Reblog: December 27, 2018. THE ZEN REBELS: OBSCURE HERMITS AND EXISTENTIAL REFORMERS (PART 12). IKKYŪ SŌJUN (PART 3)

 

"So, what can be seen in modern Japan today.  In its contemporary reflection, still remains a shadow of the past.  If you can imagine, before it was able to centralize  its government and economy, assisted by the West in the 1800s – Japan was fiercely a feudalistic country, which was constantly at  war with itself, isolated and insular within its state affairs, when the first Ch'an Masters arrived in Japan in the 10th and 11th Centuries they brought Zen with them,  however it was the Rinzai school founded by formidable Zen Master Linji Yixuan (Jpn: Rinzai Gigen) in China in 8th Century.  That appealed to the Japanese Shogun.  And what is a fascinating aspect of Japan and its isolation, that at times, particularly when it craved Chinese culture in the 11th and 12th Century, - and why it embraced the teachings of Rinzai with fervor.  It held something, in my opinion, that the Japanese, particularly the Shogunate rulers liked at the time, that it could be molded in a form of Zen that may not necessary revere to its Chinese roots.   And when Japan began to shut its boarders once again to the world.  With Zen Buddhism set in place, it is the Zen rebels like Ikkyū Sōjun, who witnessed how it became corrupted and watered down, even the original teachings of Rinzai (Linji), that, Ikkyu embraced with zeal, as for him.  When Rinzai said “If you meet a buddha, kill him.”  it is that complete removal of attachment Nanimono ni mo torawarezu ("Attached to nothing") – which means also a removal from state sanctioned Zen being authorized as a decree.  It was to Ikkyū, a watering down of what Rinzai taught, that Zen essentially holds no attachment to government, icons, idols, the self and even nature.   Yet, in cryptical sense, Ikkyū, following his own iconoclastic ways, reminded the monks and Masters of the original teachers of Rinzai which in turn was reaffirming the linage and connection to the first Chinese patriarchs of Zen Buddhism.  A reminder to the Japanese Imperial control that Zen, although it comes from a beginning – a source, the Zen practitioner, monk or Master will eventually go to be part of the Void.  Therefor it cannot be connected to a sanctioned power.  Which, we know is always temporary, as it rises and falls.  There is no certainty taught.  And this is where Ikkyū's Zen was pure in its form and incorruptible, as it erodes all of its dualities.  That enlightenment and awareness of the Buddha nature can be found in all manifestations and aspects (the sanctity and sinfulness) of life.  Not inscribed, hypocritically, by a well paid Zen Priest favored by the Shogun's.  Ikkyū, with a desire to unsettle the Zen establishment, begins to added sex to the mix.  To shake up and embrace more anarchic perspectives to what he believed has been missed in Zen – revering the feminine and her sexuality as an explicit mannerism..."

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Full article: https://chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-zen-rebels-obscure-hermits-and_27.html  (A.Glass 2018)