Zen and 'cultural studies' group-think

C. Jacqui Chen jacqui_chen at juno.com
Thu Sep 2 03:03:22 EDT 1999


I wish to thank Joss for his very informative re-posting. This has
reminded me of Oshima Nagisa's now-defunct project,  "Hollywood Zen",
which was to be a biopic on Sessue Hayakawa. Although the film never
materialized, its title clearly suggests a perpetuation of a certain idea
of "zen" as somehow synonymous with a certain idea of "Japanese-ness"
framed simply by its existence in the west.

As for Koreeda's "Afterlife": phew! what a movie! Aside from its
intriguing use of documentary technique to convey ideas of memory, film,
identity...., I found it interesting that young and stoic-looking (read:
cool) actors are chosen to carry the weight of a film that deals with
death and mostly the elderly. Although youth certainly does not escape
death, the photogenic leads strangely give the film a rather detached
feeling simply due to what their attractive appearances signify. It is an
exhilarating experience as far as self-reflexive filmmaking is concerned,
although the concept of "heaven" in Afterlife seems imposed by the
subtitles and altogether absent from the intended story.

Jacqui Chen

On Wed, 01 Sep 1999 07:33:55 +0900 "Joss Winn" <josswinn at iname.com>
writes:
> I am reminded that about 18 months or so ago, I posted two long 
> replies to
> 'What is a Zen Movie'.  I post them here again for your convenience.
> 
> Joss Winn
> 
> Subject: Re: inq: What's a Zen movie?
> 
> Hello, my name is Joss Winn and I'm a graduate student at the 
> University of
> Michigan. I study Japanese Buddhism, particularly Zen, and am also a 
> student
> this semester of Prof. Mark Nornes in his Asian Cinema class (highly
> recommended!) I follow the discussions of KineJapan quite closely 
> but
> haven't had much to contribute until now.
> 
> This message is quite long and mostly concerns itself with Buddhism 
> and not
> film. I do think, however, that it is entirely relevant to the 
> question of a
> "Zen movie."
> 
> With regards to "What's a Zen movie?", we first have to ask "what is 
> Zen?"
> There is a habit in the West (I don't know about Japan) to abuse the 
> term
> 'zen' and manipulate it for all manner of enterprises. It has an 
> exotic
> appeal that is consistently taken advantage of. Of course, we talk 
> of 'Zen
> art', so why not 'Zen movies'? Well, it depends on what piece of art 
> we're
> talking about. If it's one of Hakuin's brush paintings, then yes, 
> that is
> certainly art within the Zen Buddhist tradition. It is 'Zen art'. I 
> have no
> problems with the use of the term 'Zen' in instances like this. It 
> is when
> we find such things as 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' 
> and 'Zen
> and the Art of Making Lots of Cash' (I made the last one up but have 
> seen
> these types of books). It is this abuse of the term that has led to 
> the
> quite common remark, "oh, how very Zen!" which, if we examine what 
> Zen
> actually was and still is in most instances, this is an entirely 
> ignorant
> exclamation, drawing not from the Buddhist conception of Zen, but 
> from the
> Western misconception of Zen that has developed over the last 
> century.
> 
> I do not see myself as a Zen purist, nor am I a Zen Buddhist, 
> although I
> have spent a brief period in Japan training at a Ryutakuji, a Rinzai 
> Zen
> monastery in Shizuoka-ken. I also attended regular 'sittings' and 
> retreats
> at a Zen temple in London for a few years, so I have had some 
> contact with
> the tradition beyond books. However, it is to books that we should 
> turn if
> we want to understand the historical development of the Western 
> conception
> of 'Zen'. I think if we do this, it will allow us to consider 
> whether a 'Zen
> Movie' is possible, and if so, what would it be like?
> 
> The introduction of Zen in Europe and the USA is due almost entirely 
> to the
> efforts of DT Suzuki, a name that many people are familiar with. 
> Suzuki
> wrote dozens of books on Zen in English and provided the foundations 
> for
> both the popular and scholarly understanding of Zen in the West 
> today.
> However, in the last decade, Suzuki's works have come under 
> considerable
> criticisim for presenting an entirely twisted sense of the Zen 
> tradition's
> history, doctrine and practice.
