14.8 D.T. Suzuki in America: Nuremberg Zen `'
Disaffecting Zen Stories
America, the Cherry Mine Disaster, and Speaker Hastert's Hegeler-Carus
Hellhouse.
' ... After the 1893 Chicago Parliament of
World Religions, one Paul Carus, a Chicago-based
editor of the Open Court Press, invited some of
the influential Japanese Buddhist delegates to a
week-long discussion at the home of Carus's
father-in-law, Edward Hegeler. Both deeply felt
the spiritual crisis of the times. Both were
trying to reform Christianity to bring it in line
with current thought; in short, to make religion
scientific. It occurred to them that Buddhism was
already compatible with science, and could be
used to nudge Christianity in the same direction.
Toward this end, Carus wanted to support a
Buddhist missionary movement to the United States
from Asia. His thinking was to create something
of a level playing field. Carus had witnessed the
most ambitious missionary undertaking in modern
history that send thousands of Protestant
missionaries abroad to convert the people
"sitting in darkness". He wished to conduct a
Darwinian experiment of "survival of the
fittest." His goal: to bring Buddhist
missionaries to America where they could engage
in healthy competition with their Christian
counterparts in the East, and thus determine the
"fittest" to survive. '
from "Buddhism and Science - Probing the Values of Faith and Reason",
Dr. Martin J. Verhoeven
____ Preface: Zen Founder _________________________________
Zen is the snake that bites it's own tail. If you embrace the void and
acausality, you will find yourself later in the midst of catastrophic
emptiness saying "how'd that happen?".
Under Prajnatara (Perfect Wisdom Shining Star) of India, there was a
disciple named Bodhidharma (Buddha Law). Under these grandiose names,
they studied the Buddha's teachings, after Buddhism had traveled East
to China. The Buddha foretold that Buddhism would fall into a Hellish
path in India, after the Buddha's highest teachings had moved on.
Bodhidharma was a native of Conjeeveram, near Madras in India. He
traveled from India and arrived at Ching-Ling (now Nanking), or
perhaps at Guangzhou (Canton), perhaps both. There, Bodhidharma met
with the Emperor's emissary (some say Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty,
see footnote), where they discussed the Sutras.
As Bodhidharma (also called Da Mo, or Ta Mo in China, and Daruma in
Japan) believed in dhyana or meditation upon the nothingness at the
heart of life, and as the Lotus Sutra had been translated into
Chinese by Kumarajiva who traveled from India a century earlier and
had served the Liang Dynasty well, the lesser and distorted teaching
of dhyana/ch'an/zen was rejected by practitioners of the highest
teaching, and Bodhidharma was banished from Imperial territory.
As an icchantika, or incorrigible disbeliever in the Lotus Sutra, he
could not be allowed to spread his teachings in the Emperor's domain
(they wished to live happily, you see). But by banishing him, they
did not act as bodhisattvas, to thoroughly correct his errors and not
let him slip away to corrupt others, and thusly fall into the hell of
incessant sufferings (Aviichi Hell) for countless lifetimes. Out of
this single uncompassionate act, much of the suffering of the world
has come.
After he was banished, Bodhidharma went to the Shaolin Monastery at
Loyang, West of Kaifeng in the Henan (Honan) Province of Western
China, where the Huang He (Yangtze or Yellow River) tumbles out of the
break between Zhongtiao Shan (2367m) on the North and Quanbao Shan
(2094m) on the South, to flood the rest of China. At the Shaolin
Monastery, he widely disseminated his distorted views of Buddhism,
corrupting first the Shaolin Monks and ultimately the rest of the
world.
Bodhidharma's school was known as Dhyana (from the Mahayana source),
or as Ch'an in China, and eventually as Zen in Japan. It comes to
flower in many different forms, in many different places down through
the ages.
Bodhidharma's very existence is denied by the Zen community,
rendering the life of their founder as itself a void. This allows no
one to be responsible, and the Zen community to walk away from the
train wreck. So let's assume that the history is true, and hold
Bodhidharma and Zen accountable, just this once. There was surely a
founder who brought Dhyana from India, however many names he is
called.
Footnotes on Wu-Ti:
Concerning Emperor Wu: from "The Selection of the Time - Nichiren,
disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha", Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p.
544:
'Those concerned about their next life would
do better to be common people in this, the Latter
Day of the Law, than be mighty rulers during the
two thousand years of the Former and Middle Days
of the Law. Why won't people believe this? Rather
than be the chief priest of the Tendai school, it
is better to be a leper who chants Nam-myoho-
renge-kyo! As Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty said
in his vow, "I would rather be Devadatta and sink
into the hell of incessant suffering than be the
non-Buddhist sage Udraka Ramaputra."'
This reference is to a document in which Emperor Wu (464--549), the
first ruler of the Liang dynasty, pledged not to follow the way of
Taoism. It actually says that he would rather sink into the evil paths
for a long period of time for going against Buddhism (yet nevertheless
forming a bond with it) than be reborn in heaven by embracing the
non-Buddhist teachings. This story appears in The Annotations on
"Great Concentration and Insight." Udraka Ramaputra was a hermit and
master of yogic meditation, the second teacher under whom Shakyamuni
practiced. He is said to have been reborn in the highest of the four
realms in the world of formlessness.
