by Steven Heine
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Product Description
Since Zen Buddhism first captivated the attention of Western seekers the dominant discourse about this sect has been romantic, idealistic, and utopian. The essence of Zen has been described as ineffable, holistic, and promoting social harmony. In recent years, however, some scholars have begun to examine Zen through the lenses of historical and cultural criticism, producing a sharp challenge to the traditional view. These clashing viewpoints are now entrenched in two warring camps, and their exponents talk past each other with virtually no constructive interaction. In this book, Steven Heine argues that a constructive compromise is possible. He focuses on three principal areas of disagreement: (1) the role of language and discourse in a tradition that claims to be 'outside words and letters,' yet has produced a voluminous body of texts, (2) the function of rituals and objects of worship to gain world benefit in a tradition supposedly founded on unmediated experience attained in an iconoclastic and ascetic environment, (3) the impact of a tradition that espouses peace and harmony on social issues such as class and gender discrimination and on nationalism and imperialism in Japan. Avoiding the stagnant polarization that characterizes most encounters between Zen traditionalists and their critics, he suggests ways in which these two perspectives can complement each other in a more balanced and nuanced alternative position.
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Average Customer Review:
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
The condition of Zen in the present day from two extremes, 2008-04-10
In Zen Skin, Zen Marrow, Steven Heine again serves up a tasty treat of information and insight on and about the current situation of Zen Buddhism. This time, Professor Heine highlights the overall condition of Zen in the present day by examining it from two extremes.
One extreme, which he calls the "Traditional Zen Narrative" (TZN), views Zen from the perspective that "Zen is an idealistic, utopian vision of nondual experience." TZN is presented as a type of Zen that claims to be beyond rules and definitions, where only the "enlightened" understand and "silence" is exalted as the highest expression of wisdom.
Heine's descriptions of this view of Zen immediately conjures images of the kinds of western Zen centers where "Roshi" and "Scandal" seem to be nearly synonymous.
The other extreme, "Historical Cultural Criticism" (HCC) is portrayed as viewing Zen as literary, rational, discriminative, and most importantly, nothing like the TZN adherents claim it is.
Here Heine seems a little more sympathetic in that he does not posit as extreme a view as he does with the TZN view. Nevertheless, those familiar with Critical Buddhism can fill in the gaps. Suffice it to say that the extreme adherents of this view would offer little more than a sterilized, air-tight philosophy.
After defining, outlining, and critiquing these two camps, Heine sets about trying to find some common ground (or at least some rules for a fair fight). His model of the solution is based on Dogen's handling of Bodhidharma's Skin, Flesh, Bone, and Marrow, koan. (which Heine calls a "minority opinion").
Heine's interpretation of this koan, as with others he presents in this book, varies quite a bit from my understanding of the case. Nevertheless, it is a plausible approach. In any case, he uses it as a model for finding a middle road, and his usage is consistent with his interpretation.
With his typical humor and vast knowledge, travelling with Steven Heine along this precarious road one is treated to details that might go unnoticed. Although his language is often a bit lofty, it is a trip that is well worth taking.
In the end, his "neutral" approach seems to attempt more of a "compromise" between the two extremes, than it does a collaboration. Neither extreme is really moved from their own position, but rather both are granted an "equal" voice, that is, the "skin" is offered equal status with "marrow" (at least hypothetically).
Professor Heine offers a few "views" from the middle ground (where at least some of the Zen community is), nevertheless, it would be easy for a reader unfamiliar with the landscape of Zen to miss the fact that HCC and TZN as presented in Zen Skin, Zen Marrow, are extremes. That is to say, there is a lot of gray area between these views. In one passage, Heine himself seems to forget that few "actual" people would fit into either of these two views, referring to a koan, Heine says: "According to Robert Aitken's TZN style of interpretation, this part of the case..." (p.67).
Aside from missing Aitken's point (in my opinion), Heine categorizes him, labels him "TZN," puts him on a shelf, then moves on. Now I am not saying that there are not a number of "Zen masters" that actually do come close to the "no rules, enlightened, free, and nothing special" anti-rational zealots of his TZN extreme, but Robert Aitken Roshi is about as far away from that as one can be. If Heine is going to single one guy out by name, he ought to have the manners to explain why.