> 
> Suzuki's presentation of Zen rests largely on his position as a 
> scholar
> during the Meiji and Taisho periods. If we read his works they 
> present the
> essence of Zen as an experience of 'satori'or 'enlightenment'. 
> (There is a
> problem with talking about an 'essence' in Buddhism which, 
> doctrinally,
> argues there is no essence to anything-so how come, for Suzuki, 
> their is an
> 'essence of Zen'?) This over emphasis on satori has been shown, 
> quite
> convincingly, to derive from Suzuki's position as a Meiji Buddhist 
> scholar.
> 
> During the Meiji period, Buddhism was severely persecuted for being 
> a
> foreign tradition while the State were attempting to emphasise the
> indigenous Shintoism as the national ethic. In response, Buddhist
> institutions realised the need for reform and began to promote a new 
> type of
> Buddhism, one that was no longer the rich land-owning and rather 
> stagnant
> tradition that it had become, but rather a vibrant tradition that 
> was
> immediately relevant to everyone. Part of their efforts were 
> directed
> towards establishing private Buddhist Universities in order to 
> compete with
> the new State universities. As a result of this, a new form of 
> scholarship
> was born: Japanese Buddhology. (Interestingly, it is now the largest 
> body of
> scholarship on Buddhism in the world). This scholarship followed the
> Japanese model of Buddhism as being highly sectarian (in no other 
> Buddhist
> country are different forms of Buddhism defined in terms of their
> institutional history-usually,in other countries, all types of 
> belief and
> practice can found within a single monastic copmpound).
> 
> Suzuki must be understood as not only a Buddhist scholar, but also a 
> Meiji
> scholar who was educated in a new system of education, was highly
> susceptible to Western modes of thinking and whose own understanding 
> of Zen
> was influenced by Western psychology and philosophy. Prof. Robert 
> Sharf of
> the University of Michigan has done quite a convincing job of 
> showing where
> Suzuki was coming from, who his sources of understanding were and 
> why he
> presented Zen as he did. He shows how Suzuki's emphasis on satori, 
> or the
> 'Zen experience' is a gross misrepresentation of Zen Buddhism if we 
> examine
> the history of the tradition itself. In fact, Sharf argues that 
> Suzuki's
> emphasis on satori as the quintessential Zen experience is used in 
> the
> interests of a greater nationalistic discourse. Sharf shows how 
> Suzuki
> defines satori as uniquely Japanese, and that Westerners are unable 
> to
> experience it. By interpreting the Zen experience in this way, 
> Suzuki was
> able to place both Zen and the 'enlightened' beneficiaries of that 
> tradition
> (i.e. the entire Japanese nation) above the increasingly influential 
> Western
> powers and the threat of imperialism.
> 
> >From my brief time in a Zen monastery (two months during the summer 
> of 1994)
> I found that the Zen life (as epitomized by the monastic life),has 
> very
> little to do with what Suzuki is talking about. Rather, monks are 
> more
> concerned with learning elaborate ritual techiniques, memorizing 
> scriptures
> and performing the daily work routine.
> 
> Within Buddhism, the monks and nuns are seen as absolutely essential 
> to the
> continuation of the tradition. The monastic lifestyle provides the 
> perfect
> example of Buddhist practice, and so I am inclined to think that if 
> we are
> really to get a sense of what Zen is, then we must understand what 
> is going
> on in the monastery. This is not to suggest that lay practioners are 
> not
> practicing Zen correctly or authentically (what is authentic 
> practice
> anyway?) but that the regulated monastic lifestyle presents the 
> ideal within
> the tradition of what Zen is. If we are to accept this, then much of 
> the
> Western understanding of Zen needs to be revised and Suzuki needs to 
> be put
> back on the shelf only to be reverentially dusted once in a while. 
> Indeed
> Suzuki was important as the populariser of Zen in the West, and he 
> presented
> it a way that was very seductive and in terms that were very 
> recognizable.
