Zen and the political

Zen and the political in the spirit of Walt Sheasby and Issan Dorsey (some very very rough notes from a talk to the Political Ideas conference, St Catherines College, January 2006)

When the Emperor asked him how much merit he had accumulated through building temples and endowing monasteries, Bodhidharma replied, "None at all."
Perplexed, the Emperor then asked, "Well, what is the fundamental teaching of Buddhism?"
"Vast emptiness, nothing sacred," was the bewildering reply.
"Listen," said the Emperor, now losing all patience, "just who do you think you are?"
"I have no idea," Bodhidharma replied.
With this, Bodhidharma was banished from the Court, and is said to have sat in meditation for the next nine years "listening to the ants scream".

For my own part right glad I am to have got rid of all company, even that of my books. I have taken a private lodging which fronts the sea […] but the air is wonderfully pure and reinvigorating, and you have here at the same time sea air and mountain air. I have become myself a sort of walking stick, running up and down the whole day, and keeping my mind in that state of nothingness which Buddhaism considers the climax of human bliss. (Marx 1987: 241-242)



Zen has been favoured by a host of radicals from the psychologists Erich Fromm, to the anarchist Ken Knabb and beat poet Gary Snyder. Yet unlike the religions of the book, Zen is hostile to texts and provides no equivalent to Islam’s fiqh. Zen has been seen, by critics, as nihilistic and as basis for atavistic militarism.

What is Zen/
Zen is a form of Mahayana Buddhism. It advocates the four noble truths and the pursuit of enlightenment. However it seeks the enlightenment or attainment of ‘Nirvana’ within Samsara the world within which we live. Zen is derived from a traditional story that the Buddha recognised the enlightenment of a follower who was instantly transported by the sight of a flower. Rinzai Zen uses koans, confusing riddles to shock participants into enlightenment, Soto the other principle branch of Zen in Japan, makes use of ‘zazen’ a form of meditation. The concept of wakefulness is all, for example, in zazen eyes are kept half open not shut.

The personal attainment of the present seems all but as a form of Mahayana Buddhism, Zen schools maintains the Boddhissatva principle. The Bodhisstava swears not to enter Nirvana until all other sentient beings have been liberated as well. I think there is some politics in this concept.

Zen was brought from India to China by Bodhidharma, spread to Vietnam and Korea, flowered must impressively in Japan. Buddhism like Christianity and Islam has often functioned as a state religion. Buddhism’s Constantine was the Indian Emperor Asoka, in Japan Buddhism was linked to the state from the medieval. In the Meiji of the 19th century, Zen became overtly nationalistic. Also took on an ideological role in intellectually opposing Christianity. Link between the state and Zen, root of its role in Japanese militarism in Second World War, the Samurai though were not Methodists.

Zen was brought to America as a product of Japanese communities, linked to hippie’s beats and the 20th century green movement. Also Europe, so the Zen group I ‘sit’ with International Zen Association, Taisen Deshimaru a Zen master who was based in France. The transmission of Zen from India to Japan to UK is fascinating, major alternative network to IZA is less Japanese, in fact rather Anglican, Korean Zen can also be found. While I find the IZA excellent, I am not discouraging viewers from sitting with which every network they are happy with!

If you see the Buddha on the road….

Within all networks and cultural contexts, texts are used but are of secondary importance, intellectual effort is seen as a potential barrier to practice. It’s a religion that is sceptical of its own narratives, the existence or non existence of deity is not part of the Zen problematic. Difficult to see what difference it would make to the practice of zen if the patriarchs or the Buddha were revealed as fictional characters.

One point of interest is the illustrative effect a study of Zen and the political has. Western politics is derived from legal texts, fundamentally rooted in the peoples of the book. From Derrida’s fascination with writing to suggestions of Consevative hierarchy based on god given right, to supposed escatological theology within Anarchism and Marxism, the mere consideration of a different tradition reminds us of how our political assumptions may in the West have explicit Judeo-Christian or Islamic roots.

Ethics are secondary and so are legal systems within Zen. The point is practice to live in the world not beyond it. Zen rejects teleology, there is in fact nowhere to go, just here. In turn it has no place for dualism. I suppose to remark that something is secondary within Zen is to introduce dualism!

Zen might be seen as anti-intellectual but this is not quite the case. Over intellectualisation can be seen as preventing practice, Judeo-christain religions are intimately based on words, narratives and books, Zen notes that texts at the very best point the way.

Zen ecology and economics.
Zen rejects progress, seeking perfection in the moment, well at least it seeks the moment. Erich Fromm has most explicitly linked Zen to ecological and socialist politics particulary in To have or to be? Marshall Sahlins noted,
There are two possible courses to affluence. Wants may be "easily satisfied" either by producing much or desiring little. The familiar conception […] based on the concept of market economies- states that man's wants are great, not to say infinite, whereas his means are limited, although they can be improved. Thus, the gap between means and ends can be narrowed by industrial productivity, at least to the point that "urgent goods" become plentiful. But there is also a Zen road to affluence, which states that human material wants are finite and few, and technical means unchanging but on the whole adequate. Adopting the Zen strategy, a people can enjoy an unparalleled material plenty - with a low standard of living […] Modern capitalist societies, however richly endowed, dedicate themselves to the proposition of scarcity. Inadequacy of economic means is the first principle of the world's wealthiest peoples.

The market-industrial system institutes scarcity, in a manner completely without parallel. Where production and distribution are arranged through the behaviour of prices, and all livelihoods depend on getting and spending, insufficiency of material means becomes the explicit, calculable starting point of all economic activity. (Sahlins 1972: 1-2)


Zen at war.
The world of Zen was rocked by the publication of Zen at War, by Brian Victoria a Methodist preacher turned Zen priest that revealed that some Zen monks had been enthusiastic war mongers in the Second World War. Most shockingly some of the reformers and modernisers had been overtly militaristic included figures such as DT Suzuki and Kodo Sawi who had been important to the efforts to bring Zen to the West . The Zen message for domestic and occidental audiences suggested bad faith. All this from a religion/practice associated with compassion and peace. There are close parallels to Heidegger controversy.

Engaged Buddhism?

One approach has been to call for socially engaged peaceful Buddhism, a product of Zen masters such as Thich Nhat Hahn. This is a start but the social context of Buddhism must be understood, the very linking of religion to state is perhaps the danger, it then becomes an instrument for domination. Buddhist doctrine but a religion based on doubt can only be transformed into fanatical certainity through strong pressure. The lesson here for engaged Buddhism, in my mind is the importance of the war against sleep. In the same way that John Bellemy Foster’s Marx’s Ecology has produced a green auto-critique of Marxism, revealing green concerns of Marx himself in contrast to the productivism and economism of much 20th century Marxism, the antidote to Zen is more Zen, more doubt, more practice, war against sleep that recognises that social landscapes contain nothing which is eternal.

Zen is practiced by Buddhist, Marxists (I think by Marx himself!), Pagans, Christians, Muslims, etc...the key is to actually do zen rather than theorising about it (nonetheless I think a quick look at its political/ethical questions is necessary)

Finally don't get me on to Therevada monks who support violence in Sri Lanka or the Dali Lama's homophobia!

If you want my take on Islam and politics look at

Some texts

Fromm, E. (1979) To Have or To Be? London: Abacus.
Snyder, G. (1999) The Gary Snyder Reader: Poetary, Prose, and Translations. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint.
Victoria, B. (1998) Zen at War. New York: Weatherhill.