The Zen rebels: obscure hermits and existential reformers (part 9). Japanese Zen Philosophy (part 1)

It is when Zen officially was transferred to Japan in the 12th Century it begins imprinting its self as a uniquely Japanese formulation of the Zen Buddhist philosophy.  The crossing over of the Indian word Dhyāna (mediation), that from 5th Century in China became known in its (Chinese) translation as Ch'an, develops 500 hundred years later in Japan, into what the West knows as Zen - a romanticized version of the Japanese word Kanji.  But, before we step back into the past in a study of the iconoclastic Japanese Zen masters of years gone by, it is probably prudent to gauge, within the contemporary, that Japanese culture and its tumultuous history, to which Zen, from the 12th Century played a decisive role –  both socially and politically.

The impact of Zen, as a established religion in Japan became its necessary influence at the time of the 12th and 13th Centuries under the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, but today, of you were to look at the modern Japan.  You would be hard pressed to see if Zen, despite its relevancy in Japanese history and so elegantly devised its own philosophy within the structure, but also separate, of Chinese Zen.  It now has been reduced to an ideology that is seen, sometimes comically, as a relic of centuries passed, left only now in its significance to assist in funeral rights and various designated tourist destinations for the last remaining (due to rural closures), family owned, Zen Temples.
   

Is this the inevitability of change?  That all cultures weave through over time.  A dilution of its past resonance, moving forward to embrace a newer perspective.  What is important to understand in relation to the history of Japanese Zen, is particularly when the East, more so Japan in the last 60 years has become a powerhouse of consumption.  It has embraced a hyper consumer culture, a modern and technologically advanced country – that has chosen to adhere to selling and buying of the cybernetic.  The quickness of instant gratification, centered solely on the egocentric.  But, there is a discourse and modern Japan is not immune to the follies of grandeur.  Despite, being the second most powerful economy in the world, it is fraught with dilemmas, an aging population, massive government debts and inflation.  More interestingly, even with the virtual reality of inter-connectivity and the technology of advancement, it suffers a curse, that all cultures maybe also suffering from at this point in time – which is not the fault of technology.  Just our inability at times to deal with the byproduct; social isolation.

But I feel Japan, paradoxically, has also prescribed aspects, despite them not being as obvious of the Zen Philosophy into its modern culture, even though there is a extraneous and promoted materialism of Japan's consumer culture.   There is a residual oddity to its presentation, an obscurity and to use a Western term an embraced Absurdism.  The fusion of Western and Japan's history, more so its Imperialistic past.  To which Zen, at the time of the Meiji Restoration which after the 1800s, began the expansion of Japan's Imperialism became secondary to the state sanctioned religion of Shinto.  The Zen establishment further aligned its self and supported the Japanese War Machine of the 1900s , which of course includes the devastation caused by World War Two.  Yet, as mentioned when you look at modern Japan over its decades of rebuilding into economic power, the obscurity of Japanese Zen and the many iconoclastic Zen Masters and monks which in so many ways, still retain a folk like hero status in Japan.  As in the periods of Japanese history where they existed, they indeed rejected established norms of Zen Buddhism and the inherent, which they saw, contradictions of the Zen schools that aspired for political influences.  They mingled with the poor, associated with prostitutes and reshaped Zen to accommodate the hedonistic, in some cases creating a cult like impression.  Throwing out the established norms. Rethinking and reforming the idea of the Buddha Nature.  Removing the foundation Zen.  Blurring it and obscuring the teachings.  Yet, in a very Zen way maintaining and questioning the 'great' doubt.  That the nature of Buddha can not be found in temples or inspired by a monks robe.   It is exclusive and inclusive at the same time, but not easily attained.      If you look at these crowded modern Japanese city streets, with the neon lit signs, noise and the desires of every conceivable kind.  I imagine some of these Zen rebels of the past, unique to the Japanese linage of Zen.  Would feel right at home.

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Authored by Adrian Glass