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January 23, 2011

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I never practiced Zazen and I don't mean to reduce the value it may have as a tool. However, I dare to agree with you. Zazen cannot be equated with enlightenment, at least not Zazen in the sense you have just described.

However, having read "Moon in a dewdrop", I recognize Dogen as having an insight on Enlightenment way beyond equating it with Zazen.

Where the teaching of Dogen led to, I don't know, but describing his level of understanding as "being unable to grasp the real meaning of the Buddha’s enlightenment", in my opinion is not fair, as can be seen in one of his most famous quotes:

"As all things are buddha-dharma, there is delusion and realization, practice, and birth and death, and there are buddhas and sentient beings. As the myriad things are without an abiding self, there is no delusion, no realization, no buddha, no sentient being, no birth and death. The buddha way is, basically, leaping clear of the many of the one; thus there are birth and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings and buddhas. Yet in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread."


Having said this, I thank you for the generosity of sharing your thoughts.

Predominantly, Zen in todays US is coping with with the same problems US itself does, with its current rapidly decling economic status. It is corrupt to the bone and infested with ignorance superstition and wild repackaging to fit the minds of dumb and dumber. If you ask the average american joe about zen he or she will probbaly think you are talking about a night club or even a new cool IPAD app. If you ask an american whom dwells in the obscure twilight zone of the mind called new age they will probably think of japanese monks staring into a wall swimming in seas of nirvana. Generally speaking it is close to impossible convincing an average american joe about the virtues of zen buddhism. He or she will instantly compare these named virtues to a nice afternoon by the pool, or watching the NHL finals with his buddies or a shopping orgy in shoes at the mall.

I recall a story about a zazen student visiting a rinzai tempel in Japan during the meiji era. The student ignorant of the abbots view on zen buddhism, sat down in the meditation hall and stareted his usual shikantaza as he was taught by his former sot teacher. After a wahile the abbot entered the hall and asked the student whqat he was doing. "I am practising the way", the student answered. "If you are practising the way, why are you sitting there like a heap of dry bones?", the teacher asked. "I am using my mind to be in the now as Buddha taught us. This practise will release me from suffering". Upon hearing this the abbot kicked the student on his side asking "Now tell me, is this pain you feel in your body as you barely are able to breath, the blissful nirvana as promised by your former teacher or is it a result by the wool pulled over your eyes by Mara?"

Predominantly, Zen in todays US is coping with with the same problems US itself does, with its current rapidly decling economic status. It is corrupt to the bone and infested with ignorance superstition and wild repackaging to fit the minds of dumb and dummer. If you ask the average american joe about zen he or she will probbaly think you are talking about a night club or even a new cool IPAD app. If you ask an american whom dwells in the obscure twilight zone of the mind called new age they will probably think of japanese monks staring into a wall swimming in seas of nirvana. Generally speaking it is close to impossible convincing an average american joe about the virtues of zen buddhism. He or she will instantly compare these named virtues to a nice afternoon by the pool, or watching the NHL finals with his buddies or a shopping orgy in shoes at the mall.

I recall a story about a zazen student visiting a rinzai tempel in Japan during the meiji era. The student ignorant of the abbots view on zen buddhism, sat down in the meditation hall and stareted his usual shikantaza as he was taught by his former soto teacher. After a while the abbot entered the hall and asked the student what he was doing. "I am practising the way", the student answered. "If you are practising the way, why are you sitting there like a dead man frozen stiff by a sudden ice storm?", the teacher asked. "I am using my mind to be in the now as Buddha taught us. This practise will release me from suffering". Upon hearing this the abbot kicked the student on his side asking "Now tell me, is this pain you feel in your body as you barely are able to breath, the blissful nirvana as promised by your former teacher or is it a result by the wool pulled over your eyes by Mara?".

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