[Buddha-l] Query--forest tradition monks in Japan today?

[jkirk]

Franz-please say more about the Daruma-Shu Zen school---did they build 
hermitages or just hang out and camp?
Kamala Tiyanavich in Forest Recollections writes about Thai forest monks for 
whom villagers sometimes built modest viharas etc so the monks would have 
places to stay in during the rainy season retreat, even though otherwise 
they might be found in caves or tiny jungle kutis, and so on. They still 
have to go on alms round and so tended to hang out fairly close to peasant 
villages, the latter hardly centers of power of course. In fact they seem 
not (or rarely?) to have been attached to one place, moving on when too many 
people found them.

Also, gang (good word for us Franz) what about Tibet? I think of Milarepa. 
Were cave-dwelling ascetics in Tibet following a tradition imported from 
India or
did they invent their own hermit tradition?
Joanna



> Gang,
>
> To add a socio-historical level to this issue, ara.nya monks need not be 
> in forests, jungles, or wildernesses, but rather need be away from centers 
> of power (and thus in the metaphorical wilderness). One might speak of 
> centric monks and eccentric monks; the latter are the folks we're 
> discussing. Stanley Tambiah has written persuasively on these issues with 
> respect to Thailand. As far as Japan goes, I think immediately of the 
> Daruma-Shu Zen school, the sennin (Hakuin goes on about one of these who 
> saved him as a young man), and maybe the myokonin (the homespun 
> bodhisattvas of the Jodo traditions). No doubt there are other groups who 
> fit the bill.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Franz Metcalf
>
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