From the Encyclopedia Britannica:
Wu-Ti: Born 464 , China. Died 549 , China
Pinyin Wudi (posthumous name, or shih), personal
name (hsing-ming) Hsiao Yen , temple name (miao-
hao) (nan-liang) Kao-tsu founder and first emperor
of the Southern Liang dynasty (502–557), which
briefly held sway over South China. A great patron
of Buddhism , he helped establish that religion in
the south of China.
Wu-ti was a relative of the emperor of the
Southern Ch'i dynasty (479–502), one of the
numerous dynasties that existed in South China in
the turbulent period between the Han (206 BC–AD
220) and T'ang (618–907) dynasties. He led a
successful revolt against the Southern Ch'i after
his elder brother was put to death by the emperor.
He proclaimed himself first emperor of the Liang
dynasty in 502, and his reign proved to be longer
and more stable than that of any other southern
emperor in this period.
A devout believer, Wu-ti diligently promoted
Buddhism, preparing the first Chinese Tripitaka,
or collection of all Buddhist scripts. In 527 and
again in 529 he renounced the world and entered a
monastery. He was persuaded to reassume office
only with great difficulty. In 549 the capital was
captured by a "barbarian" general, and Wu-ti died
of starvation in a monastery.
____ Preface: Types of Zen _______________________________
There is a hierarchy of Zen, in power and toxicity. The lesser forms
of Zen pave the way in societies and cultures for the more powerful
forms. Once a society or culture is corrupted, in even the tiniest
way, by any form of Zen, the tendency will be to move inevitably
towards greater corruption by the more powerful and toxic variants. In
this way, Zen undermines everything that can be undermined in the
world, leaving only that which is incorruptible (the correct practice
of the Lotus Sutra). The hierarchy of Zen is as follows, in general
terms:
Physical Zen: All of the martial arts are based on Zen, starting
with Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Karate, Aikido, JiuJitsu,
Judo, Kendo, Bushido, Ninjitsu, etc. Tai Chi came from
Shaolin Qigong, which also led to Acupuncture,
Acupressure and Falun Gong. As the chaos in society
grows, people need to feel they can protect themselves and
their loved ones, and in this way they are corrupted further.
Christian Zen, Jewish Zen, Hindu Zen, Islamic Zen: These are
basically mixtures, wherein the monotheist believer in a
deity, feels they can practice Zen meditation without a
problem, since it is not theistic. While this reasoning is true,
it ignores the absolutely overwhelming corruption produced
by Zen, which will ultimately undermine their belief system
and every facet of their life, by bringing all of the negatives
in the Zen adherent's's daily life and environment to the
forefront, with increasing amplification and psychotic
effect.
Nuremberg Zen: The widespread belief by a population, that
the purpose of the Buddha's advent in the world was to
teach Zen: that Zen is Buddhism. This is, of course, an
absolutely distorted view of the Buddha's life and teachings.
Shakyamuni made it transparently clear, at the very end of
his life in the Nirvana Sutra, wherein he states that the Lotus
Sutra is his highest teaching in the past, present and future,
and is the purpose of his advent on this Earth, and that his
followers should honestly discard provisional teachings
(teachings other than the Lotus Sutra).
Nuremberg Zen was promulgated first by D.T. Suzuki's
work with Paul Carus, then by Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the
Art of Archery (and the many who copies: Zen in the Art
of Marketing, Sales, Bakery, etc.) and finally by Alan Watts,
the Norman Vincent Peale of Zen. Nuremberg Zen creates
the environment of chaos and widespread misery that are
the preconditions for the spread of more toxic forms of
Zen.
Stanford Zen: This is the Lay organization of Zen. It was
developed in conjunction with the activities of Frederic
Spiegelberg, a Lutheran who taught theology at the
University of Dresden, and fleeing the effects of Nuremberg
Zen in Germany, came to teach at Stanford, and founded
the American Academy of Asian Studies with Alan Watts
and others, which became the California Institute of Integral
Studies, after it spawned Esalen with Richard Price and
Michael Murphy. Esalen was the proving ground for the
Large Group Awareness Therapy organizations, of which
Werner Erhard's EST was most prominent. EST morphed
into a business school executive training seminar
organization called the Landmark Forum, or Landmark
Education, which has now become the de facto Lay
organization for Zen, projecting itself onto Wall Street and
the Fortune 500.
Green Dragon Zen: In this category I place Soto, which is the
parent of the Green Dragon Society, Rinzai, Fuke, Northern
and Southern Chinese Ch'an sects, Vietnamese and Korean
sects, and all the variant sects which practice the most toxic
forms of Zen: those which actually use the Lotus Sutra as a
means to promulgate their distorted views of Buddhism.
This is the greatest slander of the Lotus Sutra which is
possible. I lump them all under the Green Dragon banner
(I'm sure they do not appreciate this, but that is not a
concern), because Green Dragon has had a tradition of
secret propagation, and penetration of new areas with the
most aggressive intent to build a lasting foothold in every
society it touches. All of the other sects in any locale, will
orient themselves to the Green Dragon.
