Post that got me banned:
Given that in a 2014 paper Sharf noted that the "non-sectarian consensus" was now that Zazen was invented in Japan, which clearly builds on Bielefeldt's 1990 book Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation, and given Anderl's translation of Petrarch's Hall Anthology text which rejects a variety of Buddhist sitting meditation methods, it seems like a good time to embrace the consensus that Zen never had anything to do with a sitting meditation tradition codified in any text or teaching... right?
I was notified of the ban by Reddit Standard Form 19, which says "reply if you want it explained". So I replied:
Yes I have a question about my ban.
Given that Sharf said in 2014 and the non-sectarian consensus was that Dogen invented Zazen and given Anderl's translation of Patriarch's Hall, It looks like we have pretty definitive proof that there was never any sitting meditation tradition associated with Zen.
This is long been my position, and I've been criticized a lot for holding it, especially by the moderation team of the forum.
I was wondering if the moderation team would like to take a moment to acknowledge the massive titanic shift in academic perspective that's happened in less than a half century, and note that me being on the winning side says a lot for my intellectual integrity?
I have yet to receive a reply, much like when I engaged in a similar exchange with r/Askhistorians after their decision to allow exceptions to their rules for Buddhists saying "Zen is meditation".
What's up with that?
When it was just me saying it, people harassed me. When I quoted Bielefeldt, people harassed me. When I quote Sharf, people ignore all the sources and... harass me.
What's the deal?
When I first brought up the argument:
saying "Zen means meditation" is evidence of religious and racial bigotry
Lots of reasonable people disagreed. Well, how about now? With the weight of non-sectarian academia in chorus behind me, was this ever about anything else but Buddhism's bias against Zen, and that segment of Western Buddhism who prefer Japanese sectarianism to academia?
'Cause it ain't the Five Precepts, I'll tell you what.
Submitted June 22, 2022 at 05:57AM by ewk https://ift.tt/YW0tJiT
No comments:
Post a Comment