A Small Day

What I would like to stress first is that these are just my views that I am presenting here. I have not studied the state of Zen in Japan, nor have I been to Japan. But as a practicing Zen Buddhist for over 3 decades I have noticed a few clues emerging. These are what my views are based upon.

Zen, in Japan, is one of the society’s major religions. Just as so many people in this country would identify with being Christian, so do people in Japan identify with being Buddhist. But just what did these people identify with when they thought of themselves as Buddhists? It was not the monk who spent several hours a day practicing on the cushion, just as when we think of being a Christian one does not immediately identify oneself with a monk in his monastery.

When one thinks of being a Christian, frequently it is that one goes to Church and listens to the sermon. Being a Buddhist in that kind of culture does not mean that you are striving to attain enlightenment any more than your average Christian is trying to have a vision of God. In these kinds of cultural situations, one just tries to go along with what the religious leaders tell you to do in order to be a “good” Buddhist (or Christian).

The next point to mention is that the Zen Temples in Japan have been around for hundreds of years. But, even with the most highly enlightened Zen Master, there is no guarantee that the students will also be highly enlightened. And yet when a Zen Master passes on, he names a successor, even among the less enlightened students if need be. While it is true that one could refuse to name a successor, who would choose to forsake ones students so, or choose to end the line of linage there. Such are the ways of people. And such are the ways that good Buddhists are named as Zen Master, even though they not be what one might think of as truly being the ultimate, a Zen Master.

Perhaps more than one Temple might have had a not-so-accomplished student succeeding as Zen Master because the choice of closing the Temple and thus cutting off the lay practitioners would have been a worse choice. So, over the course of time it is easy to see that the quality of Zen teachers could have degraded in some locals. Therefore, some “Zen Masters” may have played a quite necessary functionary role in the community (as the Christian priest plays a role in the Christian community), but it wasn’t necessary for them to be a Buddha to play that role.

I’m not saying that there are no real Zen Masters in Japan, its just that we should not assume that the head of a temple (someone who might be called Zen Master in title) is truly a Zen Master as we commonly would like to think the term means, a fully enlightened personage.

Consider some of these comments made by an American visiting Japan a few years ago:
“All Zen monasteries still practice Zazen at around 4-am and around 6-8pm. This means that most of the Working Japanese people can not participate in that Zazen sitting periods.” And “Sundays and Sesshin are currently the only times laymen can practice in most places. Some places host one or two meeting a month for sitting Zazen.” And “It is very fine and nice if you want to experience the unique spiritual and cultural atmosphere of the Zen monasteries, but if you want to find true teacher, you must distinguish between Zen priests and Zen teachers. Most of the priests are not Zen teachers. Even if they are the abbots of their temples.”