humility

God. . . .

In Buddha's original Theravada they decline deity in the not-self. (Buddha nature is not implicit in manifestation - it has to be worked at, apparently) This is currently a hot debate in the dovecotes of Nippon Buddhist enclaves.

in their Buddha-nature

summer cows graze

paradise

jp

Is Zen authentic, then?

It is suggested that the overweening wa (humility), so characteristic of the sterotypical Japanese citizen, is reinforced by (ipso facto, degenerate) Mahayana Buddhism and that this places the people under the thumb and lets the authorities get away with blue murder.

'There is no doubt that 'wa' helped Japan to deal with its monumental problems; but it also means that victims suffer in silence. In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, orderly queues snaked for miles for food, water and fuel. There was no looting and raping, which often accompanies natural disasters elsewhere...'

News Item

But, is Zen authentic?

'The current attack is led by two Buddhist scholars at Komazawa University (associated with the Sõtõ Zen sect): Hakamaya Noriaki and Matsumoto Shirõ. The main focus of their attacks is the hongaku shisõ tradition (strictly speaking, the idea that all things are “inherently” or “originally” enlightened) and the implications of this kind of thinking (such as the ideal of wa, “harmony” or “conformity”) that function as largely uncritical assumptions in Japanese society at large...'

http://tinyurl.com/CriticalBuddhismPDF

However, as haiku is based more on radical Tao (Zhuangzi, via Basho) than anything else (yes, we know about all the other influential admixtures), this may not be an issue. Or, is it?

MORE. . . .

https://sites.google.com/site/inthesoundofwater/home/splash/zhuangzi

jp

22-09-11

EXTRAS

"The Japanese endonym Wa 倭 "Japan" derives from the Chinese exonym Wō 倭 "Japan, Japanese", a Chinese character that had some offensive connotation, possibly "submissive, docile, obedient", "bowing; bent over", or "short person; dwarf". -Wikipedia: WA

NOTE

This dichotomy between self/not-self needs to be sorted out. And, is has been! Mahayana (Buddha nature implicit in manifestation), for the people's morale - not-self for the cloistered Theravada transcendentalists. Sorted. In the middle, we can move back and forth from both conditions. By definition, Bodhisattvas. Hanging out on the borderline betwixt something and nothing until the end of time and space - helping.

ALSO SEE Makoto