Zen at War - Reviewed by Vladimir K.
"Brian Victoria's courageous book, Zen At War, shows another face of Japanese Zen Buddhism, an ugly and disturbing picture of Zen that has stunned and even traumatised many Western Zen teachers and students alike. The book exploded onto the Western Zen scene in 1997 and has been a subject of controversy ever since. Statements of some of Western Zen's most revered teachers and masters, such as D. T. Suzuki, Harada Daiun Sogaku, Yasutani Hakuun and many others, supporting Japanese militarism, nationalism and racism have sent shock-waves through Zen centres throughout the West. A re-evaluation of Zen Buddhism's role in the Japanese wars of the Twentieth Century is long overdue and Victoria's book is but a first step in a long and ultimately painful process of reflection on the meaning of Zen.”
Zen at War
by Brian Victoria
Weatherhill, 1997. 228 pages.
Reviewed by Vladimir K, January 2005
Religion has often disappointed. Whether it has been paedophilic
priests, suicidal Islamic terrorists, temple-burning Hindu
nationalists, Jewish terrorists seeking a homeland, or self-
aggrandising fundamentalist Christian presidents, the misuse of
religious beliefs is starkly apparent in our modern world. Then there
are the blood-soaked pages of history we can turn to with horror and
disbelief at acts of utter barbarity carried out in religion's name.
Buddhism, however, has managed to avoid a reputation for war-
mongering (at least in the West), being seen as a religion of
compassion, peace and self-discovery. Nave perhaps, but we must
remember that Buddhism is just one hundred years old in the West and
was brought by teachers who spoke a different language and came from
a different culture. More importantly, access to original writings
and documents of the various sects of Buddhism were difficult to find
and could only be read by highly trained academics with linguistic
and research skills acquired through years of university studies,
leaving the congregations of lay people at the mercy of whatever
teacher was available and appealed. Missionary work inevitably
presents the best face of religion to bring converts into the fold.
But there is always more, much more, beneath the faade of any
religion.
Brian Victoria's courageous book, Zen At War, shows another face of
Japanese Zen Buddhism, an ugly and disturbing picture of Zen that has
stunned and even traumatised many Western Zen teachers and students
alike. The book exploded onto the Western Zen scene in 1997 and has
been a subject of controversy ever since. Statements of some of
Western Zen's most revered teachers and masters, such as D. T.
Suzuki, Harada Daiun Sogaku, Yasutani Hakuun and many others,
supporting Japanese militarism, nationalism and racism have sent
shock-waves through Zen centres throughout the West. A re-evaluation
of Zen Buddhism's role in the Japanese wars of the Twentieth Century
is long overdue and Victoria's book is but a first step in a long and
ultimately painful process of reflection on the meaning of Zen.
In this review of Victoria's important work I will not give a
detailed outline of the contents as many readers may already be
familiar the book. I do recommend for those unfamiliar with the work
to refer to David Loy's excellent review which gives a more detailed
look at the contents and Fabio Rambelli's review likewise fills in
the details missing in this review. It is enough to say here that Zen
At War describes the unerring and uncritical Buddhist support of
Japanese militarism, colonialism and racism from the Meiji
Restoration in 1868 to the end of the Second World War. Zen masters
twisted and perverted the teachings of the Buddha in an outrageous
manner to spur on the blood-baths of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95),
the Russo-Japanese War (1905-05), the colonisation of Korea,
Manchuria and Taiwan and ultimately the disaster that was the Pacific
war which ended with nuclear annihilation in 1945. It should be
pointed out that it was not just Zen Buddhism that supported the
imperial designs of the Japanese military, but all Buddhist and
Shinto groups throughout Japan gave unswerving and uncritical support
to the militaristic ambitions of the nation. Furthermore, it took the
Soto sect over forty years to issue an apology for its actions. The
Rinzai sect has steadfastly refused to face up to its complicity in
the deaths of millions. Today imperial-way Zen, soldier Zen and
imperial-state Zen is being transformed into 'corporate Zen' as
a"Way of restoring the traditional values of discipline, obedience,
and loyalty to superiors.” (p. 182) The abuse of the Dharma continues.