Nuremberg Zen, Physical Zen and the monotheist Zen mixtures will all
eventually pave the way for Stanford Zen and the Green Dragon, if they
are not themselves undercut by the king of sutras, the Lotus Sutra.
(Zen believers cannot resist the allure of greater power. When they
try the Lotus Sutra and find that it fills the void inside, they will
find they like it.)
Finally, there is the enabling group for all of the worst religious
and social movements in history:
Fellowship of Evil Friends: This loosely collected group of
Occultists,Theology professors and educators, is at the
branching point for most of corrupt religious movements
of the world. This grandfather of this group is the occultist
Meister Eckart, and it includes: Dietrich Eckart (Thule
Society), Paul Carus (Open Court Publishing), Frederic
Spiegelberg (Stanford, AAAS), Michael Murphy (Esalen),
and a host of powerful media people, pundits, gurus and
self-help authors. They are all quite happy to connect you
up with some form of evil, but step back from
commitment themselves, always stopping at the door, as
you foolishly, trustingly pass through. In this way they
catalyze the evil transformation, but survive its effects to
spread further evil, later on.
____ Preface: Powers of Zen ______________________________
Variations upon Zen which have evolved into new strains and then major
branches of Zen, have increased their toxic power by piling slander
upon slander over hundreds of years. The greatest slanders are
attached to the most powerfully evil forms of Zen, which are those
that have attacked the Lotus Sutra directly or the votaries (devotees)
of the Lotus Sutra, the Sangha, directly. One can think of this with
the mathematical analogy of a powers of a variable, that Zen becomes
exponentially more powerful and evil as slanders are piled upon
slanders ...
[Zen] Bodhidharma discards the Lotus Sutra, seeking wisdom that is
from transmissions outside the sutras, transmitted from person to
person (ishin denshin). The families of Chinese Zen under
Bodhidharma's influence include: Dhyana, Ch'an, Western Ch'an, Qigong,
Tai-Chi, Acupuncture, and the Chinese and Korean Martial Arts up to
1200 CE.
[Zen Squared] Dogen uses the Lotus Sutra as a means to teach and
propagate Zen. The families of Japanese Zen under Dogen's influence
are: Soto Zen, Rinzai Zen, Green Dragon Zen, Bushido and the Japanese
Martial Arts up to 1500 CE.
[Zen Cubed] Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and the Tokugawa Shogunate use various
Samurai and Daimyo tactics, which are based on Zen, to subjugate and
crush Nichiren Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra in the 1500s and 1600s. The
families of Japanese Zen under the Tokugawa influence are: Soto Zen,
Rinzai Zen, Green Dragon Zen, Bushido and the Japanese Martial Arts up
to 1867 CE.
[Zen Squared Squared] After the Meiji regime's overthrow of the
Tokugawa Shogunate, the militarization and buildup of Japanese society
into an armed camp, forces all of Buddhism under Shinto, and Zen
becomes Imperial Way Zen. This ultimately leads to the crushing of the
Lay organization of Nikko's School of Nichiren Buddhism, the Soka
Kyoiku Gakkai and the imprisonment of their leaders during the war,
and the death of their President Tsunesaburo Makiguchi. The families
of Imperial Way Zen are: Soto Zen, Rinzai Zen, Green Dragon Zen,
Bushido and the Japanese Martial Arts up to 1945 CE.
[Zen to the 5th] American Lay Zen from George Leonard's [Esalen]
influence: the Large Group Awareness Therapy or Training sessions,
Werner Erhard's EST, Landmark Forum, Landmark Education Seminars.
____ Preface: Zen Offends the Law ________________________
There is a principle which is central to the Buddhism of the Lotus
Sutra: Oneness of Person and Law, known as Nimpo-ikka in Japanese.
It is eternally true that the Law and the Buddha are fused, to make
life as we know it.
Since, according to Nichiren in the Ongi Kuden (The Oral Teachings, or
class notes from his lectures on the Lotus Sutra, taken by Nikko), one
meaning of "Myoho" is that delusion and enlightenment are fused (this
is also explained in the essential teachings of the Lotus Sutra, in
the Juryo or Life Span chapter) ...
This means that even for deluded mortals, there is always a condition
of oneness of person and Law.
The implication of this, is that wherever there is a slander of the
Law, then nearby and coincident with it, there is a slander of
humanity, by the principle of the simultaneity of cause and effect.
Hence, wherever Zen is propagated widely, there will be in each and
every instance, Toxic Zen Stories to tell.
What follows is one of these ...
____ Introduction ________________________________________
We know the basic story of D.T. Suzuki, and the fact that he had one
face showing towards Japan's Imperial Way Zen, and a different face
showing towards the West. And that, for obvious reasons, never the
twain would meet.
We know that he had a variety of collaborators, a flock of followers,
and influenced many others:
Collaborators in the propagation of Shaku Soyen (D.T.'s Master)-D.T.
