On the Embalming Fluid of Orthodoxy

Last updated on: November 8, 2014 at 11:42 am by Dosho Port

On the Embalming Fluid of Orthodoxy 2014-11-08T11:42:33-06:00 Dosho Port

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

To the left you see Sengai’s wonderful rendition of the old masters Linji and Mazu. Are they embalmed or ruggedly themselves?

And what’s it matter, anyway?

James Myoun Ford and his Monkey Mind has this recent blog: ON ASPECTS OF THE REFORMATION OF SOTO ZEN BUDDHISM IN NORTH AMERICA.

In this post, James gives a brief history of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and one of the central issues that the organization is dealing with now – standards for the training of priests before dharma transmission and the sticky issue of how to assess whether those standards have been met.

I shared James’ post on Facebook and got some “comments,” one by an old friend who said he smelled the “embalming fluid of orthodoxy” in the piece. Love the phrase!

Now the smell could just be James (note to reader: that’s said with great love). Or there might be an issue here that deserves some attention – to be free of forms or free within them?

James writes in an email, “As an observer of the Zen scene in the west for [the] past four decades, I am concerned about public perceptions of our project. It is largely informed by a romantic view ginned up from our beginnings by Alan Watts and others who were creating an anarchic spirituality, deeply individualistic, and anti-authoritarian, flavored with bits and pieces of koan literature highlighting spontaneity and erratic behaviors, and calling it Zen.”

I’m reminded, for example, of Linji’s famous “true person of no rank” and how that is often interpreted as supporting being free from organization and orthodoxy … and ethics and accountability. Dogen addresses this in SPEAKING OF MIND, SPEAKING OF ESSENCE: “The total expression by Linji is ‘a person with no rank,’ but he has not expressed ‘a person with rank.’”

The person of rank has limited freedom, caught in role, caught in the idea of self and Zen. How can you be free while tethered by rank?

On the other hand, the practice of a person with no rank has limited portability. How do you practice in the ordinary world of up and down, in and out, near or far, employment or unemployment? And if your personal style leans way into the “no rank” rank, then unemployment might be all too familiar to you.

In my view, we large-brained primates are social animals. Organization and orthodoxy are essential aspects of our success. At the same time, we are free and wild and those too are essential aspects of our success. For these two foci to engage in intimate conversation is a way of living a whole life and for an organization to be free of itself.

In the Japanese forms of Zen, I find an embodied expression of these foci. For the monastic, much of the day and night is ruled by the schedule and how to move within it, including meticulous detail about how to wear the robes, stand, sit, walk, use the toilet, sleep … you name it. Then the bell rings for dokusan and all hells breaks out. The practice then is to run with wholehearted, wild abandon to the dokusan line.

Those moments of breaking the forms are so important to maintaining the forms. They’re like the inhalation and exhalation or the back and front foot in walking.

How the intimate conversation between the foci of true person of no rank and true person of rank plays out now and here in our global culture is not yet clear.

What is clear is that it’s now up to us.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 1, 2014

On Putting Unitive Awareness to Work in an Online Community

Next Post

November 18, 2014 Top Ten Issues for Zen Today

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 December 2016 October 2016 June 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group is known for door-to-door evangelism?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Pentecostals Catholics Baptists Jehovah’s Witnesses