sorry:zen is not religion!make that clear...Jore
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samuraihistory@yahoogroups.comFrom:
scottc_4@...: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:48:17 +0000Subject: [samuraihistory] Samurai and Zen Buddhism
This is a question that A LOT of people new to samurai and Japanese history ask. And, it is a bit of a tricky one. The answer has often been misunderstood, in the West epecially, with many writings that talk about Zen as THE religion of the samurai. There really is no doubt that Zen did have an influence,to what degree is debateable, on the medieval samurai class and Japanese society that still exists to this day. HOWEVER, one should not paint with too broad of a brush and say that Zen was the religion of the samurai. The samurai class was a very religiously diverse group which included almost all schools of Buddhism as well as some that for the most part rejected Buddhism and relied more on Shinto beliefs. The most common religious belief would be, like Japanese society as a whole, some form of Pure Land Buddhism. Pure Land Buddhism is a faith that entrusts future salvation to the Buddha Amida. The belief is that by believing in and chanting the name of Amida Buddha one would be reborn in his Pure Land and be able to learn from the Amida Buddha directly in order to obtain enlightenment. Now to be fair this is a a very simplified exaplination. But, in it we can find why it is so popular. Faith in Amida's compassion for all senient beings allows for a much easier path for the average farmer or warrior that might die any moment on the battlefield. In secord place of common religion would proabably be the Nichiren sect. The BASIC teaching of the Nichiren sect is that having faith in the Lotus Sutra and chanting the name of the Lotus Sutra would lead to salvation. In an attempt to keep it simple I may have glossed over some things, but basically I am trying to show that when you engage in deadly combat as an occupation these schools would provide a more attractive path. One must also remember that medieval Zen was primarily a monastic order, although there certainly were some devout lay practitioners... Also there is generally not the one way mentality as in the West. In Japan, then and nowm it would not be wrong for a believer in the Pure Land or some other school participating in Zen meditation, or Zen influenced arts. While the Nichiren school rejected the practices of other religious faith there was generally nothing wrong with practicing aspects of more than one school of Buddhism as well as practicing Shinto. I am not believer though in the theory that samurai practiced Zen ONLY for a way to culturaly legitimate their power. While I think this is true in some, perhaps many, cases there were also samurai that did follow Zen religiously. As far as Zen in samurai history I think we need to look somewhere in the middle between the two extremes to get closer to the truth. In an attempt to save some space I have left out a ton of stuff that could be written, and at times I feel I went on more then needed. But, my basic point is that one should not think of Zen as THE religion of the samurai, but rather one of many practices that were a part warrior culture during the medieval period.
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