This week, we looked at Zen Buddhism. I had already learned a fair bit about Zen from my Religions of Japan course, but that was a few weeks ago so it was good to have a refresher. For that class, I read several primary sources, including Dogen’s “Fukanzazengi,” and the autobiography of Hakuin, who was a later but very influential Zen ascetic and teacher. All of these were interesting, but it was nice to get the very concise -and therefore more easy to follow- information from the encyclopedia. It also added some of the early history of Zen that I had not learned (or at least not internalized) from my Religions of Japan course. In that course, we had learned some about Bodhidharma, but our focus had been his interactions with disciples. Therefore, it was interesting to learn about the story of him crossing the Yangtze with a reed.
The account of the tea competition was very interesting, and showed the extreme focus on etiquette that reigned during the Muromachi period. The focus on proper movements, actions, and timing of actions all pointed to a very etiquette centered aristocracy during the Muromachi period. Last week, I suggested that focusing on etiquette could mean that the country was at peace and the nobles had nothing to do but make up new rules. However, this piece discredits that idea. Instead, it implies that manners always held high importance in Japanese court culture, which explains why the same Samurai who are slaughtering each other in droves during the period are also busily figuring out exactly how to observe the correct courtesy.
Even after today’s explanation with all semester’s worth of information from Religions of Japan, I still do not really understand the koan. Academically, I can give a definition of them, but the only effect that they would have on me would be to really irritate me. I guess I would be a bad Buddhist. In comparison, the Zen dry gardens felt like they would make much better aids to meditation. The deliberate placing of the stones in ab uneven manner would probably help me to focus in meditation, rather than just giving up like I would with the koans.
Ellwood, Robert, and Ellwood. “Zen Buddhism.” In Encyclopedia of Global Religions, by Wade Roof, and Mark Juergensmeyer. Sage Publications, 2011. https://muhlenberg.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sagegr/zen_buddhism/0?institutionId=4200
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