Suzuki Zen:
Beatrice Lane (wife), Paul Carus, Edward Hegeler, Martin Heidegger,
Frederic Spiegelberg, Father Thomas Merton, Alan Watts, Eric Fromm,
Carl G. Jung, Richard de Martino, Karen Horney, and a grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation to lecture extensively at Columbia University
and other East Coast schools in the 1950's.
Followers of Shaku-Suzuki Zen:
John Cage, Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Philip
Whalen.
Those strongly affected by the Shaku-Suzuki Zen Influence:
Aldous Huxley, Karl Jaspers, Arnold Toynbee, Gabriel Marcel, Herbert
Read, and Lynn White Jr.
____ Toxic Zen Story ______________________________
D.T. Suzuki (1870-1966) and the LaSalle-Peru, Illinois period.
So, how and where did Zen and D.T. Suzuki come to America? And what
accompanied that event? It started from a fortune in Zinc, and a rich
man's urge to leave a legacy: (Ottawa DailyTimes - "National Grant
Spurs Restoration")
'Zinc magnate Edward Hegeler commissioned W.W.
Boyington, the architect of the famous Water Tower
in Chicago, to design the Hegeler Carus Mansion.
Completed in 1876, it features a mansard, or
steeply sloped, roof and a tower crowned by a 30-
foot cupola. A massive horseshoe staircase was
designed to lead guests to the grand entrance of
the home and to a wrap- around porch that graces
three sides of the residence one story
aboveground.'
'August Fiedler, a noted Chicago designer and
furniture maker, created the mansion's elegant
interior. His hand is visible in the extensive
color stencil designs on walls and ceilings,
intricate parquet flooring and finely sculpted
wooden busts. '
'The mansion was built on a three- acre estate
that once featured walking paths, a gazebo, a
reflecting pond, flower gardens, a greenhouse,
tennis courts, and even a railroad trolley car
that provided endless entertainment for the
children who lived there.'
'As well as being home to the Hegeler family,
the mansion was also the birthplace of Open Court
Publishing, which Edward Hegeler launched in 1887
to foster discussion of philosophy, science and
religion. Hegeler hired the German scholar Dr.
Paul Carus as managing editor of Open Court. Carus
married Hegeler's daughter Mary, and the two
raised six children in the mansion. One of them,
100-year-old Alwin Carus, still lives in the
mansion.'
'D.T. Suzuki, a young student of Buddhism,
came to the United States in 1897 to translate
Asian religious and philosophical classics for
Open Court. He was an assistant editor for 11
years, during which time he and Paul Carus worked
together to bridge Eastern and Western
philosophies. Suzuki, who became famous in the
United States in the mid 1900s, is now revered as
one of the world's great Buddhist scholars.'
___________________________________________________
That would be a brief encapsulation of history, but the framework for
understanding the motives of the people that put their money down to
support Suzuki, and to become the springboard for the infiltration of
Zen thought into the virgin minds of Western thinkers, particularly in
America, is a more complex history.
It involves a battle between the intellectuals and scientists of the
time, and the Christians, who were engaged in a struggle to determine
the direction of American society: where the fuel of the Industrial
Revolution was going to drive the United States in the Twentieth
Century.
In the heat of battle, sometimes we can seize upon a weapon which can
bring down the house, if we are not capable of comprehending the
unintended consequences of what we are doing.
There is some history on that from "Buddhism and Science - Probing the
Values of Faith and Reason", Dr. Martin J. Verhoeven, Religion East
and West, Issue 1, June 2001, pp. 77-97:
'After the 1893 Chicago Parliament of World
Religions, one Paul Carus, a Chicago-based editor
of the Open Court Press, invited some of the
influential Japanese Buddhist delegates to a week-
long discussion at the home of Carus's father-in-
law, Edward Hegeler. Both deeply felt the
spiritual crisis of the times. Both were trying to
reform Christianity to bring it in line with
current thought; in short, to make religion
scientific. It occurred to them that Buddhism was
already compatible with science, and could be used
to nudge Christianity in the same direction.
Toward this end, Carus wanted to support a
Buddhist missionary movement to the United States
from Asia. His thinking was to create something of
a level playing field. Carus had witnessed the
most ambitious missionary undertaking in modern
history that send thousands of Protestant
missionaries abroad to convert the people "sitting
in darkness". He wished to conduct a Darwinian
experiment of "survival of the fittest." His goal:
to bring Buddhist missionaries to America where
they could engage in healthy competition with
their Christian counterparts in the East, and thus
determine the "fittest" to survive. '
'With the aid of his wealthy father- in-law
who put up money, they sponsored a number of
Eastern missionaries to the United States:
Anagarika Dharmapala, from what was then Ceylon,
now Sri Lanka; Swami Vivekananda, from India
representing the Ramakrishna Vedanta movement; and
Soyen Shaku, a Japanese Buddhist monk, and Shaku's
young disciple D.T. Suzuki. During his stay in the
United States in the late 1890s and early 1900s,
Suzuki lived in the small town of LaSalle-Peru,
Illinois. He was in his twenties then, and for
about eleven years he worked closely with Paul
Carus translating Buddhist texts into English and
putting out inexpensive paperback editions of the
Asian classics. '
So the very first purpose of the introduction of Eastern thought into
the West, was as a means to the end of the victory of the Darwinists
over the Biblical Christian forces that would later become the
Christian Creationist movement. It is that initial purpose that
determines so much of what happens in any enterprise. As Verhoeven
continues:
'These early missionaries of Buddhism to the
West, including Carus himself, all shared the same
modern, reformist outlook. They translated
Buddhism into a medium and a message compatible
and resonant with the scientific and progressive
spirit of the Age. They selected passages of text
to favor that slant, and carefully presented the
Buddhist teachings in such a way as to appeal to
modern sensibilities - - empirical, rational, and
liberal. Americans wanted religion to "make
sense," to accord with conventional wisdom. Then,
as now, our primary mode of making sense of things
was positivist -- reliable knowledge based on
natural phenomena as verified by empirical
sciences. So firmly entrenched is the scientific
outlook that it has for all practical purposes
taken on a near- religious authority. Few, then or
now, critically question our faith in science; we
presume its validity and give it an almost
unquestioned place as the arbiter of truth.'
