XXI
Let death and exile, and all other things which appear terrible, be daily before your eyes, but death chiefly; and you will never entertain an abject thought, nor too eagerly covet anything.
This is a lesson that is definitely found in Zen, in especial in the Bushido tradition (*-do in Japanese generally denotes a Buddhist spiritual approach to finding enlightenment in a practical art). Epictetus was sort-of exiled from Rome as part of a general ban on the teaching of philosophy in the city, although I do not know how terrible he found the Greek countryside in practice.
There is similarly a long tradition in Christian Europe following this advice, which is called Memento Mori in the Latin ("Remember Death").
15 comments:
Ecclesiastes 7
It's really in all of bushido, not just the Zen part. I might invert your categories: bushido is a lot bigger socially than Zen, but Zen can be found in much of bushido.
There's been a lot written about how Zen was the perfect Buddhist sect for the bushi, but it should always be kept in mind that an early shogun made Zen something like the established church for the shogunate, with all of the political implications that term normally carries. The reason was probably much more that Zen was a new, politically unaligned sect in Japan at the time. The other major sects like Tendai were all aligned with various political factions, like the nobility, the imperial family, etc. So, if the shogun had, e.g., made Tendai the official sect of the shogunate, it would have put him under the power of the nobility. He needed an unaligned sect, and Zen was the one he picked.
Post facto, many warrior scholars and philosophers wrote justifications for the choice that emphasized how well Zen fit the warrior life, but the justifications came after the choice.
No doubt, with a bunch of bushi joining their sect, the Zen masters of the day did begin to tailor their sect for warriors, so there's that. I'm not saying the warrior scholars were wrong, but maybe the fit was worked on from both sides (bushi and monk) for some time until it became a good fit.
In any case, probably the majority of bushi kept on with the sects they grew up in. Jodo Shinshu was quite popular among provincial bushi, once it developed. If one wanted to rise in the shogunal bureaucracy, then one probably officially joined the Zen sect.
They're not my categories to invert; the Japanese language makes the distinction. I'm just drawing attention to it. Your knowledge of the history suggests you must have encountered it before: "-jutsu" refers to many sorts of practical arts in Japan, including some martial arts. This was true especially of arts produced by or even class-features-of the samurai: bujitsu, named after the 'bu-' class of warriors; jujitsu, the base art in many respects, which taught body movement and unarmed combat; kenjutsu, the art of using the samurai sword; iaijutsu, the art of fast-drawing that sword for use in rapid killing cuts; and similar arts around archery, calligraphy, and cultural events of the class like tea ceremonies. Zen practice over time created versions of these arts that used the techniques as features that were useful for meditation and hopeful enlightenment, and these are called -do instead: budo, judo, kendo, iaido, etc. The Zen forms are often better known in the West because they are much safer to practice and thought to have spiritual benefits, so they were more widely taught earlier to foreigners.
There's a great deal of cross-contamination, though. I definitely don't argue against the idea that bringing a bunch of warriors into the Zen tradition didn't end up changing the tradition. The Chinese school out of which Zen developed, Ch'an, is much more focused on taming aggression than utilizing martial forms as a means of meditation (though it too has been associated with martial arts, many of which end up being excellent for adapting into meditative forms).
Yes, but 'do' is also the Tao. Same Chinese character. It can be Buddhist, but isn't necessarily.
Or, Shinto -- the 'to' is the same character as 'do' you are referring to. Here, though, it is the native animist religion of Japan. 'Shin' means god/s, so 'the Way of the Gods.' It has nothing to do with Buddhism.
When I was thinking about inverting the categories, I was thinking socially. It's just a historical fact that there were far more practitioners of bushido than Zen among the warrior class (bushi). Bushido didn't come out of Zen.
Also, as I think you may know, a lot of the change from bujutsu to budo was due to two centuries of peace under a warrior bureaucracy. Officially, the warriors leading the nation were protecting it (their justification for holding power), but there were no real external threats from the 1630s until the 1850s. So, some martial arts schools became much more philosophical. In part, they were looking for justification.
That philosophy wasn't necessarily Zen. Shinto, other forms of Buddhism, Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism were also important. Jigoro Kano was probably influenced more by John Dewey's educational theories than Buddhism when he developed judo.
Anyway, TL;DR, I think the importance of Zen in Japanese culture has been over-emphasized in the West in general.
That said, there were a lot of bushi who took the practice of Zen very seriously and who were sincere believers. Some of them did in fact change things in the way you suggest and make the martial arts (as well as other arts like tea) into ways of pursuing Buddhist enlightenment. But that wasn't by any means most of them.
One more point -- you are quite right to point out about Ch'an taming aggression. Probably even more important than finding new justification was the problem of a warrior government with no wars to fight. What do you do with the young warriors training to fight, raised on stories of glory from past wars? That's another reason philosophy came to be emphasized.
It is also the reason that so many Americans of Gen X turned to the Japanese martial arts in their youth, and some of them to Zen. It provides a partial answer to the problem of developing the manly virtues absent war or plausible enemies, and during a period of prosperity and stability.
To return to the point about inverting Bushido and Zen, the distinction I wanted to point out was that the non-religious arts (-jutsu) were made into religious practices (-do). It was not to affirm that -do is never used in religious contexts outside of Zen, although Zen has pride of place in Japanese martial culture (i.e., Bushido, at least in its classical form).
