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Quote by Bernard Faure

“The major contradiction in Suzuki's position, one of which he was acutely aware, is that he negated in actual practice what he advocated in theory, namely, that Zen "is a direct method, for it refuses to resort to verbal explanation or logical analysis, or to ritualism" (Ibid. 3:318).”

Quote by Bernard Faure

Book:Chan Insights and Oversights

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Chan Insights and Oversights

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“Suzuki also liked to compare Zen to Western philosophy, to Zen's advantage: "The philosopher according to whom cogito ergo sum is generally weak-minded. The Zen master has nothing to do with such quibbles" (Suzuki 1970, 408). We may also question the accuracy of his understanding of Western philosophy. If Meister Eckhart, despite (or because of) his undeniable spirituality, cannot be said to represent the entire Christian tradition, neither can the intellectualist strain emphasized by Suzuki be said to represent the entire Western philosophical tradition. From the pre-Socratics, Socrates and the Stoics, all the way to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, philosophy was a path of self-transformation, not merely the intellectual pastime that Suzuki describes.”

Philosophy Zen Suzuki

Book:Chan Insights and Oversights

Source: Chan Insights and Oversights

“Despite his nativist tendency, Suzuki relied heavily on the categories of nineteenth-century Orientalism. He simply inverted the old schemas to serve his own purposes to present Zen as the source and goal of all mystical experiences.”

Zen Orientalism Suzuki

Book:Chan Insights and Oversights

Source: Chan Insights and Oversights

“With Suzuki, the commonsensical approach that would see Zen as a product of Japanese culture is inverted, and Japanese culture becomes a multifaceted expression of a unique phenomenon, or rather of a metaphysical principle named Zen.”

Zen Japanese Culture

Book:Chan Insights and Oversights

Source: Chan Insights and Oversights

“Although some religious traditions may promote inner detachment vis-à-vis political systems, most religions tend to be politically conservative and nationalistic and Zen has been no exception in this regard.”

Religion Politics Zen

Book:Chan Insights and Oversights

Source: Chan Insights and Oversights

“If there is some truth in the Zen dictum that the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon, then it follows that the notion of pure experience is by no means the pure experience itself. Assuming that such an experience can be found, any attempt to characterize it, even the least reifying one, will betray it.”

Zen Pure Experience

Book:Chan Insights and Oversights

Source: Chan Insights and Oversights

“As it is known to us through East Asian sources, Chan/Zen is the product of two traditions that sometimes overlap, sometimes contradict or ignore each other: namely, the Buddhist orthodoxy the Sino-Japanese historiographical tradition.”

Book:Chan Insights and Oversights

Source: Chan Insights and Oversights

“Although Hīnayāna disciplines and traditions continue to exert their influence in the daily activities of Vietnamese Buddhists, Zen comes closest to expressing the Vietnamese character, and as such, their attitude in all walks of life can best be described as a “Zen outlook.”

Zen Vietnamese Buddhism

Book:Buddhism & Zen in Vietnam: In Relation to the Development of Buddhism in Asia

Source: Buddhism & Zen in Vietnam: In Relation to the Development of Buddhism in Asia

“As Zen is a discipline and not a philosophy, it directly deals with life; and this is where Zen has developed its most characteristic features.”

Book:The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk

Source: The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk

“To regard Zen as a form of asceticism and nothing more will be a grievous mistake. What Zen aims at is to reduce the claims of the body to a minimum in order to divert their course to a higher realm of activities. To torture the body is not its object, nor is it its object to gain merit and thereby to lay one's fortune in heaven.”

Book:The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk

Source: The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk

“What properly constitutes the study of Zen in the Zendo life is to study on the one hand the writings or sayings or in some cases the doings of the ancient masters and on the other to practise meditation. This practising is called in Japanese to do zazen, while the studying of the masters consists in attending the discourses given by the teacher of the Zendo known as Rōshi.”

Book:The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk

Source: The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk