reblog: May 12, 2020. "THE ZEN REBELS: OBSCURE HERMITS AND EXISTENTIAL REFORMERS (PART 26) - SUBVERSIVE ZEN" (A.Glass 2022)

(The 1st patriarch of Zen Buddhism Bodhidharma, being offered a smoke from a courtesan.  Circa 17th Century, part of the parody and sexual tension of the Daruma ( Bodhidharma) symbolism, that played out in Edo period artwork.)

"...The core aspect of the more iconoclastic impressions of Zen, is an embracing of the subversive not as a deviation to human suffering, but knowing, in its non duality, that materialism is all but fleeting.  Clinging to desire is perpetuating the pain of birth and death.  Sex and death have always had an intrinsic purpose in Japanese and Chinese culture, although at times controversial within the various teachings, more so with the aspects of the unorthodox Shingon and Tedai schools of Japanese esoteric Buddhist beliefs. Zen, within its more rebellious aspects, looked at sex as not as the subversive, but knowing what reality is and the suffering it can entail.  That as a  mediative focus the Hell State, in Zen beliefs is not a place described in esoteric teachings; rather it is a state of mind.  Which is important in defining the more rebellious aspects of Zen techniques to the esoteric counterpart, that the awakening or Satori is a personal experience and not found within a scripture or ritualized foundation.  It is of an event, neither sort after or prophesied in anyway.  An enlightenment achieved from simple human experiences, delivering to the Zen practitioner as a complete understating of reality.  It is in this moment in time, that clears away all doubt, confusion and fear.  Seen by these rebel monks and masters, although paradoxical, as a an embracing of sex and at times a subversive dialogue, as a way of letting go from the attachment to the material world...."  

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Full article:  https://chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-zen-rebels-obscure-hermits-and.html (A.Glass 2020)