to address anything that might have happened in China to encourage the creation of the name. I skimmed that crap.

I printed out Swanson's essay Why They Say Zen is Not Buddhism and worked through that, as well as Gregory's Is Critical Buddhism Really Critical. This is a serious academic text and there isn't much about Zen at all, it's focus is Japanese cult Buddhisms and the fracturing of the Japanese Buddhist academic community.

Submitted December 04, 2017 at 11:33PM by ewk http://ift.tt/2zP8nFr