Once DT Susuki went back to Pure Land practice (Split from: Are Zen teachers awakened?)

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coldbeer
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Re: Once DT Susuki went back to Pure Land practice (Split from: Are Zen teachers awakened?)

Post by coldbeer »

SilenceMonkey wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:48 pm I always thought DT Suzuki came from a pureland family...

And maybe it seems strange that he is involved with both pure land and zen because in japan, schools seem to be much more sectarian and separate than they were in china.

My advisor in undergrad was a DT Suzuki scholar. A lot of his research focused on DT Suzuki and his relationship with Pureland tradition.
His mother was a Shin Buddhist. Father was Rinzai.
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DewachenVagabond
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Re: Once DT Susuki went back to Pure Land practice (Split from: Are Zen teachers awakened?)

Post by DewachenVagabond »

Malcolm wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 3:11 pm
Queequeg wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 2:53 pm When you guys say Suzuki took up Pure Land, what does that mean? You guys talk about Pure Land as is it's a monolith. It's far from it.
I always rather admired Ippen, for example. I enjoyed the book on his life and writings, No Abode, the Record of Ippen.
That's one of my favorite Pure Land books.
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Queequeg
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Re: Once DT Susuki went back to Pure Land practice

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Matt J wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:52 pm The Pureland/Zen dichotomy is largely a forced one, IMHO. Plenty of Zen masters had a foot in both. And Chan master Xu Yun has a brilliant talk where he demolishes such a dichotomy.
The distinction is largely a function of Japanese Buddhism. I don't know if this thread is the appropriate place to discuss the topic.

Very briefly:

1. From early on after the introduction of Buddhism to Japan, Buddhism was tightly regulated by the government; Buddhism was more or less shunted into the function that Shinto served for the state. Schools accordingly required state recognition and sanction. They in turn enjoyed patronage from the state. Receiving recognition as a school was a big deal, and accordingly, school/sect identification became a big deal.

2. The single practice schools that emerged in the Kamakura period were all organized in the context of this state recognition, so they basically adopted the self conscious idea of being sects with all of the attendant legal regulation, whether they were immediately recognized or not. The fact was that in the Kamakura period, the Imperial order was broken down and the Imperial system didn't actually wield power, so these self conscious identities were really just habits that nonetheless exercised power over how groups perceived themselves and elected to organize themselves.

3. In the Warring States period, sectarian identities became the basis for organizing factions in the ongoing civil war, further cementing sectarian identities.

4. In the Edo period, Buddhism was strictly regulated and sectarian identities became matters of legal compulsion. Sectarian identity became crystalized by law. Individuals could not convert between sects. Whatever sect your family belonged to at the start of the Edo period was the sect your family belonged to at the end of the Edo period some 250 years later.

5. Sects in the Meiji were marginalized (there was a widespread anti Buddhist persecution) and corporatized.

6. After WWII, real freedom of religion was made law, and Buddhism became even more corporatized.

Those of us who follow Japanese Buddhism have inherited all that baggage. Lucky us! Gives us strong, if not brittle, backs.

Etc.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Queequeg
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Re: Once DT Susuki went back to Pure Land practice (Split from: Are Zen teachers awakened?)

Post by Queequeg »

coldbeer wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:23 pm His mother was a Shin Buddhist. Father was Rinzai.
So his heart was Shin, his head Rinzai... This story makes sense then.

I'm joking a bit.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Ayu
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Re: Once DT Susuki went back to Pure Land practice (Split from: Are Zen teachers awakened?)

Post by Ayu »

Possibly this thread is done.
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