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2008/09/04

Zen At War?

I have in my hands a book called Zen At War. Not read anything of it except the blurb, which goes: "Zen At War challenges Buddhists to think through the ethical consequences of venerated doctrines and examine them in light of the Buddha's original teachings". The cover art depicts Japanese military manoeuvres, implying a contrary violence.

The author's name is Brian Daizen Victoria, and his biography reveals that he is a Soto Zen priest.

I will be interested to read this book as it is my opinion that Zen is no more Buddhism than Protestant Christianity is Sufi Islam, though both have a definite point of historical confluence.

1 comments:

Matt Stone said...

On what basis do you say Zen Buddhism is not Buddhism? Most Zen teachers I have ever read explicitly identify themselves as Buddhist, their tradition arose directly out of Buddhist tradition, the use Buddhist scriptures, their goal is the same as other Buddhist traditions, they share a Buddhist worldview that is quite distinct from other traditions, like Hinduism. On what basis do you say this?