Zen is Intergenerational
For any basic academic understanding of the Zen tradition one has to study BoS, BCR, WuCheck, and MT. When you do this, you immediately see the layering of teachings that the "sayings texts" don't make as clear but participate in just the same: Zen instruction is based on an intergenerational dialogue.
What makes Zen Masters "right" in Zen is being able to deal with that intergenerational obligation. They deal with it by means of public dialogue.
Academics: Facts, Qutoes, Logic
Academics are "right" inasmuch as they have citations, facts, and logical arguments.
They have bibliographies and quotes and dates. The argument that Buddhist Apologetics (religious arguments rather than logical arguments) are not academic, for example claims about Dogen being a Soto Master, don't meet academic standards of facts, quotes, and logic.
Religion: Action accords with words
Finally, we get to religious people... what makes them "right"? /r/zen/wiki/buddhism suggests that "right" means sincerely expressing the beliefs that motivate one's life choices. What that means is you don't believe something you don't practice.
Internet only Buddhists
We see these different kinds of "being right" all routinely violated by "internet only Buddhists" in this forum. People pretending to have a lifestyle they don't, pretending to be interested in books they haven't read, all of it just to get attention. These people have no practice, no education, and no human feeling for any of what they claim to believe.
Does "practice" require knowledge? How could it not? So where are the demonstrations of "knowledge" by internet Buddhists?
Nowhere. These people are the most illiterate groupies you'll ever find. Any AMA they fail will prove this.
Dongshan's Lineage
Dongshan is the most famous of all Soto Zen Masters, yet his lineage is one of the most hotly debatable by anyone who isn't religious. Why? Because Dongshan's Soto teacher died before Dongshan was enlightened, and never acknowledged Dongshan. Where was Dongshan when his Soto teacher died?
At Nanquan's house.
Dongshan addresses this directly in what is one of the most central Soto Koans of all time:
Because the Master was conducting a memorial feast for Yun-yen, a monk asked, "What teaching did you receive while you were at Yun-yen's place?"
The Master said, "Although I was there, I didn't receive any teaching."
"Since you didn't actually receive any teaching, why are you conducting a memorial?" asked the monk.
"Why should I turn my back on him?" replied the Master.
"If you began by meeting Nan-ch'uan, why do you now conduct a memorial feast for Yun-yen?" asked the monk.
"It is not my former master's virtue or Buddha Dharma that I esteem, only that he did not make exhaustive explanations for me," replied the Master.
"Since you are conducting this memorial feast for the former master, do you agree with him or not?" asked the monk.
The Master said, "I agree with half and don't agree with half."
"Why don't you agree completely?" asked the monk.
The Master said, "If I agreed completely, then I would be ungrateful to my former master."
Dongshan is being asked to address his controversial choice of taking over for a lineage he was not recognized by. Whether or not his answer makes him "right" depends on how he publicly accounts for his intergenerational position.
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What do people come in here for? That's the question the mods struggle to answer, the question that internet Buddhists refuse to answer, the question that defines the conversation not only for Dongshan, but for all of us.
Submitted February 22, 2022 at 08:41AM by ewk https://ift.tt/ZwcYVfo
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