To: alt.zen
From: scheune@kimbark.uchicago.edu (David Matthew Scheuneman)
Subject: Ripping up zen books; Hui Neng (9408.huineng.dms)
Date: 49940804
Quoting: |unknown

|Ripping up Zen Books sounds like the advice of Hui Neng, the last formal 
|Patriarch in China, who counceled the importance of "cutting out the
|Buddha".  Is not Zen an attachment which too must be given up?

Don't you mean Hui Neng the _first_ patriarch of zen, called the "6th
patriarch" by a guy who wanted to be the 7th patriarch but who was more like
the 2nd?

Much of the present anti-intellectualism of Zen dates back to about the
period of Hui Neng, when there was a backlash against the "Northern School",
which was a scholarly, capital city, Emperial court scene.  The "Southern
School", out in the boon docks, made a name for itself by being 
anti-sophisticated at a time when political power in general was becoming
decentralized.

What comes down to us as scripture can be seen in that context as mere
polemical rhetoric, riding to power on the coat tails of political change.
This is obvious (IMHO) when looked at historically, yet we Americans are
so ready to buy the traditional lines from the official Zen spokespeople.

Don't get me wrong.  I like to put on my black robes and my birkenstocks
(what a great combination!) as much as the next guy.  I just like to think
for myself when I am not-thinking.

--David