People interested in Japanese Buddhism or meditation often come into this forum and get a shock, early on:
r/Zen is often aggressively against sitting meditation practice!
How did this happen? The answer is just as shocking: By reading Zen texts.
The three books we have that were written by Zen Masters barley mention sitting meditation practice, and the mentions are predominantly against sitting meditation.
The vast number of recorded sayings, including the original Shobogenzo by Dahui, not only don't discuss meditation postures and practices, but instead reject sitting meditation outright.
Lectures by Zen Masters, including Foyan, warn Zen students against meditation.
In fact, despite Zen's long and entertaining history of debate and discussion, there are barely a handful of quotes about the joys of meditation that anyone interested in sitting meditation will ever come across in Zen teachings.
It's tough to have a forum about a handful of quotes.
Naturally the people who want to talk about sitting meditation then tried to draw on the evangelical meditation movement of Japanese Buddhists claiming to represent Zen... only to find out that not only that Japanese Buddhist has no historical or doctrinal connection to Zen... these Japanese Buddhist "masters" often struggled with alcoholism and predatory sexual relationships with their students.
The real problem though is that Zen teachings are so amazingly entertaining, combining humor, doctrinal discussion, and one liners in a way that is unique to Zen and makes Zen stand out from religions and philosophies... why would anyone be satisfied with sitting meditation?
Submitted July 06, 2020 at 05:42PM by ewk https://ift.tt/31OuvjT
No comments:
Post a Comment