[Buddha-l] Zen War Guilt/Zen and the Sword

[curt]

One tangential connection (but a connection nevertheless) might be via
the Fuke sect. What I know about this connection only consists of just-
so stories about Ronin who were members of the Fuke order. Some of
the things that are often mentioned in these stories are:
(1) The wandering members of the Fuke order were often employed
as spies.
(2) The shakuhachi flute actually made a pretty good weapon. The
insistence on using bamboo root-end to make the flute is sometimes
associated with the desire to have a nice strong weapon rather than
any particular musical qualities of this kind of wood.
(3) The wandering and anonymous character of the Fuke monks -
who often had their faces hidden by baskets that they carried over
their heads, provided a good "cover" for masterless samurai and
other suspicious characters.

The Fuke order goes back to the 12th century, and was introduced
into Japan from China - although I don't know of any claims that
the order was associated with warriors in China. What I am saying
here doesn't amount to any real evidence of a connection between
Zen and the Samurai predating the Meiji period - but it is one place
to look before concluding that these connections are mostly or purely
mythological.

- Curt

miriamdelight at comcast.net wrote:

>Denizens,
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>This is not a direct reply to Steve Hopkins' question, except as a response to his concern about the possibly heretical nature of the "Zen and the Sword" doctrine. In recent years there have been persuasive arguments by Profs. Karl Friday, Cameron Hurst and William Bodiford, among others, that a connection between Zen and martial arts before the Meiji (1868- ) restoration is extremely hard to find; it may, in fact, have been created by Shaku Soen and D.T. Suzuki.  While there is evidence that Ashikaga shoguns supported Zen temples financially, there is no real evidence that samurai went there to practice Zen, and particularly none that samurai thought Zen training was important to their swordsmanship.  In the Tokugawa period we find the association between Zen training and mastery of swordsmanship made by Takuan Soho, but Takuan's two famous essays on this topic are but two of many many essays on swordsmanship in the Tokugawa period.  The rest are very predominantly Confucia!
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> n in theory and language.   What we call "Bushido" was a product of texts produced in the Tokugawa, when samurai were trying to find a justification for their high social position in a time of 250 years of settled peace. The famous "Bushido" texts are not "Zen," but Confucian primarily.   As the Meiji leaders built up a powerful Western-style army, they sold the idea that to be a gunjin (a soldier) was to be a samurai, and live by the Bushido code.  The martial arts were not predominantly associated with Zen, or Buddhism, prior to WWII; more often with Shinto.  After World War II, when martial arts were in disrepute as having contributed to a warlike, imperial culture of "samurai," martial arts teachers bought into the idea of their association with Zen, admired in the West as a peaceful training that combined powerful self-mastery and enlightenment with non-harming.  We really cannot trace the association between Zen and the Sword back before Takuan (17th century, and a mi!
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> nority voice at the time), Shaku Soen and D.T. Suzuki.   
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>Miriam Levering
>University of Tennessee
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