> But that is the problem. When Suzuki used terms like 'the Zen 
> experience',
> he was not refering to anything found within the Zen tradition 
> itself, but
> rather an interpretation unique to him and a few other progressive 
> scholars
> learned in Western psychology and philosophy. Sharf goes so far to 
> say that
> 'Suzuki's Zen is not Zen at all'. I understand what Sharf is saying, 
> but it
> requires some elaboration (see above) and also suggests that Zen 
> doesn't
> change. Indeed the tradition has changed, and Suzuki's influence in 
> the West
> was admired by some Japanese priests who, realising that it was a 
> way of
> reviving their failing tradition, adopted much of his terminology to 
> explain
> themselves. However, for the most part, Suzuki did not significantly 
> change
> the Zen tradition in Japan. The monks might desire satori, but for 
> the most
> part, they are more interested in learning the professional 
> techniques in
> order to serve their local community in the form of performing 
> funerary
> rites.
> 
> I do not mean to present a negative image of Zen or Japanese 
> Buddhism. On
> the contrary, I have a great deal of admiration and interest in 
> contemporary
> Buddhism in Japan (there is nothing wrong with performing funerary 
> rites!)
> However, I do think it is important to understand our own 
> misunderstanding
> of Zen, and realise that when we see a book called 'Zen and the Art 
> of
> Making Cash' it is so far removed from what the tradition is today, 
> that
> it's a joke.
> 
> I have also wondered about Richie's questionable interpretation of 
> Ozu when
> he describes the "empty moments" in his films as examples of "mu, a 
> Zen
> aesthetic term implying, among other things, nothingness" Without 
> getting
> into the details of Buddhist philosophy, we should note that as a 
> Zen term,
> Mu is a strictly soteriological term indeed referring to 
> 'emptiness',
> although not 'nothingness'. It would appear that Richie is saying 
> that in
> one sense, Ozu's films are 'Zen Movies', and perhaps Ozu did have an
> interest in Zen. Yet, it is quite likely that both Richie and Ozu 
> would have
> received their understanding of Zen from popular books either by 
> Suzuki or
> by others influenced by him and not from the tradition itself.
> 
> So what, if it is possible, is a Zen Movie? Surely not one full of 
> empty
> moments-that would be a cliche long since given up by contemporary 
> Zen
> scholars. What is Zen? It's a Buddhist tradition in which monks (and 
> a few
> nuns) concern themselves with rituals of some sort or another. They 
> meditate
> (a ritual), chant scripture, worship the Buddha and a whole lineage 
> of
> patriarchs going back to the Buddha, they perform funerary rites, go 
> on
> alms, spend a great deal of time cleaning and maintaining their 
> monastery
> and provide a center for the local community to practice generosity 
> (by
> giving gifts to the monks) and learn about the history of Buddhism, 
> and the
> basic teachings of the Buddha. Occasionally a temple might offer 
> classes in
> mediation, although this is rare. Zen is also a Buddhist tradition 
> with
> which the laity might concern themselves when a family member dies, 
> or as a
> place to go for New Year's celebrations. Of course, a very small 
> minority of
> the laity also meditate at home, at a local temple or during week 
> long
> monastic retreats. Yet most of the time, the lay Zen Buddhist 
> performs daily
> reverence to the family ancestors at the Butsudan (the domestic 
> shrine) and
> is not concerned with emptiness or enlightenment.
> 
> Aside from studying Buddhism, I am also interested in making films 
> and would
> love to combine my interest in Zen Buddhism and film-making. To be a 
> Zen
> film, it would have to be a Buddhist film; that is, it would somehow 
> include
> themes of suffering, the absence of self, the persistence of life 
> due to
> past good and bad actions, and the opportunity to stop this 
> continuation of
> life and simultaneously help others do so too. We may ask, "would it 
> have a
> happy or sad ending?" Theoretically, it couldn't possibly have a 
> truely
> happy ending because the audience would still be left in the 
> theatres as the
> credits roll, evidence that there are still suffering Beings present 
> in the
> world. Yet it needn't have a sad ending either since the fact that 
> Buddhism
> still exists in the world (testified by the very creation of our Zen 
> film),
> means that there is still the opportunity for all Beings to attain
> nirvana/enlightenment. Perhaps there should be no ending to the 
> film, just
> as there is no ending to the cycle of death and rebirth without
> enlightenment (I would not suggest that my film could enlighten 
> anyone!) By
> having no ending, the audience would naturally be frustrated and 
> have the
> opportunity to reflect on suffering as they watch the credits!
