Questions to Master Deshimaru

Question

Zen has been influenced by the cultures of India, China, and Japan. Are there elements in our culture that can influence it; in other words, will Zen take anything from the West?

Answer

Bodhidharma, coming from India, gave Zen to China. China was strongly marked by it. The country was already highly developed; when the Chinese civilization accepted Zen (Ch'an) its own philosophy was deeply influenced, whereas Indian Zen, for its part, gained great vigor from its contact with Chinese naturalism and pragmatism. Then Master Dogen took Zen to Japan, where it had a powerful influence on the spirit of the samurai and on culture in general. Japanese civilization still bears the marks of it today. More than ten years ago, I brought Zen to Europe. The civilization here is growing weak now, and whenever a civilization grows weak Zen gives it renewed vitality. In China, too, there was an overdeveloped intellectual culture and Zen revived it. In Japan, in Dogen's day, traditional Buddhism had become almost wholly esoteric. What weakens people is too much use of the imagination and intellect. So Dogen restored the balance with Zen. There must not be only spirituality and imagination; there must be practice as well. Zen is easy to practice, but it is hard too. The posture is simple, yet some aspects of it are difficult and require the highest mastery. Civilization in Europe today is decadent, and not only in Europe but throughout the scientific West. If you practice zazen, however, Western civilization will certainly grow strong again. I believe that. It will be the same as for the Chinese civilization in Bodhidharma's day. People in the West have good brains. If you practice zazen you will become more active and balanced, and Western civilization will continue to be powerful in the centuries to come. But isn't practicing zazen a way of escaping from the economy, society, the world? No, I don't believe that. A newborn child is attracted by food, by its mother's breast. An adolescent is intensely aware of sexuality. Adults are drawn to money and possessions. And then come honors. But when human beings find that none of these are enough to bring the happiness they want, then they turn toward spirituality. That is not running away; on the contrary, it is proof of realism, evolution. Only human beings have access to the spiritual realm.