Alan Watts' essay, Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen, published in the spring of 1958 in the Chicago Review, takes a look at "beat Zen" and "square Zen". Both beat and square Zen, it is fair to say, constitute a negative reaction to Zen's mystery: a mystery which never ceases to escape culture's iron cage. If we bear in mind that according to Watts, "Zen is above all the Liberation of the mind from conventional thought", neither the beat anti-culturist nor the square culturalist has a nose for authentic Zen, nor a legitimate claim to represent it.
The beat mentality according to Watts is "a revolt which does not seek to change the existing order but simply turns away from it to find the significance of life in subjective experience rather then objective achievement." Finding consolation in Zen, the beat Zennist imagines to have obtained a license if not to mention a justification for almost any kind of peak subjective experience as being satori. It is somewhat different for the square Zennist.
The square Zennist Watt's informs us is on "a quest for the right spiritual experience, for a satori which will receive the stamp (inka) of approved and established authority. There will even be certificates to hang on the wall." Elaborating on what Watts said, square Zen places a great deal of emphasis on institutional conformity and authority held to be 'tradition' (C., tsung). But behind this, the history of Zen and its literature paints a somewhat different picture. It not the picture of a great institution like the Catholic Church but one of awakened beings who have beheld the same transcendent medium as the Buddha; who have in a nutshell, awakened to absolute Mind.
Summing up the two Zens, Watts observes:
"Thus for beat Zen there must be no effort, no discipline, no artificial striving to attain satori or to be anything but what one is. But for square Zen there can be no true satori without years of meditation-practice under the stern supervision of a qualified master."
As for the third Zen which Watts doesn't seem to take up although it is mentioned in the title, this is not Zen in the abstract—this is Zen that has been handed down to us in literature which paradoxically is always pointing to that which transcends the Buddhist canon, namely, the Buddha's very own enlightenment. This, to be sure, is a profound mystery which goes beyond the subjective pale of human experience and its institutions; which is the heart of Zen.
“A mere shell, a chattering muppet. . .”
This reminded me of something I wrote:
We masquerade as bodies.
We pretend to be souls.
And we hypnotize ourselves with words.
clyde, the old hippie :)
Posted by: clyde | May 13, 2011 at 07:24 PM
Beat Zen was sure a fun place to start!
Posted by: Bob Morris | May 13, 2011 at 08:24 AM
Clyde, clyde?!!...(knocks on clydes head), anybody there?
Tell me, oh wise being, oh knower of primordial Zen dharma, you offer us such nice comments, at first glance, but once I look closer I see nothing but emptiness. A mere shell, a chattering muppet, offering platitudes to others that so far has failed to free himself from samsara. Much like Goldman Sachs offering crap derivatives to their own clients and then betting against them on the market.
Clyde, clyde?!!...(knocks on clydes head), presently you are a walking corpse looking for a grave.
Your ontological ignorance can only reach so far before you fall of a cliff, like the rest of your pop-zen buddies. Consider me your personal bodhisattva/demon, there to mock and torment you till the end of time, unless you hear that distinct plopping sound, meaning you have successfully removed your head (*hau-t'ou*) from your ass (hua-wei) and discovered the light of your true non-stinking nature.
Posted by: azanshi | May 12, 2011 at 12:03 PM
Clyde, I think you have the third mixed up with the first you old beatnik. :)
Posted by: Kojizen | May 12, 2011 at 08:40 AM
“As for the third Zen which Watts doesn't seem to take up although it is mentioned in the title, this is not Zen in the abstract—this is Zen that has been handed down to us in literature which paradoxically is always pointing to that which transcends the Buddhist canon, namely, the Buddha's very own enlightenment. This, to be sure, is a profound mystery which goes beyond the subjective pale of human experience and its institutions; which is the heart of Zen.”
Yes, thankfully this “third Zen . . . has been handed down to us in literature”, so we can read, study and ponder the words of the Masters. But there are also living Masters and a few of them may be disguised as Zen Priests; others . . . may be a neighbor, a co-worker, or a local merchant; even a blogger :) Anyone could be an awakened being because everyone has Buddha-nature; so everyone can become an enlightened being.
And thankfully there is “the subjective pale of human experience and its institutions” which includes the Masters, both living and dead, the literature, the rites and rituals. This Zen “of human experience and its institutions” transmits the teachings that “the heart of Zen” goes beyond.
clyde
Posted by: clyde | May 12, 2011 at 03:16 AM