Down with bourgeois racism and the misrepresentation of Chinese Ch’an Buddhist culture!
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Down with bourgeois racism and the misrepresentation of Chinese Ch’an Buddhist culture!
Occasionally, the Ch’an Records indicate that monastics on occasion learned from enlightened members of the lay community. Never take on airs and graces, because a vagrant living under a bridge might well be another Vimalakirti.
Master Xu Yun patiently listened to the argument of these monks (that he viewed as ‘heretical’), and then banged his hand on the table and firmly stated that without the following of the Vinaya Discipline of Indian Buddhism, there can be no authentic ‘Chinese’ Buddhism.
This time period saw the Rinzai and Soto actively deny their Chinese cultural roots, and support the government’s anti-China policies. This coincided with the Rinzai and Soto Zen traditions ‘abandoning’ the Vinaya Discipline for ordained monks and nuns because it was viewed as both ‘Indian’ and ‘Chinese’, and therefore ‘un-Japanese’ in nature. This abandoning of the Vinaya Discipline marks a significant deviation of the Japanese Zen tradition from its Chinese Ch’an origin.
However, the racism of UKIP and the Green Party aside, (I have written elsewhere about this), we were able to short-circuit the far-right love-in that the Herald Express has in the area, by turning-up with our Red Flag and representing the truly leftwing politics that has given rise to, and sustained the anti-austerity movement across the length and breadth of the UK. It is the far-right supporting people of Torbay that are out of step with the rest of the country (and with history). The insularity of the place has produced centuries of apathy in the minds of the majority of primarily good local people, as they are continuously abused and oppressed by the local government and its media. The Red Flag of Socialism was flown proudly throughout the 8.29 miles of the march from Brixham to Torquay.
This delusion has stained the mind for a very long time, and is the basis and driving force of the continuous cycle of life and death. This why it is often not possible for delusion to be wiped-out immediately, and why the Ch’an training requires certain prerequisite (and supportive) practices to