Zen in Popular Culture (what motivated you to practice?)

[jus]

Hi Alex,

Don't write off Catholicism too quickly, and keep your eyes open to all ways. Zazen and Catholicism are not an "either/or" matter always, and many people practice both. In one's youth, it is good to keep one's eyes and heart open, even to the tradition one's family comes from.

Gassho, Jundo

thank you, jundo. this is good to hear, even though im not catholic or christian, but sort of feel like a "renegade", which is why i think zen really appeals to me, and the practice of zazen is by far my favorite practice. but sometimes i get this uneasy feeling inside, and it could be my own nuerosis, about adopting a set of beleifs that arent mine or doctrines just because i take part in a certain community. in buddhism, i see a lot of people who say things like, "find out yourself", but then also sort of apply a "well, this is how it is" sort of attitude (although, i see this a lot less in zen). or "buddhism isnt this, or isnt that", "buddha said this, and not that". or if i want to fly a kite; "buddha didnt say anything about kite". and everyone debating things like what "anatman" is and just a lot of extremes in beleif/thinking. i know this is sort of extreme in thinking on my part as well, but none-the-less, it is still present with me.

gassho,
justin

**to clarify, i like this sangha because such things arent really debated here, nor the main focus. thank you.

[jus]

An early episode of the show "Community".

haha thats awsome, kelly.

[YuimaSLC]

Oddly, the first thing I ever read was quite accidentally discovered on the literature shelves in the university library: Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan. Soon followed by: A Flower Does Not Talk by Zenkei Shibayama.

As to popular culture, I guess Alan Watt's "The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are" was probably the first thing I read by a westerner. After that, I pretty much read everything he was writing (this was the 70s) and then buying all the cassette-tape lecture series.

Gary Snyder, poet/environmentalist/buddhist, was a very early, big influence on my studies.

But, after all the studying and reading, reading, reading....what got me to put most of that down and just sit, was "Selling Water By the River: A Manual of Zen Training" by Roshi Jiyu Kennett.
Nuts n bolts kind of info. Lots of Dogen's Shobogenzo translations, and scriptures and ceremonial, like Sandokai, the Most Excellent Mirror Samadhi, short verses, et al. It was like putting down the
huge sack of intellectual busywork and feeling like "okay....let's roll up the sleeves and really get to work."

Gassho

Richard

[Dojin]

for me it was an article I read in a magazine like national geographic. it was an issue about Japan. I herd and saw about Buddhism in programs on tv like the history channel. but the t never really seemed right to me. a nice idea but not quite right, many things didnt sit right with me while most spoke to me. but adter reading that article about zen it really resonated with me. so I started sitting zazen. and found peace for the first time. With time my practice evolved in to more (or less).

Gassho, Dojin.

[lobster]

I enjoyed the 'Kung Fu' TV series, Zen in the Art of Archery and other sources that sanctified violence. Gradually I was drawn to the simplicity, humour and direct aspect of Zen, eventually practicing a Buddhist orientated Kempo.
Films such as 'Jiro Dreams Of Sushi' and 'Ghost Dog', still provide my main source of Zen Dharma.

[bayamo]

Some of my fondest memories are eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with my mom, watching Kung Fu..

[Joyo]

This is a great thread, I have read through some of it, and when I have more time, I will sit down and read all these posts, because this really is a wonderful topic.

For me, it was pretty simple. I have suffered a lot, and I know many of us have, but I suffered, without the knowledge or skills to know what to do, or how to handle the suffering. So, in turn, the suffering causes more suffering when one has this outlook on life. I turned to various things---Universalism, Sufism, Wiccan for example, but in the end, what spoke to my heart was Buddhism. And then, what spoke to my heart even more was Zen, and then Treeleaf. So, here I am, and grateful for the practice here that we all share.

Gassho,
Treena

[sittingzen]

Unfortunately, nothing fun to report here. My family and relatives are primarily Buddhists in the Theravada tradition. I suppose I never found Zen, as it was and is here all along

Gassho,

Lu

[Entai]

Mine didn't start with popular culture (but I love some of these posts! Love Fight Club and Big Lebowski! I came to Zen through my depression, 20 some years ago. But not after stumbling through some other religions and/or philosophies. I found a book on concentration, hoping it would help me get a handle on some very negative thinking. I was pretty terrified of my mind at the time. This lead to books on meditation....and to Zen. It was what I had been looking for (didn't help the depression, but helped with perspective).

I owe a lot to a little book shop, "Divine Light" just outside of Harrisburg, PA. It was run by a very cool hippy-sort-of-guy. He would let folks hang out and read (without buying). I hope he's still in business....I'll have to visit the area again sometime.

Very interesting thread! Thank you, William

Gassho,
Bill

[Brian]

Browsing the library, found Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau. All downhill from there.

[Jundo]

Browsing the library, found Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau. All downhill from there.