Brian Victoria's book is not a polemic against Zen Buddhism but a
carefully researched and documented exploration of what the Zen
masters and teachers said and did throughout the period covered (1868-
1945). It is, however, appropriately passionate about the topic. As a
Soto priest and graduate of the Soto-affiliated Komazawa University,
it took considerable courage to write this book but, as he points
out," What constitutes slander of the Buddha Dharma is of course very
much in the eyes of the beholder, or the reader in this case, but I
have done my research and writing on this difficult and disturbing
subject with one thought in mind: truth can never be slander.” (p.
192) In the eyes of this reader, the slander of the Dharma is with
masters and teachers Victoria has quoted.
But should we in the Western Zen community have been so shocked by
what Victoria has revealed about the actions and sayings of the
Japanese Zen teachers? Were there not signs prior to Victoria that
all was not as it seemed in Zen? We put our faith and trust in these
(largely) Japanese teachers and tended to accept whatever was given
to us with a stunning naivety and lack of critical appraisal. The
resultant abuses in Western Zen centres have become well known. (see,
for example, Lachs, 1994 & 1999) That Japanese Zen perverted the
teachings of the Buddha for nationalistic and militaristic purposes
should not be so surprising as the signs were there even for a lay
community which may not have had the resources or skills to delve
deeply into the history of Japan or Zen's role in that history.
Let me explain through a simple example. Throughout Zen At War,
Victoria shows how the Buddhist metaphor of the sword that takes life
and the sword that gives life was perverted to become an apology for
killing. The sword is a well-known metaphor and Manjusri is usually
seen wielding this metaphorical sword. The link between Zen and
swordsmanship was well known long before Victoria's book came out. In
D. T. Suzuki's highly influential and praised Zen and Japanese
Culture, published in 1959 by Princeton University, he wrote:
The sword is generally associated with killing, and most of us wonder
how it can come into connection with Zen, which is a school of
Buddhism teaching the gospel of love and mercy. The fact is that the
art of swordsmanship distinguishes between the sword that kills and
the sword that gives life. The one that is used by a technician
cannot go any further than killing, for he never appeals to the sword
unless he intends to kill. The case is altogether different with the
one who is compelled to lift the sword. For it is really not he but
the sword itself that does the killing. He had no desire to do harm
to anybody, but the enemy appears and makes himself a victim. It is
as though the sword performs automatically its function of justice,
with is the function of mercy...the swordsman turns into an artist of
the first grade, engaged in producing a work of genuine originality.
(cited in Victoria, p. 110)
This stunning insult of Buddhism, which abhors any killing and
teaches that one must take responsibility for one's actions, seems to
have passed by uncritically in Western Zen circles and Suzuki
continued to be revered as an enlightened teacher. (He claimed to
have achieved kensho under the guidance of Soyen Shaku in 1896.
(Fields, 1992:137-138)) Did we in the West not see the utter
immorality of the above? One can only wonder what the millions of
dead victims of Japanese militarism thought about 'making themselves
victims'. According to Suzuki, it was all their fault, not the
soldiers wielding the metaphorical Buddhist swords. To rephrase
America's National Rifle Association (which, I hasten to add, I do
not support in any way) 'swords don't kill people; people kill
people'.
But we knew all this and chose to ignore it. The link between the
samurai spirit of bushido and Zen has been well known for decades but
we never delved deeply into this to try to understand its
implications for nationalism, militarism and death. Even a cursory
understanding of Zen's history should have alerted us to Zen's role
in developing warriors to fight and kill on behalf of others.
Tradition has it that Zen was brought to Japan by Myoan Eisai (1141-
1215) during the Kamakura era (1185-1333) and a popular saying of the
time was," Tendai is for the imperial court, Shingon for the
nobility, Zen for the warrior class, and Pure Land for the masses.”
(Dumoulin,1990:31) Japanese Zen Buddhism has been linked to war and
killing from its earliest days but the Western Zen community
conveniently overlooked this and when Brian Victoria's book exploded
on the scene, shock and horror ensued. But who among us asked our
Japanese teachers," What did you do during the war, Daddy?”
