Reblog: November 20, 2018. THE ZEN REBELS: OBSCURE HERMITS AND EXISTENTIAL REFORMERS (PART 9). JAPANESE ZEN PHILOSOPHY (PART 1). A. Glass 2018
"t 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..."
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