Stuart Lachs: Critical Commentaries
One of the most perceptive critical voices on modern western Zen/Chan, Stuart Lachs has again given us another in-depth look at an important characteristic of contemporary Zen Buddhism: hagiography. His voice comes out of decades of immersion in Zen Buddhism, giving him an inside view that few, if any, other scholars can claim. Like a magician revealing the "magic" of his acts, Mr. Lachs brings us closer than most dare to the primitive psychological forces that are shaping the nature of Zen Buddhism in the West, forces that have endured for thousands of years because of their ability to pervade our subconscious without fear of detection. Only an awakened mind can see into the nature of "the beast" and have the courage to examine it, address it, and shout it out; for the very nature of Zen requires that we delve into every nook and cranny, expose whatever we find, and use whatever we learn to help others see what they might otherwise miss.
The articles coming from the keystrokes of Mr. Lachs are likely to garnish as much praise as condemnation for their controversial nature. But love them or hate them, his perspectives are fresh and valuable and may help shape Buddhism globally in a healthy direction, which brings us all closer to living fully awakened lives.
Most people think of Zen as being iconoclastic, anti-authoritarian, simple, direct, and unattached. Its raison d'etre is to produce people who possess a fundamental insight into life, people who are not fooled by appearances or ideas. The fact is that almost everything about Zen's presentation, ...
Establishing Hierarchy in Ch'an/Zen Buddhism in America
Ch'an/Zen Buddhism has become widely accepted in the West during the past fifty years. At the head of Zen institutions sits the person of the Master/roshi. Through the mechanisms of sectarian histories, ritual performance, a special language, ...
Zen Buddhism became widely known in America through D. T. Suzuki's writings, which promoted a non-traditional, modernist interpretation of Zen. Suzuki was a Japanese writer and intellectual who had experienced Zen training as a layman, and who, writing in the nationalistic intellectual climate of ...
Modern day Zen masters/roshi, while enjoying the decided advantage of being part of a tradition that imputes to them quasi-divine qualities, suffer the disadvantage of living in an age of widespread information. Thus, while the image of the Zen masters of the past bask in the unquestioned glow of ...
Following is a summation of the extraordinary story, as explicated in the Aitken letters, of a Zen master teaching in America for some 35 years, who has been accused of sexual misconduct numerous times and yet was never called to task nor properly investigated. A thorough, open and public inquiry ...
This paper takes a critical look at recently published biographies of two modern day Chan/ Zen teachers in America. The popular American magazine “Tricycle: A Buddhist Review” printed both biographies, making them widely available to the diverse American Buddhist communities and the interested ...
Hua-tou is a Chinese term that can be translated as “critical phrase”. In Korean, hua-tou is pronounced hwadu and in Japanese as wato. I mention this in case some one has read or heard the term in a Korean or a Japanese context to know we are discussing the same subject. The hua-tou is a kind ...
There are two different ways of understanding and actually practicing Zen. These two different ways are termed in Chinese pen chueh and shih-chueh respectively. The term pen chueh refers to the belief that one’s mind is from the beginning of time fully enlightened, while shih-chueh refers to the ...