For the most part however, Heine's book offers us a journey into the Zen of the modern world, with glimpses of how it has evolved (devolved?) and more food for thought than we can digest in a year.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.", 2008-04-08
Hats off to Steven Heine for risking a bloody nose by interposing in an ongoing quarrel. What quarrel? Well, the more you delve into Zen Buddhism, the more you probably start noticing a gaping disjuncture. Some portray Zen as a pure, individualistic pursuit of an unmediated experience of enlightenment through meditation minus all the usual trappings of religion such as scriptures or rituals--an ancient form of eastern wisdom with profound answers to our modern ills. Others would take this apart as a recent, ideologically-driven reinvention if not a plain big fat lie, uncovering evidence to show what they take to be a much more down-to-earth and monastically conformist tradition very much steeped in scriptures and rituals, with prayers and worship often eclipsing meditation--just another interesting variant of the Buddhist religion in Japan, and one that has ethically compromised itself through the ages by actively contributing to social discrimination and fanatic militarism. Often these two sides ignore each other. Other times they collide in acrimonious argument, merely talking past each other to no avail. Heine attempts valiantly to break this impasse in "Zen Skin, Zen Marrow" by bringing the two approaches into some sort of fruitful dialogue and mutually beneficial compromise.
And nobody's more qualified. The author and co-editor of many fine scholarly studies of Zen (some of my favorite, in fact) that quietly test the boundaries of what we consider Zen but with fair even-handedness, he brings both his vast store of knowledge and his fine diplomatic skills to the fray here, along with a long and intimate familiarity with the ups-and-downs of the controversy (as well as its prehistory) over the years. And he does so with a healthy dose of humor extremely unusual and highly refreshing in a book by an academic press. Nothing breaks the ice like a good joke, after all. All the better when the joke fits, as with his titling the three main chapters so as to indicate what he convincingly identifies as the three main bones of contention: Zen Writes, Zen Rites, and Zen Rights.
Unfortunately, each chapter is weaker than the last. Heine is on home ground when discussing the issue of Zen's much-vaunted slogan of not relying on words and letters versus what the critics point out as its prodigious literary output. His discussion is on-target and his recommendations compelling. When it comes to Zen ritualism he starts faltering a bit by framing the issue as one of varying degrees of syncretism with "folk religion"--which problematically assumes the existence of a "pure Zen" undergoing various levels of admixture. This ends up misrepresenting the critique in question: it is not that the critics denigrate pure Zen for lazily giving in to folk religion, their target is this false and ahistorical image of a non-ritualistic, iconoclastic "pure Zen" in the first place. Indeed, what exactly is "folk religion" but a dead category in religious studies? Heine identifies Inari worship as "folk religion" even in about the same breath as he describes the role of Kukai and Toji Temple in this aspect of Japanese religiosity as well as the extensive patronage it received from the imperial court. How can anything involving both the apex of political authority and the foremost levels of the official Buddhist hierarchy be "folk" in any meaningfully conceivable way?
When it comes to Zen Rights, Heine does a fabulous job of outlining the contours of the debate. And with much honesty, objectivity, and good will he attempts to do justice to both positions. But then the solution he offers is daft as can be, that Zen Buddhism as an organization(s--Rinzai? Soto? Obaku?) engage in some form of deeply subjective if sincere (meaning not liturgical, because we all know that's a bunch of bunk, right?) form of repentance for its many wrongdoings a la the Kyoto School philosopher Tanabe Hajime--who incidentally was not a Zen monk and was not even primarily inspired by Zen, so why the Zen Buddhist religious establishment should dance to his tune is unclear. Furthermore, the supposed result of this repentance would be a wonderful synthesis of Zen and Pure Land, Mahayana and Theravada, Buddhism and Christianity (p.171)--i.e. institutional suicide, the self-erasure of Zen's own particular identity. Don't hold your breath. The underlying assumption that it's a scholar's role to prescribe what Zen should do rather than carefully and accurately explore what it actually does and has done also troubles me, at least when taken to this level. And overall it just seems a quixotic gesture unlikely to win over either apologist or detractor.
At least you can't say he didn't try, though. As a whole this is an interesting and thought-provoking book, not so much about Zen as about what we think about Zen (though one learns quite a bit about Zen itself in the process), and it strikes close to the heart of a pervasive rift in viewpoints that isn't going away overnight.
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