Request for help
Jigme Dorje
tradition and history. I recently received this request for help. Could
you please recommend some web links?
Erica>Hi I have to do a report on Buddhism and its effect on Japan. If you
can help me with any information please send it to me. Lots of thanks!
Erica
EFM...@AOL.com
tjn
i cannot recommend any particular web links, search engines abound for
that, surely you can find some. nevertheless there are some books. as
far as Buddhism and Japanese culture is concerned:
1) DT Suzuki's Zen and Japanese Culture is good in general, it has in
general good things to say about the effect. as unreliable as i find DT
Suzuki on historical questions (especially Ch'an in China) i think he is
on surer ground as far as the effects of zen on Japanese culture:
literature, calligraphy, painting, poetry, flower arrangement, tea
ceremony, martial arts, etc.
2) there are critics who state that a particular (mistaken?) view of
Buddhism had an unhealthy effect on the interaction between Buddhism and
Japanese culture. the article by Matsumoto Shiro "Buddhism and the Kami:
Against Japanism" in the book _Pruning the Bodhi Tree_ is to be
recommended. Matsumoto is a critic of DT Suzuki. who argues that certain
notions in Buddhism permitted some features of Japanese culture to be
preserved which might have been best dropped.
3) Japanese culture and government have also had a profound impact upon
Buddhism. the little talked about Meiji era (late 19th century)
persecution of Buddhism in Japan is documented in Of Heretics and
Martyrs in Meji Japan by J.E. Ketelaar (Princeton U Press). i think that
Japanese Buddhism did not start to recover from this until after WWII.
4) the culmination of items 2 and 3 is the book we discussed at length
here Zen At War by Brian Victoria. it needs to be treated carefully.
although it seems to me to not treat certain individuals with care or
accuracy it otherwise documents some consequences of having close
connection between religion and state, in this case a connection imposed
by an authoritarian state.
Sufi Musfaad
Masters in America, Dharma heir to Taizan Maezumi Roshi, He teaches both
Rinzai and Soto Zen schools. He has been teaching all over the world since
the early eighties. This Zen Teacher has a center here in Salt Lake City.
He is quite a unique person. There are many links from this site to other
Zen sites .......
<http://www.neis.net/kanzeon/> ...Enjoy!
As Salaam Alaykum! Rahmatullahi BarakatHUUUUUUUUUUUU
Sufi Musfaad Wali
<http://www.angelfire.com/md/sufimusfadharidas/index.html>
tjn wrote in message <36AB7F40...@worldnet.att.net>...