'Thus, the early missionaries of Buddhism to
America purposely stripped Buddhism of any
elements that might appear superstitious,
mythological, even mystical. Dharmapala, Suzuki,
and Vivekananda clearly ascertained that Americans
measured truth in science, and science posed
little theological threat to a Buddhist and Hindu
worldview. After all, Buddhism had unique
advantages for someone who rejected their faith
(Christian) due to its authoritarianism and
unscientific outlook: '
'1) Buddhism did not assert or depend upon the
existence of a God'
'2) Buddhism was a superstition-free moral
ideal; it conformed to the scientific view of an
ordered universe ruled by law (Dharma) -- a system
both moral and physical where everything seemed to
work itself out inexorably over vast periods of
time without divine intervention (karma)'
Clearly, this ignores the fact that this view of karma, and of a vast
settling time for karma to work itself out, is simplistic and was
discarded by the Buddha's highest teaching.
In the Lotus Sutra, cause and effect are simultaneous. There is no
settling time. The perception by a deluded mortal of time-sequenced
causality completely misses the big picture, and is one of the sources
of that delusion.
This simultaneity of causality has been supported by scientific
experiment in quantum physics. The direction of linear causality
cannot be determined by a reproducible experiment to point forwards or
backwards. Indeed, no experiment can show any observable difference
between the "special qualities" of any one time and any other, and
that includes the current moment.
A nice visual for this can be found in Paul Davie's article in the
September 2002 Scientific American on time ... see the plot of the
earth's orbit over time and his description of "block time". That
block time is the "place" where all causes occur and all effects are
felt. The two factors of "latent effect" and "inherent cause" of the
ten factors, hold the entire past, present and future in their True
Aspect.
As an example of what I mean, when I walk outside at night, and my
cheek is warmed by a radio-frequency photon emitted just as the
universe became clear after the big bang (3 degree black body
radiation) at the beginning of the current kalpa, a molecule of my
cheek and a free nucleus of the superheated plasma fifteen (or so)
billion years ago synchronize together to have that interaction. My
cheek observes that plasma, across fifteen billion years, and both the
observer cell (heated) and the observed plasma (cooled) are
fundamentally changed by that synchronization. Otherwise the
interaction would never occur: my cheek and the early plasma are
effectively exchanging information, and are aligned in such a way as
to have that exchange occur, without the world being deterministic.
This can be no other way, according to the experiments which have been
run over and over in Quantum Physics, looking for any conceivable hole
in Uncertainty Theory.
Buddhism explains this as the Three Existences: the Past, Present and
Future are one and inseparable.
But the Zen Buddhism of Suzuki, which is unclear and requires
acausality to explain itself scientifically, is an utterly distorted
view, and all of the evils that spring from that acausal view come
from that initial misuse of the Buddha's teachings, the dharma, as a
means in the power struggle between the academic/scientific
establishment and the moral/religious establishment at the beginning
of the Twentieth Century.
Zen can be used and abused, precisely because it has, and is, a
distorted view of life. The Buddha's highest and most essential
teaching cannot be misused, because that view of life is not in any
way distinct from life itself.
Verhoeven continues listing Zen Buddhism's unique advantages as a
weapon in Paul Carus' struggle:
'3) Buddhism posited no belief in gods who
could alter the workings of this natural law'
'4) Buddhism was a religion of self- help with
all depending on the individual working out
his/her own salvation'
'5) "Original" Buddhism was seen as the
"Protestantism of Asia," and Buddha as another
Luther who swept away the superstitions and
rituals of an older, corrupted form and took
religion back to its pure and simple origins'
'6) Buddhism presented an attractive personal
founder who led life of great self- sacrifice;
parallels were drawn between Jesus and Buddha as
the inspiration of a personal figure exerted
strong appeal to seekers who had given up on
theology and metaphysics.'
