Tag Archives: Master

Daily Buddhism, Ethics

On Teaching Buddhism: My Point of View

A long-time reader wrote:

You mentioned in several past episodes that you are not a Zen Master or Guru, and yet, you have taught hundreds if not thousands of disciples through your podcast. Does this not make you then a teacher of aspiring Buddhists? With the availability of the internet, it is likely your students/listeners have more information at their fingertips that aspiring Buddhists decades, centuries, or millennia ago did not have available. What exactly is required to *be* a Zen Master or teacher of Buddhism? The Buddha simply went around teaching and his students called him Teacher. Do you need some kind of ritual or official certificate to be a Teacher of Buddhism these days? Or were you just being humble and did you not realize that you are what you do?

My Response:

Traditionally with Zen, one master confers the title of “Master” on to very experienced students after so many years of study and meditation. There’s no official certificate or plaque, no, it’s just done when the old Master thinks the student is ready.

I didn’t study under a Master, and never have had one. I’ve taken college courses, and have a degree in “Comparative Religions.” I have a Minister’s License from the State of Ohio that allows me to marry people. I’ve read tons of books, watched umpteen videos, and practiced all kinds of meditation. I have to admit that I’ve experienced a lot of what Buddhism can offer. Does this make me the equal of a Zen Master? I don’t think so. I might go so far as to say I’m an “expert” at Buddhism, but I’d have to point out that even then, it’s mostly book-learning, not experiential.

Do I know more about Buddhism that the Masters a thousand of years ago? Probably, but only because there is so much more to know now than in those days (all those new sects and groups that didn’t exist back then, for one example), and the access to that information is so much easier today.

When I think of a modern “Master,” I think of Thich Nhat Hanh or Sheng Yen. Those guys are the real deal.

Am I a teacher of Buddhism? Absolutely. Am I good at it? I don’t know, but I like to think I have a fairly unique voice in the Buddhist community, and I’d also like to think it’s an honest one. My goal here is, and always has been, to clarify, simplify, and remove the layers of mystical jargon and mumbo-jumbo that tends to accumulate around Eastern religions.

Am I being humble? Probably a little. I’d like to call it something else… honesty.

 

 

 

Daily Buddhism, Reviews

DVD Review: Zen Noir

Movie: Zen Noir
Director: Marc Rosenbush
Reviewed by Brian Schell
English, 71 Minutes
Amazon Link

I saw the trailers for this movie last winter, and it looked hilarious, so when I finally had a chance to watch the film, I jumped at it. Zen humor is not something you see everyday, and this was obviously advertised as a comedy.

The movie is narrated in the first person by a 30’s hard-boiled detective type, clearly a Mike Hammer parody, complete with tough-guy monologues and beard stubble. The action starts out with a chuckle, as an old Zen monk sits in a room with other monks meditating. He keels over and dies, but the others are so into their meditation they don’t even notice. When the detective arrives and starts asking questions about the murder‚Ķ Well, you know what kind of answers you get when you ask a question in Zen.

The first 25 minutes or so were rough. The back and forth rapid-fire questions and non-answers got old fast, and the overuse of Noir and Zen cliches got to the point of silliness, which was probably intentional, but still wasn’t very funny. By around the 20-minute mark, I was ready to declare this the “stupidest movie ever.” Then the silliness slowed down and the Zen took over.

There was still the occasional funny line, such as when the detective asks the Master,
“What happens when we, you know‚ die?”
“Don’t know.”
“Why not?”
“Not dead yet!” OK, so humor of that sort is in the delivery.

There are dozens of images of oranges and glimpses of oranges In different scenes and positions flashing onscreen throughout the drama. Once the meaning of the orange is explained, many things become clear, both in the movie and in real Zen itself. There really is a lot of Zen in the movie, and it was obviously very cleverly written.

Yet, I still have to ask myself, is it entertaining? The problem is that even after watching the movie, I cannot answer that one. This is definitely one of those love-it or hate-it movies, and I suspect most audiences are going to be split down the middle. If someone is fairly knowledgeable about basic Zen ideas, then there is a message in the ending; however, for the person who isn’t very familiar with Zen ideas, this is going to be a seriously boring movie that makes no sense whatsoever.

I’m going to give this one a 3/5 since I really just don’t know what to think‚Ķ Or maybe I should give it a 5/5 for the same reason.

Sigh. Zen makes me crazy sometimes.

Purchase it from Amazon

 

Daily Buddhism, Reviews

Book: The Saint of Kathmandu, by Sarah Levine

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Book: The Saint of Kathmandu and Other Tales of the Sacred in Distant Lands
By Sarah Levine
Reviewed by Brian Schell
Beacon Press, 242 Pages, ISBN 978-0-8070-1312-0
Buy from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0807013129/?tag=askdrarca-20

This is a little different from the other books I’ve reviewed here. It’s not strictly a Buddhist book; it’s about various religions around the world. There are six stories in the book, each one a more-or-less true story in the experience of the author, a British anthropologist.

The first tale is about spirit possession in a Muslim town, the second is about the Cult of the Virgin in Mexico, Witchcraft in Kenya, Buddhism in Kathmandu, Charismatic Christianity in Hong Kong, and Zen in America. For the readers of Daily Buddhism, I am going to focus on just two of the stories, although all are worth your time.

The third story involves the author’s trip from Kathmandu to India, where she visits the places where the Buddha gained Enlightenment and also where he died. Along the way, she has many discussions with Guruma, the leader of the group and a Nepalese Nun, as well as being the titular ‚ÄúSaint‚Äù of the book. Guruma’s stories show what it was like to be a little girl being forced into an arranged marriage, her escape and distant travels to the nunnery, and her later work in bringing the Dharma to thousands of women who otherwise would be neglected by the male-dominated society. Interestingly, early in the story, the author laments the possibility of having to talk about western Buddhism with two Americans, yet at the end of the story she finds that she cannot tolerate the more disciplined approach of the East.

The sixth and last story is an interesting one as well. It’s about the author’s encounter with an American Zen Master (said to be the first American Zen master). While the author is initially taken by the quirky Zen Master/artist, she quickly discovers the dark side of the situation. The man loves being the center of attention, is a control freak, and never wanted to be a teacher anyway. He, as well as his students, became victims of his own cult of personality. Zen Masters do generally come off a somewhat arrogant in most tales, but this story gives a much more real sense of the problem, which is probably much more common than we in the West would probably assume.

It’s an interesting book with an interesting perspective. There are things here both positive and negative about all these various groups and religions. The author is clearly more interested in the people and their attitudes than the places she visits or beliefs the people hold, and the stories she relates are very personal in nature.

You aren’t going to learn anything about how to practice Buddhism with this book, but it’s a good read, and it’s fun to visit the unusual cultures and share the odd experiences the author relates with us here. The final chapter in particular, shows us some of the inherent problems with lineage traditions where it is assumed that the teacher is always right.

Once you reach enlightenment, does it last forever or does it fade?

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Buy from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0807013129/?tag=askdrarca-20