Not one of my favorite books on Zen Practice. These days, many in the Zen world would consider it a book that had a disproportionate influence because it was one of the first books widely read in the West on Zen, but that did some harm in causing tremendous misunderstandings about Zen Practice. Below is what I write when the topic arises.

-------------------------

Zen and all Buddhism come in so many flavors ... All ultimately the same at heart perhaps, but very different in viewpoints and approach. So, the person new to Buddhism and Zen is left very confused by all the different books claiming to be a "Guide to Zen" or "Introduction to Buddhism" recommending often very very different things! Even "Soto" and "Shikantaza" folks can be quite varied in approach among themselves ... everyone like a cook with her own personal recipe for chicken soup!

...

["Three Pillars of Zen"] had great influence because it was so early (one of the few books on the subject 50 years ago), but it presented a view on Zen Practice and 'Kensho' that is not usual even in Japan (not even in Rinzai Zen, in my understanding) and represents a group ... named "Sanbokyodan" ... that is tiny is Japan but has had a HUGE and disproportionate influence in the West through derived groups such as the White Plum and Diamond Sangha! Read more here.

http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/CriticalZen/sanbokyodan%20zen.pdf

...

The book presents a view of "Kensho" and "Enlightenment" that was very much present in corners of the Zen world at one time, especially in the west. I was recently reading a good book on the subject, a book about the culture surrounding "The Three Pillars of Zen" which presented to many such an extreme, misleading "Kensho or Bust" image of Zen practice. Here is a review of that book, called "Zen Teaching, Zen Practice: Philip Kapleau and The Three Pillars of Zen" edited by Kenneth Kraft, a long time student of Kapleau Roshi ...

Kraft points out that Kapleau’s book is “in large measure a book about kensho” (p.14) which in itself is problematic as for many, including some of the authors of the essays, this led to “inflated expectations… [and] [t]he discrepancy between anticipatory visions of enlightenment and actual experiences of insight”. (p.15) This disjuncture between what Kapleau wrote and the actual experiences of Zen students has led to some criticisms of The Three Pillars of Zen as a book that gives an unrealistic picture of what to expect from zazen. ...

While this emphasis on and almost inevitability of kensho is, I think, a fair criticism of The Three Pillars of Zen, there is little doubt that Kapleau’s book brought many people to the study and practice of Zen Buddhism and for that we should be grateful. It is also necessary that we understand where and how Kapleau learned his Zen practice to better understand why he wrote and taught the way he did.

http://www.thezensite.com/ZenBookReviews/ZenteachingZenpractice.htm

You can also read a bit more on Kapleau and Yasutani Roshis' approach here ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?6514-SPECIAL-READING-ONCE-BORN-TWICE-BORN-ZEN-%28Part-1%29

Gassho, J

[bayamo]

I thought a bit about this. I briefly mentioned the show "Kung Fu" and while I enjoyed the show it wasn't as much "an influence" to learn more about Buddhism as "the Burning Monk". I vividly remember the day I was looking through a Life magazine with a retrospective of the 60s and I saw the photo of Thich Quang Duc. I am pretty sure that was one of the prime motives that sparked (no pun intended) my curiosity. I think there are many factors, a little bit here, a bit there, but I never forgot that image.

[Bobman4671]

Zen in Popular Culture (what motivated you to practice?)

My mother had a friend from India that she was designing a patio for. After a bit of planning, each day she would tell me stories of where she came from, and I, a little tater tot at the time soaked it all up like a sponge.

Around the same time, I had seen Little Buddha with Keanu Reeves (a little cheesy whenever I rewatch it nowadays but when I was little, it got it's message across to my young mind). So I asked my mom's Indian friend and she showed me meditation and the mantra Om.

I researched various kinds of meditation during my early, soul-searching teens. Like dream meditation, candle-gazing, yogic, etc. During a little research in the high school library, I found a book called Waking Up to What You Do by Diane Eshin Rizzetto. She starts with a little introduction to the practice and then breaks down the precepts one by one connecting to how we can realize them in our daily life. It's a wonderful book and I just read more and more and now here I am. Glad to be here too.

Gassho

Javier

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Brian]

Jundo - thanks for showing me that PDF on the differences between Rinzai and Soto. I especially liked the part that describes them as corresponding to yin and yang. I'd never thought of them that way, but it makes sense.

I've also read Soto-centric books, but because the books in general aren't labeled "Rinzai" or"Soto," it was - as you said - confusing.

[Neo]

.. suffering led me into the buddhist parth. But one thing that worked as a catalyst was the book 'the way of the peaceful warrior' by Dan Millman. It has some strong eastern tendencies. Also movies like fight club, the matrix and into the wild influenced. I dont know why I decided to pick up zen but I guess it felt more secular and it didnt focus alot on reincarnation and karma that I, as a guy raised in contemporary Sweden, have a hard time grasping. The hindu world view I mean. Zen just feels more about the core of waking up at the end of suffering in this lifetime.