[Buddha-l] Doxastic minimalism (was: flat earth?)

[John Whalen-Bridge]

Hi Buddha-L sGanga:

  I think we sell teachers (American dharma teachers I've met, anyway)
short if we describe them as Franz and Richard have in the quotations
below.  I know that there will be solid examples to back up their
claims, but I think it can be shown that there is often more to the
"story."  First, the quotations about Zen clinginess:

Franz Metcalf:  "I would add that *some* forms of Buddhism--notably the
Zen tradition 
and the lineage-focused forms of Vajrayana--do in fact cleave to 
historical narratives of awakening and, should these narratives be 
shown to be false, lose their institutional authority. "

Richard Hayes:  Albert Low "said he knew that about half his community
would walk out and never come back if they thought Bodhidharma didn't
really exist pretty much exactly as he is described in the fairy tales.
Several other Zen teachers piped up and agreed with Low. We academics
all wrung our hands and said "Holy shit! If what these guys say is true,
Zen is in real trouble!" 

Aitken-roshi comes to mind first.  About the cat-killing koan, he says
that some people who think this story says it is alright to kill just
don't understand fables, literature, and stories.  To say that dharma
practice is "life and death" doesn't mean it is okay to kill. 

Zen Master Wu Kwang aka Richard Shrobe, a teacher in Seung Sahn's Zen
tradition, has a teaching in his collection called OPEN MOUTH ALREADY A
BIG MISTAKE in which he affirms both belief and, you know, incredulity
toward metanarratives.  First he quotes an account of Buddha's
enlightenment:  "Subsequently, he sat on an indestructible seat, so
immobile that there were cobwebs in his brows, a bird's nest on his
head, and reeds grwoing up through his mat...."  Shrobe's comment:
"Great story, but a little hard to believe--cobweb's and bird's nests
and reeds growing up through the mat.  But I suggest that it is
absolutely imperative that we believe that story whether it happened or
not. If you can't believe that story, then how is it going to be
possible to exert the effort to get up in the morning, morning after
morning after morning, and sit, whether there's a group to support you
or whether you are in your own appartment or home?"  And so on.

This "will to belief" is, I hope I can say, quite compatible with all
kinds of pragmatism (though it is easier to imagine Rorty arguing
against a will toward religious belief than for one). Pragmatism aside,
the Zen teacher is quite serious when he says that students "must
believe," but at the same time he is not so foolish as to believe such
stories as those about bird's nests in the hair.  

How many Zen students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two: one to change the lightbulb and one to not change the lightbulb....

JWB

Associate Professor John Whalen-Bridge
English Language and Literature
National University of Singapore
10 Kent Ridge Road
Singapore 117570 

http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/ellwbj/jwb/
 office: +65 6516-6029 / fax: +(65) 6773-2981
Fine Print:  "He buys me many Books-but begs me not to read them-because
he fears they joggle the Mind." Emily Dickinson



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