'Thus, Buddhism was packaged and presented in
its most favorable light viz a viz the current
spiritual crisis in the West; and, not
surprisingly, Buddhism seemed immensely reasonable
and appealing to Americans. Darwinism might be
undermining Biblical Christianity, but it only
enhanced Buddhism's standing. '
'In fact, Darwin's theory of evolution, which
struck the most severe blow to the Judeo-
Christian edifice, was taken up as the leading
banner for Buddhist propagation. With Darwin the
concept of evolution became enshrined in the
popular mind. Everything was evolutionary --
species, races, nations, economies, religions, the
universe -- from the micro to the macro. Social
Darwinists even saw evolution operating behind the
vicissitudes of free-market capitalism. As the
constant interaction of stimulus and response in
nature, evolution seemed to match nicely with the
notion of karma -- the cyclical unfolding of
events governed by the law of cause and effect. So
Anagarika Dharmapala could announce in Chicago to
his largely Judeo- Christian audience that "the
theory of evolution was one of the ancient
teachings of the Buddha." As it was in nature (at
least in the new natural world of Darwin), so it
was in the Buddhist universe. '
This was then, and is now, also balderdash. Evolution as put forth by
Darwin in his pre-quantum physics time, has the same deluded view of
causality, and time itself, as that which Suzuki Zen karma requires.
According to Buddhism, life evolves and history happens in certain
ways not because the world follows determinism (is determined), nor
because of the result of a random chain of events (is stochastic,
non-deterministic).
According to Buddhism, life evolves and history happens precisely
because of the Tathagata's single-minded determination. Acting through
the five components of a single individual, the world of living beings
and their environments surrounding that individual, throughout the
three existences of past, present and future in all ten directions
(called "ichinen sanzen" of T'ien Tai). With consistency throughout,
from beginning to end (called "honmatsu kukyo to").
According to the Buddha's highest teaching (Lotus Sutra), You/I/We, in
our absolute inter-connectedness, have come to the same decision that
makes things the way they are, and in no other way. Our current Hell,
at any, and at all moments, is the "Land of Tranquil Light" (Nichiren
Daishonin), also known as the Buddha's Land.
________________________________________________
As Paul Carus and D.T. Suzuki's work at Open Court Publishing, located
at the Hegeler Carus Mansion at LaSalle-Peru, Illinois was completed,
a fiery disaster occurred very close nearby, to mark the event in
history ...
From William Terry's Illinois Times review of Karen Tintori's book
"Trapped",
'If history tells us anything about the world,
it's that we needn't look far for our heroes -- or
our villains. Sometimes it's simply the hour of
day that distinguishes them.'
Indeed, the villains are always proximate in time and place, but never
connected by a simplistic chain of cause and effect. Terry continues:
'In Karen Tintori's Trapped: The 1909 Cherry
Mine Disaster, the afternoon of November 13, 1909,
was the trial, literally by fire, of more than 480
miners who worked for the St. Paul Mining Company
in the newly established Bureau County community
of Cherry, located 15 miles northwest of LaSalle-
Peru. That more than half of the men died in the
mine -- leaving more than 200 widows and at least
500 children fatherless -- suggests the scope of
the tragedy, which is still considered the worst
coal mine fire in the nation's history and its
third worst mining disaster.'
'The name Chernobyl will be forever linked to
a disaster, but Cherry no longer summons up
pictures in the public's imagination. Unlike
Chicago, which rebuilt after the disastrous fire
of 1871, or San Francisco after the 1905
earthquake, Cherry never had a past to glorify or
a future to look forward to, though the rich coal
deposits under its soil could easily have turned
this ethnically diverse community into a prairie
Athens rather than the ghost town it is today.'
'The Cherry miners were Lithuanian, Italian,
French, Scottish, Belgian, German, Irish, Polish,
Greek, Swedish, Russian, and American. The mine
they worked in was the best -- and safest -- of
its kind, equipped with electric lights in the
main thoroughfares, excellent ventilation, and
concrete, brick, and steel construction, a feature
some claimed made it fireproof. And at the time,
the Cherry mine had the largest main shaft in the
country. Miners worked two of three rich veins of
bituminous coal, the farthest of which was nearly
500 feet below the topsoil.'
'The shaft was set on fire by accident when
several hay bales in the second vein got too close
to a kerosene torch, ignited, and couldn't be
extinguished. Small blazes were seldom cause for
concern in the four-year-old Cherry mine, Tintori
tells us, because they were easily -- and
frequently -- put out. Indeed, two hours after the
fateful fire started, miners working in the
farthest vein had not been told about the fire,
simply because management didn't believe the blaze
couldn't be contained. By the time the inferno was
beyond control, it had engulfed the doomed miners'
only means of escape.'
'Underground, the Cherry mine's heroes emerged
-- or failed to emerge. Some were lost trying to
save themselves, others while looking after their
buddies and brothers. Some brave souls dared to
descend into hell to rescue the men and boys whose
wives and sweethearts waited helplessly above
ground, where the black smoke billowed ominously.
Some came back whole; others burned beyond
recognition.'
