tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9314453.post306081826798825774..comments2023-08-21T05:04:54.793-07:00Comments on Turning the Wheel of Wonder: Response to “Zen Has No Morals!”Alan Gregory Wonderwheelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186755261777539572noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9314453.post-82850613313757141772012-07-18T11:32:19.833-07:002012-07-18T11:32:19.833-07:00(Comment continued)
Second, the so-called positio...(Comment continued)<br /><br />Second, the so-called position of the "Enlightened Roshi" is an aberration, but is it a Zen issue or a relationship issue? For example, a physician becomes “a God” and many are the nurses who complain about the medical god complex. Too many are the doctors who take advantage of the people around them even patients. Does that make the medical institution suspect? The real question has to do with power-relationships between people in all contexts, which in my POV is primarily a psychological issue. All peoples project their feelings of insecurity onto the people with religious authority, whether they are Roshis, Imams, Rabbis, Priests, Ministers, Gurus, Shamans, etc. This has nothing specifically to do with Zen as an institution. Adept teachers know how to deal with these projections, while the inept fail at dealing with these projections and become caricatures of themselves. <br /><br />Third, claims that Zen is “amoral” are examples of naive ignorance. Any claim that Zen is amoral because Zen is based in the Absolute is literally half-assed Zen. This is perhaps the most intensely confusing aspect of Zen because it is the essence of the challenge to our dualistic views, so it is not at all surprising that the claim is made. But claims based on ignorance are not evidence of the falseness of the actuality. People who claim that Zen is amoral because it stands on zero are people who have never even dreamed of standing on zero. They should study this koan:<br /><br /> Zhaozhou asked Touzi, "So, what about the time that the fundamental person of the great death returns to life?"<br /> Touzi said, "It is not permitted to go traveling by night; one must be thrown into the brightness to arrive." <br /><br />Lastly, there is not one thing in this entire universe that can not be used abusively in the wrong hands. But the question that is important is to what degree, and in what way, are the abuses of wrong hands to be attributed to the instrument that is being abused? Is a hammer institutionally corrupt because its head is hard and its claw is sharp when it is used in the wrong hands to kill someone? If we take that approach and criticize the institution of the hammer and say the head must be softened and the claw dulled, then at what point does it cease to be a useful hammer?Alan Gregory Wonderwheelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00186755261777539572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9314453.post-81810531020758277592012-07-18T11:31:51.378-07:002012-07-18T11:31:51.378-07:00I don’t deny being an apologist for Zen, but there...I don’t deny being an apologist for Zen, but there is no apology for Shimano Roshi contained in my comments. Any perceived apology is merely a projection based on the prejudice against Shimano Roshi. It is pretty simply the case that from the perspective of someone who has taken sides, anyone who stands in the middle is going to be perceived as an apologist for the other side. <br /><br />The Section 3 collection of anecdotal reports has credibility, but of course they are not neutral reports. What does that mean? It means that I refuse to be ignore the fact that reports such as these have context. I refuse to jettison my own sensibilities and abilities of analysis and abdicate all evaluation in order to join the indiscriminate attack. My attack will remain discriminating, thank you.<br /><br />You apparently are discounting “founder’s syndrome” by using the word “touch.” To the people who are abused there is no emotional differential between abuse by the founder and abuse by a “cult leader.” However, to society there is a great importance in the correctness of the diagnosis. <br /><br />As for the so-called medical doctor and therapist, he seems to be engaged in malpractice and I’m quite surprised that he had not been sued and had his license removed assuming the stories are true. Something is going on there that has not been revealed by Hammacher’s report. <br /><br />Let’s look at some of the so-called institutional defects. First off, there is no Zen “Doctrine” as such. As close as we get is the Zen motto:<br /> <br />“The storehouse of the correct Dharma eye, <br />The wonderful heart-mind of Nirvana, <br />The formless true form, <br />The subtle Dharma gate, <br />Not established by written words, <br />Transmitted separately outside the teaching,<br />Pointing straight to the heart-mind of the person,<br />To see nature and become Buddha.”Alan Gregory Wonderwheelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00186755261777539572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9314453.post-11899044325833560392012-07-11T22:47:02.056-07:002012-07-11T22:47:02.056-07:00Hi Greg,
I am sorry to say that you are acting li...Hi Greg,<br /><br />I am sorry to say that you are acting like an apologist in your criticism of Christopher Hammacher’s (granted, horribly titled) report. Hammacher, himself a long time practitioner, provides pages of first hand reports from two groups that have gone off the rails into sometime psychological and physical violence, sexual violence, mind control, information control, isolation of dissident members, and (in one of the two cases) abuse by the group leader of his role as a medical doctor and therapist. You discount this as a touch of "founder's syndrome"? You think that the author is wrong in pointing to certain characteristics of Zen Practice and Doctrine ... the position of the "Enlightened Roshi", the amorality that (naively) can be claimed in the Absolute, the violence and psychological pressure often found in Zen training especially in Japan ... as IN THE WRONG HANDS conducive to cultish and abusive behavior? The result, Greg, is that you are white washing these legitimate criticisms.<br /><br />I am going to have to write something longer on this. I think I will call it "Zen Has Morals ... and apologists too".<br /><br />Gassho, Jundojundo cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12564338025084888194noreply@blogger.com