How to figure out the soluton to a koan

[reiun]

Looking at zen in the US, back when Seung Sahn first arrived from Korea, I think it would be accurate to say, one could even say obvious, that he intentionally taught in a style that was distinctly different than Japanese style. Which is understandable as Korean Buddhism has a good amount of history trying to distinguish itself from Japanese Buddhism. In the Book "Zen Masters" by Steven Heine and Dale Wright, there is a chapter on him and his style and it says "what Seung Sahn’s image of Zen attempts to do is to protest the hegemony of Japanese Zen in the West and its presumption to speak for all the branches of the school.". I would say that's entirely accurate. Which was really nothing new for him and his lineage. As it says in the same book, "Seung Sahn’s own grandmaster, Man’gong (1872–1946) was remembered for his “deafening Zen shout” at a Japanese governor and declaring, “For what reason should Korean Buddhism follow Japanese Buddhism? The person who stresses such an idea must be in hell.” A lot of his early students commented that the reason why they chose Seung Sahn was that is was a distinctly different style from Japanese style, which at the time, was pretty much the one and only style in the US.

Sounds as if there is some sort of gurdge against Japanese zen within Korean KUZ community. Starting woth its founder. Interesting.

Nothing could be further from the truth really. As it says in the book I mentiond earlier, speaking about the founder Seung Sahn:

"But it must be pointed out that this subtext of national and cultural pride arising from a history of neighborly competition had never interfered in his relations with his Japanese Zen counterparts. His best friend remained the Soto Zen master Taizan Maezumi, and he himself had never been disparaging about Japanese Zen."

If there is any grudge really, it is just against people expressing the sentiment of "You should do it my way, because my way is better than your way. Your way is wrong and misguided", etc, etc. because that's just inherently disrespectful.

Thanks for filling this in. As of several years ago in a BBC poll, only 21% of Koreans expressed a positive view of Japan's influence, with 67% negative. Korean Zen seems to have stayed above this. And of course Western students have no cause to pick up the negativity.