Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Wild Fox Zen

Home
Buddhist
Zen in Fantasyland

Zen in Fantasyland

Last updated on: January 25, 2022 at 8:06 pm by Dosho Port

Zen in Fantasyland 2022-01-25T20:06:40-06:00 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.

download

A few weeks ago we were talking about koan. A guy who was new to the center but who seemed to have been practicing for a while on his own, suddenly interjected, “You mean there are right answers? Isn’t a koan about what I or anybody sees in it as true?”

Good question. I’ll come back to that.

First, I want to tell you about Kurt Andersen’s Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History. In a word, sobering. If you are looking to be uplifted about American Exceptionalism – not the book for you. From Andersen’s perspective, we are exceptionally deluded. If you are looking to understand where the heck this haywire Trump era came from – this is the book for you.

According to Andersen, the source of our American propensity for fantasy in religion, health care, self-identity, politics, you name it, goes way back to Luther, that old guy who happened to be at the right place at the right time. People were fed up with the Catholic hierarchy’s identity with the aristocracy and the printing press was just coming online in Europe.

Luther, says Andersen, “…insisted that clergymen have no special access to God or Jesus or truth. Everything a Christian needed to know was in the Bible. So every individual Christian believer could and should read and interpret Scripture for him- or herself. Every believer, Protestants said, was now a priest (emphasis added).”

Andersen summarizes the Protestant movement like this: “I believe, therefore I am right.”

Fast forward through 500 years and you’ve got a culture of fantasy. And Andersen’s Fantasyland is quite a wild ride through loops of the wild mind – that includes the American right, left and center. Pilgrims, Mormons, healers, log-cabined politicians – you name it. In pursuit of truth and clarity, Andersen is truly an equal opportunity hater.

What’s that got to do with Zen? Here we are on the American fringe flirting with becoming acceptable in Fantasyland. One might hope that the Zen emphasis on direct experience might have somewhat of a corrective influence in Fantasyland. However, the influence probably runs both ways.

An example, a suggestion, and a plea

One of the ways Fantasyland shows up in our practice is in meditation teaching credentials (see, for example, my “Enlightenment in Dispute: Standards for Zen Teachers Now and Then”). There is a burgeoning group of folks in Trumpland that are teaching meditation, including Zen, with the unspoken credential, to paraphrase Andersen about Protestantism, “I believe I’m a meditation teacher, therefore I am.”

Or maybe, “Because there is no self, I might was well spin a compelling story about my credentials.”

One person has claimed out loud that they didn’t have the time or money to get appropriate training, but they feel in their heart like a Zen teacher, and therefore they are. Well, they also found someone who saw “something” in them and authorized them. I wonder if either of these people would go to a heart surgeon or a dentist with a similar credential.

A friend recently emailed, “…Essentially, I think at some point there is going to have be a credentialing mechanism in Zen. The way in which freedom of thought and speech has come to be the right to believe anything you want regardless of evidence to the contrary (e.g., climate change deniers) and the right to promote oneself as whatever one wishes – i.e., my spiritual insight is as good as anybody’s so….”

So one aspect of Zen in Fantasyland is wanton bio inflation. It’s become one of the most prevalent forms of creative expression in Zen.

Suggestion: no need to say you studied Zen in Europe if your whole experience in Europe was a few days at Plum Village in the 80’s.

So here’s the plea

Zen teachers and practitioners: How about instead of running fast and loose with bios that inflate our experience and training (the Fantasyland standard), we apply a right-speech and humility standard and keep our bios as close to the ground of reality as possible?

And that leads back to the koan issue

“That” being “freedom of thought and speech has come to be the right to believe anything you want.”

“You mean there are right answers? Isn’t a koan about what I or anybody sees in it as true?”

Yes and no. Koans as spiritual stories are a wonderfully rich part of our human inheritance. Anybody who wishes can dig in and see what’s there for them.

Koan training, though, is a different process, requiring

a qualified teacher (someone who has worked through the koan curriculum with a qualified teacher and received their authorization),
a student who is up for the focus, transparency, and follow-through necessary for the koan journey,
and a teacher-student relationship.

There is a rich and living tradition of koan work that can only be experienced within the above framework. This kind of koan training is not a “one-man or one-woman show.” And within the context of this work, we entangle our eyebrows with all those who have gone before us, seeing with the same eyes, hearing with the same ears.

Within the koan training tradition, there are responses to koan that are in alignment with the tradition and responses that are not, also known as right and wrong answers. Sometimes, wrong answers are powerful and important. For the koan student, though, the process is to let go of self clinging and see the koan as the awakened ones in the Zen tradition have seen it.

Across generational relationships is a wonderful treatment for fantasy.

Uncategorized

Fantasyland

Zen

Zen teaching credentials

Previous Post

October 25, 2017

Long-Distance Train: Remembering Beginning Zen Forty Years Ago

Next Post

November 6, 2017 Birth, Death and Intimate Self Knowledge

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 does the name "Samuel" mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Gifted by God Heard by God Saved by God Sent by God