Zen At War asks far more questions than gives answers. The scope of
the book is limited to a certain period of Japanese history but
Victoria acknowledges that"Ichikawa Hakugen and other Japanese
commentators [have] pointed to some longstanding beliefs, doctrinal
interpretations, and practices in Buddhism, and especially in Zen,
that provided the conceptual framework for the emergence of these
adaptations of Buddhism to military uses and ideologies.” (p. 192-
193)
In other words, the signs of Zen's perversion were there long before
the twentieth century wars. This doctrinal history needs further
exploration. In his Epilogue, Victoria raises a few questions which
now demand investigation:
Where and when did these adaptations begin? Were they unique to
Japan, or did they have antecedents that can be traced back to China
or even India itself? Were these adaptations unique either to Zen or
to Mahayana Buddhism in general, or are there parallels in the
history of the Theravada Buddhism as well? And how do these later
adaptations compare with the original teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni,
assuming that it is possible to know what his teachings were? (p.
193)
I would like to add another question: What does Zen enlightenment
mean? Given that 'dropping body and mind' is a fundamental of Zen
practice, what does it really mean if acknowledged enlightened and
revered masters such as Harada Daiun Sogaku, Philip Kapleau's
teacher, or Yasutani Hakuun, who taught Western students such as
Robert Aitken the way of Zen, supported the racist and murderous
policies of the Japanese military? Cultural relativism just won't do.
it's not good enough to just say"Oh, these were difficult times for
all.” Nor should we separate the master's teaching from his actions.
If the source is polluted, the stream that flows from it will
likewise be polluted. Zen's link to militarism goes back to its
earliest days in Japan. One cannot cavalierly dismiss Harada Daium's
call in 1944, when all but the most blind could see that the war was
coming to an end with inevitable defeat for Japan," Be Prepared, One
Hundred Million [Subjects], for Death with Honour!" (p. 138) Where is
the Buddha Dharma when one hundred million are asked to sacrifice
themselves on the bloody alter of nationalism? If enlightened masters
can make such a call, then perhaps we need to re-evaluate what the
term 'enlightened' means.
This is, without a doubt, the most disturbing book on Zen I have ever
read. I thank wholeheartedly Brian Victoria for his courage,
determination and compassion for writing it and recommend it
unreservedly to all Zen students. We can only advance in our practice
by knowing what is right in Zen and what is so horribly wrong in it.
The heart of compassion of Buddhist practice calls for forgiveness
for these misguided teachers; the intellect demands that we in the
West never allow our Zen practice to be perverted in this way; and
the spirit just weeps.
References
Dumoulin, Heinrich (1990) Zen Buddhism: A History,Vol. 2, Japan;
translated by J. W. Heisig & P. Knitter; Macmillan; New York;
Fields, Rick (1992), How The Swans Came To The Lake: A narrative
history of Buddhism in America; Shambala; Boston & London;
Lachs, Stuart (1994) Coming Down from the Zen Clouds;
(1999) Means of Authorization: Establishing Hierarchy in Ch'n /Zen
Buddhism in America
Shri Mataji: "This is where Buddha's Buddhism had ended up.”
Because they talk well people believe. What have they given you? Somebody says they have given us the Knowledge? All right, what Knowledge? What Knowledge have they given you? Knowledge is all mental — what they've got in their awareness where you have to evolve?”
The Paraclete Shri Mataji
The New Age Has Started, Houston, USA
October 6, 1981
"Now what's your religion?”They say," I'm Buddhist.”"What Buddhist - Dinayan, Ganayan, Ambaja?” "I am Zen"- this, that, all kinds of Buddhism is there. Is impossible to understand really where is Buddhism there. So what do these do? One will shave their hair. One will shave their moustache. Another one will wear this kind of a dress. This is the only difference between from one to another. But the common point is that they are all cheats, they all can deceive you, they can tell lies without feeling funny. They are very sly, very cunning and suicidal. They can be very violent and the only desire they have is to kill everybody who comes across. This is where Buddha's Buddhism had ended up.”
The Paraclete Shri Mataji 23 July 1988, San Diego, U.S.A
Buddha Puja
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