Reddit Zen blues

I was on Zen and Buddhist chat forums during the introduction of Netscape.  Despite the years and all the change, I have learned that while chat room moderation seems to some to be a necessary evil it eventually becomes almost, totally, evil. Somewhat ironic, the only successful Zen and Buddhist forums, in my opinion, appeared on Deja.com which was unmoderated!

For the record, perhaps the worst forum of record, in terms of moderation, was E-Sangha. So where would I put reddit’s Zen and Buddhism?  The Buddhist chat rooms seems to be doing okay.  It is really a place for the curious and beginners.  As for the Zen forum (/r/zen) it is very accommodating to the pernicious view that Zen is institutionally separate from Buddhism, and Zen Buddhists should find another home, preferably, on the Buddhist forum (/r/buddhism).  To defend this position which, by the way cannot even define what Zen is, flame wars and flame baiting are almost the rule. Moderators who are not Buddhists seem to enjoy the battles. 

I would have to place the reddit Zen forum (/r/zen) somewhat closer to E-Sangha than Deja.com. In addition, most of the denizens on the Zen forum appear to be suffering from Buddhophobia and also religiophobia—who want such views enforced at all costs. They will not accept the fact that Zen is a special religious practice found in Mahayana Buddhism; only later, around the Song period, morphing into a school—even then with very little if any distinguishable marks.

It appears that reddit, understandably, can’t know everything about every forum; nor is it easy for reddit to detect moderators who permit some people to market their message and troll in its defense and punish others who point out that Zen, for example, was never institutionally separate from Buddhism.  Just recently, the moderators on the reddit Zen forum (/r/zen) changed the sidebar to the right which previously read, “Zen Buddhism” to “Zen,” something akin to the thin end of the wedge; eventually, to help create a false tradition otherwise known in Japanese as Gedo Zen, that is, Zen outside of Buddhism.

I am one of those Westerners who like to see Zen not separated from Buddhism.  With separation, Zen becomes absurd; truly a fool’s religion.  One might as well take up skiing or cultivating orchids.  But fools will persist who think they have a right to do this, forgetting that others have a right to oppose such foolishness with just as much force.  What this means for Zen’s future is that it will likely follow secular Buddhism where people just do zazen and practice political correctness.

Comments

[smith]

much in the same vain that all ideas are co-opted and corrupted in this day. The truth is ever uncorruptable, but only the few who have wisdom can discern the truth from the false. It is no surprise and well recognized by the true teachings, of buddha, and of Jesus too, that the evil - and those whose minds are in the service of the evil(the false, the ignorance, the lies) will be many and vast, while the wise will always be few and not many. This corruption and co-opting is even more complete and more dominant in this era in which marxism and all of its variants and strands and permutations are so fully flowered and empowered.