The Important Work of Brian Victoria – Exposing (Fascist) Japan’s Murderous ‘War’ Zen! (13.2.2023)  

The point was that the Zen Establishment in Japan from 1868 onwards pursued a purely right-wing ‘Nationalist’ agenda which included the use of Zen meditation as a form of brainwashing that programmed generations of young Japanese men to ‘kill’ or ‘maim’ the declared (and racially inferior) ‘enemy’ without any psychological or emotional hindrance on their part. This type of corrupted ‘Zen’ turned the Japanese ‘martial arts’ into vehicles of mass murder – and Zen Buddhism into an agency of fascist ideology akin to the Hitlerism pursued within the Nazi German ‘SS’. Following WWII, and particularly following the 1949 Socialist Revolution in China, the US revitalised many elements of the ‘fascist’ Japanese Establishment – particularly ‘Zen’ and the ‘martial arts’ – artificially spreading these attributes throughout the Western world as a means to ‘counter’ and ‘side line’ the presence of the Chinese Overseas population. The US government was of the opinion that ALL Overseas Chinese people were threats to American capitalism and liberal democracy.

The Zen of No Ch’an

Needless to say, the traditional Chinese Ch’an Buddhist – Master Xu Yun – had no formal or informal ties or connections to Japanese Zen Buddhism, and never practised (or advocated others to practice) a Japanese Zen that does not follow the Vinaya Disciple, and which deviates from established Ch’an practice.

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