'Tintori isn't sparing in the details; the
horror and stench of the fire are palpable, and
the carnival-like atmosphere of the rescue
operation is all too familiar. Tintori -- whose
grandfather, John Tintori, survived the Cherry
Mine disaster owing to a well-timed hangover --
does an excellent job setting the stage for the
drama, and delivers a narrative that is both
riveting and heartbreaking. Here's a sample: '
'Men couldn't see the roofing overhead,
they couldn't see the floor. They couldn't
see their hands stretched out in front of
them, frantically groping for a wall. They
could feel their skin stretch taught over
tissue swelling rapidly in the onslaught
of heat. They were sweating and
suffocating and lost, coughing and
vomiting from panic and the smoke.'
'The thunder of fire, the bellow of mules,
the loud staccato reports of heating
cracking rock -- the din reverberated from
every direction. It was diminished only by
the most petrifying clamor of them all, a
rising crescendo of hundreds of voices
shouting, screaming, crying, and praying
in a dozen different languages.'
As the families of the Cherry Mineworkers lived so close to the
Hegeler Mansion, what do you think the chances are that many of the
women worked in various roles for Hegeler, Carus and ultimately, for
Suzuki's cause?
__________________________________________________________
Finally, as Verhoeven writes:
'Suzuki later became the leading exponent of
Zen in the West, when he returned in the 1950s on
a Rockefeller grant to lecture extensively at East
Coast colleges. He influenced writers and
thinkers like Carl Jung, Karen Horney, Erich
Fromm, Martin Heidegger, Thomas Merton, Alan
Watts, and the "beat Buddhists" -- Jack Kerouac,
Alan Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder. Suzuki died in
1966 in Tokyo. His influence in the West was
profound -- making Zen an English word,
translating Asian texts into English, stimulating
a scholarly interest in the Orient among American
intellectuals, and deepening American respect and
enthusiasm for Buddhism. The historian Lynn White
Jr. praised Suzuki as someone who broke through
the "shell of the Occident" and made the West's
thinking global. His introduction to the West came
about through the hands of Paul Carus.'
The corruption of America by Shaku-Suzuki Zen would have many more ill
effects, as we shall come to see ...
__________________________________________________________
This Major Zen Historical Event (MZHE) is being marked by a public
monument, at great expense, thanks to the expenditure of what must
(obviously) be an oversupply of tax dollars to the Republican
Administration of the United States government.
According to the Ottawa Daily Times (same article previously quoted):
http://www.ottawadailytimes.com/news/story.php?storyid=596
'NATIONAL GRANT SPURS RESTORATION'
'A $200,000 matching grant from the National
Park Service is helping to sustain restoration of
the Hegeler Carus Mansion.'
'Awarded through the Save America's Treasures
program, the grant recognizes the historic
significance of the mansion and its educational
importance as a house museum. Thanks to the
efforts of U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller and House
Speaker Dennis Hastert, who championed the mansion
project, the foundation was selected from among
200 applicants seeking funding through the latest
round of the grant program. It is the only
Illinois recipient.'
'"To have the mansion recognized by Congress
as a significant historic resource and to receive
a $200,000 federal grant toward its restoration is
really a high honor for the Hegeler Carus
Foundation and the LaSalle community," said Terri
Switzer, executive director of the foundation.
"This grant will help us resume the mansion
restoration, which has been on hold due to lack of
funds. It's a great start to a concerted fund-
raising effort."'
'"The mansion is a unique treasure that is so
significant it is listed on the National Register
of Historic Places,' said Weller.'
'"It is a century-old masterpiece designed by
a famous architect, and it is the birthplace of a
publishing company that has had an impact the
world over by fostering discussion of eastern and
western philosophies. Part of the Illinois and
Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor, the
mansion is a tourist destination as well.
Restoring this state and national resource is an
important goal."'
It makes you wonder if the Speaker and the Representative are trying
for a new kind of "Hellhouse", like those that some Christian churches
set up on Halloween, except with hot smoky walls, and with every
participant wearing an antique miner's helmet, feeling their way down
the tunnels, heading directly for the horrendous heat and flames
keeping them from the exits and safety ...
__________________________________________________________
My personal view? My view is a tough-minded one, that's for sure.
Although good and evil come from the same source and do the Buddha's
will, and the purpose of the corruption of America is ultimately to
overcome that same evil, so it is a necessary evil for a bright future
... the view of faith in the Lotus Sutra ...
I know which side I'm on, and it's not the side of Zen and its
incumbent evils.
I do not, in even the slightest way, want anyone in the past, present
of future ever to perceive my words in any view to celebrate in the
smallest way, anything ever done by D.T. Suzuki, or any influence he
may have had, anywhere.
My suggestion to the U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, and
U.S. Representative Jerry Weller, is to spend my tax money on
something else.
And to the National Park Service? The next time you want to set some
preventative fires in the LaSalle-Peru area of Illinois?
RAIZE THE HEGELER CARUS MANSION UNTIL NOT ONE STICK IS LEFT, NOR ONE
STONE STANDS UPON ANOTHER !!!
____ Epilog _______________________________________
The Buddha's highest teachings were the purpose of the Buddha's advent
on this earth.
The Buddha did not appear on this earth to drain people's compassion
with discussions of the emptiness and meaninglessness of life which is
just a void.
