Sex, Lies, and Audiotape

Private parts

1. There is a long record in Japanese Buddhism of keeping secrets because of shame.
   • Dogen kept it a secret what text he plagiarized from when he was inventing Zazen in his 20's.
   • Hakuin kept it a secret that he knew multiple "answers" to koans that would prove you were enlightened.
   • In the 60's, 70's, and 80's, Zazen churches kept secret the drug addiction and sex predatoring of the Zazen "masters".
   • For a decade in this forum Dogen's followers have used secret forums, alt accounts, and private messages to try to organize anti-Zen changes to the mod team and punish those who speak out against the church.

What do Zen Masters teach?

1. Dongshan's capable of conversation - reasonable conversation doesn't have any need for privacy, right?

2. Soto Zen Master Wansong:

   In ancient times in the palace in Qin was a mirror made of jade, which reflected all the officials so that their guts were all revealed. Also when foxes acted as humans, in the mirror only their original form showed. This is having no private secrets.

What's the buzz? Tell me what's happening...

KOAN: 公案; pinyin: gōng'àn; Wade-Giles: kung-an; lit. 'public case'

Zen Masters create public records. They talk and talk and talk. That's why I am pretty confident that when a Zen Master shows up on social media, everybody will know... everybody will be talking about all the public blah-blah-blah that an enlightened person does. They are, like, addicted to it or something.

But what we get out of Japanese Buddhism is private secret conversations that they intend to hide for as long as they can, sometimes generations even. Plus censorship, like when Japanese Buddhists tried to ban Wumenguan, but, interestingly, were unable to maintain it.

What's the point though? Why do people keep secrets? Why do people have private forums, conversation restrictions (like in r/Buddhism and r/ZenBuddhism), why do they use alt accounts to hide who they are, why do these people refuse to AMA here or anywhere, why do the modern Japanese Buddhist "masters" hide behind youtube clips and monastic communities, avoiding the public at all costs?

Why, in contrast, are Zen Masters famous for making themselves available, free of charge, weekly, sometimes daily, so that anyone can ask any question?

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^Yo͞ok  Welcome! ^{Meet me}  My comment: It's okay to ask what you want. It's okay to doubt. It's not a problem for you to look at the historical records and come to your own conclusions.

Zen isn't about hiding and secrets... and those people who need to hide and keep secrets do so out of shame.

They know they aren't honest.

Which means they don't study Zen.

Submitted March 28, 2023 at 12:39PM by ewk https://ift.tt/qlXo8rm