At both of the Zen teacher listservs to which I belong there has been a bit of a brouhaha of late around the question of doctrinal purity apparently being enforced at the venerable E-Sangha Buddhist Portal. Started in Singapore the project seems to be mostly in the hands of Tibetan Buddhist practitioners. It’s quite an operation, with many thousands of participants all around the world. All well and good, of course. Them Tibetans is good people in my book, if given a bit more to hoo-hah than I am. I consider these mostly stylistic differences and as they say, some of my best friends practice in one Tibetan tradition or another… The problem, if there is one (and I really don’t know how serious it all is, or if it is serious at all), has arisen because they include a number of listservs for people interested in other forms of Buddhism and it is being alleged by some participants of the Soto Zen listserv that a doctrinal purity code is being enforced. Again, I don’t know, maybe that’s a good thing. The problem, however, is that the doctrinal purity that is alleged to be being enforced is not Soto Zen’s but that of a “conservative” perspective some see as identified with Tibetan Buddhism.
The conflict appears to turn on the question of rebirth.
It is said that at the E-Sangha Zen conversations if one does not believe in rebirth or, depending on who is talking, reincarnation (not actually the same thing), one is said not to be a Buddhist, and such messages that appear to have a view of Buddhism that doesn’t flat out accept rebirth (or maybe reincarnation) will be blocked or deleted and possibly the contributor will be banned from the forum.
As more than one Zen teacher I know has suggested about the doctrine of rebirth and its relative importance to Zen people, is that discussions about rebirth are somewhat like the Buddha’s story of the man with an arrow in him that wants to know on what side of what hill was what particular tree growing from which the arrow was cut – before he would allow the arrow to be removed.
Maybe.
Frankly, I think rebirth and reincarnation are worthy subjects for us to consider.
It’s hard to avoid the deep connection between some understanding of rebirth and the formation of the earliest strata of Buddhist teachings. It is also probably not possible to find an Asian Buddhist culture that doesn’t assume some literal truth to post mortem reanimation of something that in some way can be seen as a continuing “I.” But, I would like to add, with a twist. If you want a pretty good presentation of how this might be understood from a “classical” or at least conventional Tibetan perspective just watch the delightful movie Little Buddha.
The catch is that some significant number of Western Zen Buddhists at the very least fall into the who gives a flying f… about the philosophy of the arrow; let’s pull it out, now! It seems to me the majority of Western Zen Buddhists probably, if pushed, would say they’re agnostic on the subject of rebirth in any literal sense. Almost all, maybe all, have no trouble with noting how we’re reborn every moment…
I’m a liberal Buddhist, to be more accurate I’m a Unitarian Universalist Buddhist; to be most accurate I’m a Unitarian Universalist Zen Buddhist, with Christian inclinations and a rationalist and Humanistic disposition… Ultimately I’m not interested in the names we give to our spiritual lives, although they have a certain if limited utility. I’m interested in noticing there is an arrow sticking out of us. And I’m very interested in how to extract that arrow as quickly as possible with the minimum of collateral damage.
If pushed hard, well it doesn’t have to be too hard; I will say I don’t believe in post-mortem reanimation either to heaven, hell or to another body. And, I have a very clear past-life memory.
So call me agnostic…
And…
This afternoon Jan and I take off for our annual Rohatsu Zen retreat in honor of the Buddha’s enlightenment. Honoring that moment I would encourage all to stop for a heartbeat or two, look within and without, and hopefully notice the arrow.
Then get on with the business of getting the damned thing out!
My two cents on the subject…
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