The Buddha did not appear on this earth to teach people to live in
such a narrow and momentary way, that there would be no context for
self-examination and conscience.
The Buddha did not appear on this earth to possess people's minds with
such illogic as to befuddle their ability to choose correctly between
what is good and what is evil.
The Buddha did not appear on this earth to teach people how to commit
atrocities and genocide, in the exploration of their "infinite
possibilities", or "new states of being".
The Buddha did not appear on this earth to teach people how to maim
and kill with their hands efficiently, quietly, loudly, with increased
terror inflicted, or to maximize their subjugation to control the
public sentiments for political ends.
These are all profoundly evil distortions of the Buddha's true
teachings, which introduce infinities in the variables holding good
and evil, removing all shades of gray in the propositional calculus of
value.
Simply stated, the Buddha made his advent on this earth with the
purpose of teaching the compassionate way of the bodhisattva, which is
at the heart of the true entity of all phenomena, which is the eternal
Buddha at one with the eternal Law. Which is how to navigate the sea
of sufferings of birth, aging, sickness and death. He originally set
out on his path, because of his observation of the sufferings of
common people and wanting to understand the source of those sufferings
(enlightened wisdom) and how to transform those sufferings into
unshakable happiness (enlightened action).
When you embrace the void, your initial intent to bring enlightenment
and understanding to your life doesn't matter ... the result is always
the same: chaos and misery, and utter ruination and emptiness to you,
your family, and your country.
But things don't have to be that way ...
___________________________________________________
Nichiren Daishonin writes (Encouragement to a Sick Person, WND p. 78):
"During the Former and Middle Days of the Law, the
five impurities began to appear, and in the Latter
Day, they are rampant. They give rise to the great
waves of a gale, which not only beat against the
shore, but strike each other. The impurity of
thought has been such that, as the Former and
Middle Days of the Law gradually passed, people
transmitted insignificant erroneous teachings
while destroying the unfathomable correct
teaching. It therefore appears that more people
have fallen into the evil paths because of errors
with respect to Buddhism than because of secular
misdeeds."
Because Bodhidharma discarded the Buddha's highest teaching (the Lotus
Sutra), and due to his lazy nature turned to shortcuts to
enlightenment, he came to the distorted view that life is acausal and
empty, that the true entity is the void.
This erroneous view really comes from a misunderstanding of the Sutra
of Immeasurable Meanings, where the True Entity is described by
negation (the only way it can be): "... neither square, nor round,
neither short, nor long, ..."
The description of the True Entity is logically voidal, but the True
Entity itself is not. Bodhidharma was simply confused, due to the
slander of negligence (laziness), and false confidence. The truth of
life is that at the heart of the True Entity is the compassion of a
bodhisattva for others.
Non-substantiality does not mean empty. Life has value. Humans are
respectworthy. There is a purpose to everything. And every cause has
an effect, so we are responsible for our thoughts, words and deeds.
Zen is acausal. Zen is the greatest poison, which compares to the even
greater medicine of the Lotus Sutra.
Suffice it to say: the purpose of Zen in the world is to corrupt and
undermine everything that is not based upon the truth and the true
teaching. All religions, disciplines, institutions and organizations
which are undermined by Zen will eventually fall after glaring
revelation of their worst defects, sooner rather than later.
If there is some good in your family, locality, society and culture,
or country that you would like to retain, then cease the Zen, and
begin to apply the medicine of the Lotus Sutra to heal the Zen wound
in your life.
"Zen is the work of devilish minds." - Nichiren
-Chas.
a prescription for the poisoned ones:
The only antidote for the toxic effects of Zen in your life ...
be that from Zen meditation, or the variant forms: physical
Zen in the martial arts, Qigong, Acupuncture, Falun Gong,
Copenhagen Convention of Quantum Mechanics, EST,
Landmark Education, Nazism, Bushido, the Jesuits,
Al Qaeda, or merely from having the distorted view that life
is acausal, and that the true entity of all phenomena
is the void ...
with the effects of the loss of loved ones, detachment,
isolation or various forms of emptiness in your life ...
is the Lotus Sutra: chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo
at least 3 times, twice a day, for the rest of your life,
in at least a whisper ...
and if you can, chant abundantly in a resonant voice !!!
The full 28 Chapters of the Lotus Sutra (and many other
wonderful things) are online at the SGI website:
http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/library/Buddhism/LotusSutra/index.html
__________________________________
LS Chap. 2, Stanza 8.30
At that time the Buddha addressed Shariputra, saying, "Stop, stop!
There is no need to speak further. If I speak of this matter, then the
heavenly and human beings throughout the worlds will all be astonished
and doubtful."
Shariputra once more spoke to the Buddha, saying, "World-Honored One,
we beg you to preach! We beg you to preach! What is the reason?
Because this assembly of countless hundreds, thousands, ten thousands,
millions of asamkhyas of living beings in the past have seen the
Buddhas; their faculties are vigorous and acute and their wisdom is
bright. If they hear the Buddha preach, they will be capable of
reverent belief."
This anthology:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=author:u9v8w7x6y5%40aol.com+