> 
> Well, I hope those that have bothered to read this far can 
> understand my
> irritation with the popular use of the term 'Zen'. When I first saw 
> "Zen
> movies", I imagined empty moments of silence and motorcycle 
> maintenance, and
> I'm very bored of coming across that.
> 
> Joss
> 
> 
> 
> ============
> 
> Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997
> 
> From: Josiah Luke Winn
> 
> Subject: Re: inq: What's a Zen movie?
> 
> There is a brief bibliography at the end of my message.
> 
> Sybil Thornton wrote:
> 
> "I think, we should look at Zen film less from the perspective of 
> the
> product than from the perspective of its production and reproduction 
> of its
> tradition. I don't think there is any such thing as Zen film. There 
> is
> however a process for training filmmakers and performers 
> characterized by a
> preconceived model of form and diction and a rigorous apprenticeship 
> under a
> master."
> 
> It would seem that I am not the only one to consider Robert Sharf's 
> work on
> Zen as useful for this discussion (strange,in that he wouldn't 
> regard
> himself as a Zen scholar). When I initially responded to Paul's 
> question, I
> also wrote that I didn't think there was such a thing as a Zen film, 
> but
> then decided to omit this, thinking that I was being a little too 
> hasty.
> 
> When I wrote last time, I wanted to detract from the rather crude 
> efforts of
> a 'Zen style' of film that lingers on emptiness and silence, and 
> suggest a
> 'fuller' film style, one that I think reflects more accurately, the 
> zen
> lifestyle. I should add something at this point following David 
> Desser's
> comment: "'the Zen of everyday life' wherein one lives fully, in the 
> moment,
> totally dedicated to whatever it is one is doing." Admittedly this 
> kind of
> remark is found in every popular book on Zen, yet it is by no means 
> unique
> to Zen. Every Buddhist tradition would include this as an essential
> practice. It's this kind of misunderstanding that we need to be 
> aware of
> when talking about Zen. There is, in fact, little that distinguishes 
> it from
> any other Buddhist tradition except for an obsession with it's 
> patriarchal
> geneaology and a greater emphasis placed on meditation-although not 
> in all
> cases.
> 
> Clearly, if we are to make a 'zen film', we should be aware of what 
> Zen is,
> and understand the rhetorical moves often found within the 
> tradition. The
> Zen tradition is fortunate in many ways, that it had such a 
> charismatic
> spokesperson to represent it in the West (Suzuki). In Japan the 
> situation is
> different of course. Zen is just another Buddhist sect and far from 
> being
> the most popular. It's influence on the arts derives mostly from 
> it's
> political connections during the Muromachi period, and not because 
> there is
> something intrinsically unique to it that defines the Japanese. Much 
> of our
> understanding of Zen and Japanese culture comes from Suzuki's book 
> of that
> title, a book which although still in print, is now the subject of 
> much
> criticism today among scholarly circles.
> 
> My knowledge of art within the Zen tradition is very slim, and 
> although I
> have criticised the emphasis on Zen emptiness, silence, minimalism, 
> etc.
> these are features that we can identify in traditional Zen arts. 
> Indeed if
> one were to go to a Zen monastery one would see that there is very 
> little
> ornament, especially compared to, say, a Shingon monastery. Yet, 
> minimalism
> isn't the exclusive property of the Zen tradition, nor is emptiness. 
> We
> should remember that Buddhism is an ascetic tradition and that this
> lifestyle demands a certain amount of minimalism (admittedly few 
> Japanese
> priests would seem to follow this). The emphasis on emptiness is 
> also by no
> means exclusive to Zen. It has been the central philosophical 
> doctrine of
> the entire East Asian Buddhist tradition since it's arrival in China 
> in the
> 2nd century.
> 
> Obviously there is a Zen aesthetic, yet how we translate that onto 
> film I'm
> not quite sure. How significant should we deem it anyway? 
> Surely,there would
> be more to a Zen film that it's immediate sensual properties. I do 
> remember
> enjoying Bae Yong-Kyun's film but am inclined to think that Paul's 
> original
> question was referring more to Zen style than a film explicitly 
> about Zen.
> As I have mentioned, I am more interested in considering what a Zen
> narrative would consist of, what themes would it address?
