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{"id":1880,"date":"2013-06-27T14:47:23","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T20:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?p=1880"},"modified":"2013-06-27T14:53:47","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T20:53:47","slug":"1880","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/06\/1880.html","title":{"rendered":"Zen in America and Exclusive Humanism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This comes up for me today as I prepare for the Zen Priest Home-Leaving: Spirit, Principles, and Possibilities <\/em>workshop at the Boundless Way Temple, coming up in a couple weeks.<\/p>\n

What are some of the differences between American Zen and it\u2019s predecessors in Asia, particularly Soto Zen?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an emphasis here on mindfulness and moral precepts, of course, but I\u2019m not going there today.<\/p>\n

Where I will go, ever so briefly, is to the exclusive humanism dimension to our practice that may be unique in human history (that\u2019s from Hondo \u2013 see below).<\/p>\n

What is \u201cexclusive humanism?\u201d<\/p>\n

I recently watched a presentation of Zen form on YouTube, where the presenter says that the forms of our practice \u2013 clothing, sitting, bowing, bells, and chanting \u2013 are there to support our practice. That\u2019s exclusive humanism.<\/p>\n

Practice is all about us?<\/p>\n

If the forms are seen as being there to support me, then they appear rather arbitrary. I might not feel all that supported about bowing or sitting in accord with the traditional instructions. If it\u2019s all about me, why don\u2019t I just do it my way?<\/p>\n

Maybe it depends on who or what the support is coming from. If the support is coming from me doing something and going to me \u2026 well, again, it\u2019s all about me. Exclusive humanism.<\/p>\n

Another view is that we are here to preserve the buddhadharma for the helpless ones of the future and part of how we do that is to let go of our incessant self obsession and just wear the robe, just sit, just bow, just become the koan. Just for a moment or two now and then.<\/p>\n

For another aspect of this see this excellent post<\/a> by Hondo Dave over at No Zen in the West<\/em>. Here\u2019s a taste:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the best human life is one marked by exclusively human flourishing, then bodhisattva practice is about improving human lives with reference only to human lives\u2013making sure people are fed and clothed, that our illnesses are treated, that we have shelter and community and so on. That we\u2019re happy, as happiness is generally understood. On the other hand, there\u2019s something very deep and very basic in the Dharma that points to the unsatisfactoriness<\/em> of precisely all those things. The First Noble Truth is a pretty serious attack on the \u201cgood\u201d things in a human life\u2013family, friends, work. All of that, a piece of our tradition whispers, is in some way not-enough<\/em>. Even in Zen, we call a priest ordination a home-leaving, right? To mark precisely the fact that even a home, even a happy, stable, loving home, is somehow not the entirety of a life. That there is a source of meaning which is in reference to something else<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"