David,Clark,Mary,James,Steve,Platt,et al
Re:Re:Re:(ri) MD Judgment at the Smithsonian, MD Genocide and MOQ morality,
MD Zen, Tao & the MoQ.
I'm about halfway through a recent find from B&N's bargain shelves. "Zen and
the Japanese Culture" by D.T. Suzuki, "Japan's foremost authority on Zen
Buddhism", originally published in Japan in 1938 as " Zen Buddhism and Its
Influence on Japanese Culture" and revised and republished in 1956. In the
preface to the revision Suzuki says:
"Much of the contents originated as lectures given on various occasions in
England and America in 1936.... What I have done, however is to revise the
original material only in so far as necessary, and add independently written
chapters on such subjects as have happened to arouse my new concern, such as
Swordsmanship (kendo) the Art of Tea and the Haiku..."
In it's current form 156 pages of 329 or almost 50% is devoted to the topics
"Zen and the Samurai" and "Zen and Swordsmanship I & II". And this does not
count the numerous references to these subjects in other chapters. The cover
summary states:
"Suzuki shows the samurai warrior's code of conduct, bushido, to be intimately
related to Zen-in its facing of death and the ego less indifference to death
and life... Original translations of ancient texts on Swordsmanship illuminate
the relation of the art, central to Japanese history and culture, to Zen attitudes."
Isn't it ironic that fifty or so years later we are discussing a philosophy,
which claims Zen roots, and are trying to apply the MoQ's metaphysically moral
propositions to actions taken by and against a culture which at the time was
steeped in centuries old traditions of "ego less indifference to death and
life."
What happened between 1938 and 1956 "to arouse [Suzuki's] new concern" causing
him add chapters on swordsmanship, the tea ceremony, haiku, and to greatly
expand the number of photos of Zen art?
Could it possibly have been W.W.II and the humiliating defeat of Japan?
I suggest the reasons were many and include:
An effort to help the Japanese to understand how they got, where they got.
An effort to help the West understand the Japanese culture and actions.
And an effort to show both the West and East that Zen's less militaristic
traditions (the arts) were of great cultural value and if there was a problem
with cultural traditions of Japan it was not Zen's fault but that of the
underlying philosophy because:
"Strictly speaking," explains Suzuki, "Zen has no philosophy of its own. Its
teaching is concentrated on an intuitive experience, and the intellectual
content of this experience can be supplied by a system of thought not
necessarily Buddhistic... Zen Buddhists are sometimes Confucianists, sometimes
Taoists, or sometimes even Shintoist; Zen experience can also be explained by
Western philosophy"
If the MoQ is "postmodern", in that context and contingency matter. to those
who argue the immorality of "dropping the bomb" I would asked. Have you read
this book by a Japanese Zenmaster "who was there"? After you have, ask
yourself as an American military strategist, who surely had access to either
the 1936 lecture information, this book, or other similar books on Zen and the
Japanese culture at the time, and facing a military culture based on centuries
of "ego less indifference to death and life" and the "American been there" of
Pearl Harbor, the Battan Death March, kamikaze attacks, et al that Clark has
so aptly pointed out. What call would you make? And in that context was it
immoral?
On a more upbeat note. I thing the "Zen has no philosophy of its own." bodes
well for the MoQ as a mediating philosophy between the East and the West.
Dave
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