> 
> With regards to Markus' comment: "Yes, but perhaps more important 
> for this
> discussion is the function of Zen in popular culture; this is 
> basically what
> we are dealing with when it comes to the cinema question. This helps 
> us
> sidestep questions which you begin to raise on "authentic" 
> traditions. A
> better approach is to think of practice, its appearance in popular 
> culture
> being one important form that may have absolutely nothing to do with 
> what
> goes on in the monasteries."
> 
> To do this we have to consider whether we are talking about Zen in 
> the USA
> or Zen in Japan. The two are quite different. I'm not sure if I 
> should
> really attempt to answer how Zen functions in either culture as I 
> have only
> spent a couple of months in Japan, and most of this was in a 
> monastery.
> Neither am I qualified to talk much about Zen in the USA, as I'm 
> really only
> a visitor here. In Japan, there are a few opportunities for the 
> populace to
> practice Zen meditation outside of the monastery. It is also common 
> for Zen
> monasteries to encourage companies to send groups of business men to 
> do week
> long intensive retreats. The retreat I did had twenty or so business 
> men
> there, most of whom had never meditated before. Their company was 
> also kind
> enough to provide cakes and buns for everyone each day! Anyway, I 
> will leave
> Zen and popular culture to someone else for now. It has been my 
> intention to
> point out the misunderstanding many Westerners (and even some 
> Japanese) have
> about the term 'Zen'and to encourage a more 'enlightened' (sorry!)
> perspective. I really think it could be much more interesting than 
> what we
> have had up to now. It would also allow us to appreciate the 
> richness of the
> tradition beyond the usual spin on emptiness and minimalism. Unlike 
> Sybil, I
> do think that a 'Zen film' is possible, one that communicates issues 
> found
> within the tradition without a reliance on overt symbolism and empty 
> imagery
> and yet offers Zen answers or a Zen perspective on life through the 
> use of
> narrative in a subtle and familiar way. Since it is a religious 
> tradition,
> it should be relevant to all aspects of life, offering suggestions 
> and
> guidance. Neither would the film rest on the pretence of offering 
> the viewer
> a glimpse of enlightenment (within the Zen traditon, enlightenment 
> is handed
> down and certified individually from master to disciple, something a
> film-maker could not do).
> 
> 
> Joss
> 
> p.s. here's the brief bibliography:
> 
>  Faure, B. 1995. 'The Kyoto School and Reverse Orientalism.' Japan 
> in
> Traditional and Postmodern Perspectives. Eds. Charles Wei-hsun Fu 
> and Steven
> Heine. Albany: SUNY.
> 
>  --- 1993. Chan Insights and Oversights. New Jersey: Princeton 
> University
> Press.
> 
>  --- 1991. The Rhetoric of Immediacy. New Jersey: Princeton 
> University
> Press.
> 
>  Foulk, T.G. 1988. 'The Zen Institution in Modern Japan' Zen 
> Tradition and
> Transition. Ed. Kenneth Kraft. New York: Grove Press. 157-177.
> 
>  Ketelaar, James Edward. 1990. Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji 
> Japan.
> Buddhism and its Persecution. New Jersey: Princeton University 
> Press.
> 
>  Sharf, Robert H. 1995. 'The Zen of Japanese Nationalism.' Curators 
> of the
> Buddha: The study of Buddhism Under Colonialism. Ed. D. Lopez Jnr. 
> Chicago:
> Chicago University Press.
> 
>  --- 1994. 'Whose Zen? Zen Nationalism Revisited' Rude Awakenings. 
> Zen, the
> Kyoto School & the Question of Nationalism. Eds. James W. Heisig & 
> John C.
> Maraldo, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
> 
>  Stone, J. 1990. 'A Vast and Grave Task: Interwar Buddhist Studies 
> as an
> Expression of Japan's Envisioned Global Role.' Culture and Identity:
> Japanese Intellectuals During the Interwar Years. Ed. Rimer, J.T. 
> New
> Jersey: Princeton University Press.
> 
>  Suzuki, D.T. 1953. 'Zen: A Reply to Hu Shih.' Philosophy East and 
> West. 3:
> 25-46.
> 
> 

_____________________________________________________
FARMERS are miserly, craven, mean, stupid, murderous beasts.
(tears in his eyes) You make me laugh so hard I'm crying.
But then, who made animals out of them?
You...all of you damned samurai.

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