Zazen Dogenism is inherently racist... is Zen?

On the surface there are some similarities...

1. Guy says he was in another country, offers narrative that doesn't fit with popular culture.
2. No reliable record of those teachings in other country.
3. Disputes about the authenticity of the narrative and it's essential points arise and continue.

That's Dogen and Bodhidharma! So, what makes Zazen Dogenism absolutely racist, and is Bodhidharma's lineage racist too?

Authenticity

While it's been proven that Dogen was a fraud and a liar who invented Zazen, there is no indication that Bodhidharma lied about what he studied in India. The lack of records in India affects everything we know about India, whereas we have lots of records that prove Dogen was a fraud and a liar.

Further, Bodhidharma was an Indian, talking about what he studied in India. Dogen was a Japanese person who lied about what the Chinese were teaching. Undeniable elements of racist cultural misappropriation there. Dogen's entire claim to fame was his trip supposed trip to China, which appears also to have elements of fraud and lying in it. Bodhidharma's claim to fame was what he said in one interview in China.

Intent

Dogen was a cult leader who was so desperate to promote himself that he was willing to say anything for money... including the lies Dogen told about Rujing's teaching. Dogen's lies about Rujing have a definite racist flavor to them... Dogen doesn't appear to have committed fraud against any Japanese people. Dogen abandoned Zazen after only a decade of teaching it, suggesting that he himself understood in wasn't credible.

In contrast, Bodhidharma doesn't seem to have taught much of anything that survived more than a generation, and even the Lanka wasn't promoted much. So what was Bodhidharma's intent? It's hard to argue that Bodhidharma had the same intent as Dogen: wealth and power.

Race and Representation

Dogen's Zazen cult has long sought to erase Chinese Zen from the historical record... from Dogen's own plagiarizing of the title Shobogenzo from Dahui, clearly intending to replace Dahui's book with his own, to the modern Dogenists' disdain for Rujing's text even though Dogen claimed Rujing as his teacher, it's clear that race plays a role in what gets talked about in Dogen's religion.

In contrast, not only is Bodhidharma celebrated as being Indian and not Chinese, but whatever else we say about Bodhidharma's tradition it is aggressively historical, factual. Teachings are recorded generation after generation, often teachings which seem confusing or of little consequence. It would be astonishing for a Zen Master not to quote previous Zen Masters accurately and factually.

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^Yo͞ok  Welcome! ^{Meet me}  My comment: I have yet to find a Zazen Dogenist who could openly and honestly address questions of fraud and racism in the church of Dogen, which raises the question, is racism essential to the faith?

In contrast, I've been around East, South, and Southeast Asia, and Bodhidharma is always Indian. No question. It is part of Zen's identity, throughout Chinese history, that Bodhidharma's teaching is originally Indian.

Submitted March 20, 2023 at 01:08PM by ewk https://ift.tt/40MoJIP