A certain amount of hubris

The American Zen master Zentatsu Richard Baker, the Dharma Successor of Soto Zen master Shunryu Suzuki, said after he was transmitted by Suzuki—and not surprisingly—”you are no longer a Buddhist; what you do is Buddhism” (Michael Downing, Shoes Outside the Door, p. 19).  

Wow, talk about a bad case of hubris.  But then aren’t some contemporary Zen masters playing Buddha, like Baker, in the sense that whatever they do they believe is Buddhism, no matter what?

Of course I can criticize someone who believes they are the Buddha in virtue of a transmission they received from their teacher.  But they won’t accept the fact—and it is a fact—that the Buddha of the Pali canon didn’t transmit anyone.  And as I have mentioned before on The Zennist blog, the Buddha never transmitted his true teaching to disciples like Mahakashyapa, Revata, Subhuti, and others, according to the Avatamsaka Sutra. (Cleary, Flower Ornament Scripture, p. 1146).  In fact, the entire Zen transmission is a fiction.  How is it possible to transmit awakened or Buddha Mind?  It is like air.  Nobody possesses it nor can it be handed over to another.

With contemporary Zen masters we are almost always dealing with varying degrees of hubris, a specific hubris which mistakes the depth of human nature for Buddha-nature.  Hubris is thus also a lack of wisdom, that is, the inability to distinguish between human nature and Buddha-nature.  There is also a tyrannical side to hubris.  Hubris makes tyrants.

Zen in the West has certainly not be able to keep hubris out of the ranks of its teachers.  A certain amount of pride is first required which then leads one to overestimate their spiritual accomplishments, who then gains power in the way of Dharma transmission.  This is nothing less than a path to ruin.

 

Comments

[Bob Morris]

http://zennist.typepad.com/zenfiles/2009/10/an-important-paper-by-stuart-lachs-.html

[S]

Stuart Lachs has wrote good stuff against the Roshi myth - you people should Google him

[kojizen]

Eidolon, How does a person heal the Mara body of the five killer aggregates?

[Eidolon]

Last night I was watching a Youtube teaching by the Dalai Lama, the start of a 6-hour teaching about Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva. He begins by mentioning that he had recently had an operation to remove his gallbladder, and then asks how many in his audience have also had their gallbladders removed. Then he pats his side where it was and chuckles, and mumbles, "This proves Dalai Lama has no special healing powers. Dalai Lama is just an ordinary person."