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I've never seen zen or bushido practiced, that was before my time. It is precisely because zen and pride do not match, that the Japanese seek to find ways to defeat the ego and the emotions of fear/anger/shame, via a tradition. Their religions are more like rituals than the Vatican or LDS organized religions. In the West, religion is either a verbotten cult or it is a state officially recognized tax exempt cult. Non state cults or anti state cults are destroyed, ala Waco 1. The Cult of Fauci are promoted because they are the State/Science.
"It is also the reason that so many Americans of Gen X turned to the Japanese martial arts in their youth, and some of them to Zen. It provides a partial answer to the problem of developing the manly virtues absent war or plausible enemies, and during a period of prosperity and stability."
And younger Americans turn to gaming, for similar reasons. It is the Wild West, at least in the decades before. Full equality due to skill, but very little politeness and moderation.
Yes, Grim, I think you're probably right about Gen X.
To return to the point about inverting Bushido and Zen, the distinction I wanted to point out was that the non-religious arts (-jutsu) were made into religious practices (-do).
Well, this is a frustrating kind of disagreement because it's a real disagreement but I don't think I'm adding anything to the discussion topic, which is stoicism. It seems tangential.
Let me illustrate this. Historically, the bujutsu were all affiliated with various Shinto shrines and training could only occur either on the shrine grounds or in a ritually purified space. Typically, training halls not on the grounds of a Shinto shrine had a "kamidana" (lit. "god-shelf") where a miniature shrine was kept. In either case, training began with prayers to the Shinto deity involved. So, The practice of bujutsu was a Shinto practice. The bujutsu were religious in nature, but religious in the sense that they were only properly learned and taught in the presence of Shinto war gods.
But while that contradicts one of your points, is it really useful to anyone here?
I mean, maybe I could suggest saying something like "the Shinto arts (-jutsu) were made into Buddhist practices (-do)" but that just seems confusing. It creates the need for a lot of explanation for most people. Your point is valid if what you mean is that the religious nature of the bujutsu was transformed during the Edo era into a Buddhist-influenced way of seeking enlightenment, the budo. Your conclusion is right, although your starting point is wrong.
It's like an invalid syllogism that happens to have a true conclusion. Imagine I reasoned thusly: All humans are mammals, and all cats are humans, therefore all cats are mammals. Would you let me get away with that?
So. One more historical note.
Zen was adopted by the shogunate -- I forget -- maybe in the late 12th or early 13th century? So, Zen and bushi and bujutsu had been together for 400+ years before the development of budo began, and it was a bloody 4 centuries. The transformative ingredient for the development of budo was not Zen, but 200 years of peace.
All that said, you are quite right that there is a lot of stoicism in Buddhism (not just Zen) and in bushido. That is completely true. And, again, I'm not sure anyone is gaining anything by my being pedantic about all this.
Now I think I will retire to my snow-covered plains and not allow myself to get bothered about this sort of thing anymore. Let me make it a good lesson for myself in the practice of stoicism. Hachiman help me.
Well, rats. I didn't even give you an invalid syllogism. I gave you one with a false premise. Weird how the mind works; I've seemed to notice that people make the most mistakes when they are trying to point out the mistakes of others. Purely anecdotal, of course.
So, I should point out to readers who haven’t intuited it yet that Tom’s training in Japanese matters is extensive; his command of the language very greatly exceeds mine.
But I think I am after a more basic point than the one you are pursuing, Tom. An art can become a meditation only once it is mastered to a certain degree. When learning an art, any art, one has to think constantly about what one is doing. It’s is only later that one can let one’s mind go and do, as these meditative disciplines demand.
That’s all I mean to say. It must be a -jutsu before it can be a -do.
So, I should point out to readers who haven’t intuited it yet that Tom’s training in Japanese matters is extensive; his command of the language very greatly exceeds mine.
Well, and I'm not sure the trade was worthwhile. The more I'm here, the more I wish I'd studied philosophy instead, a much more practical thing it seems.
An art can become a meditation only once it is mastered to a certain degree. When learning an art, any art, one has to think constantly about what one is doing. It’s is only later that one can let one’s mind go and do, as these meditative disciplines demand.
That’s all I mean to say. It must be a -jutsu before it can be a -do.
Now that's a very interesting thing to say. Historically it is true that the budo would never have developed without the prior bujutsu.
What do you think about budo today, then? Most people who train in Japanese martial arts go right into budo: judo, kendo, aikido, kyudo, etc. It's true they need to learn the basics before the art becomes a meditation, but it's all -do.
I guess we could look at pre-1600 bushi (i.e., warriors before the long Edo peace) and say that their bujutsu were about success in war, and the overall practice of their arts, warrior lifestyle, and philosophy was bushido. Learning & practicing bujutsu was necessary in order to be able to practice bushido. That I think is true.
On a side note, you might find it interesting that a common early name (pre-Edo) for bushido was "kyuba-no-michi": kyu = bow, ba = horse, and michi = way (same character as -do). So, the way of the mounted archer.
Thinking of that, your idea of -jutsu before -do might be comparable to some things you've said about chivalry, maybe. Learning to ride isn't the practice of chivalry, but it was a necessary thing in order to be able to practice chivalry. What do you think?
What I've said about chivalry is that it is nothing other than the character one develops from learning to master a horse, and ride it to war. It is in fact a kind of analogy to the Japanese arts; there's probably a Japanese art of horsemanship, and a comparable meditation, that parallels it.
Once it has been developed into a religious form it can be taught as such, with the focus on the spirituality at the forefront from the beginning. You're still going to have the rough start, but at least you will have teachers as models who can help you attain the smoothness that gives the way.
With horsemanship the special thing is the ability to attain a sort of communion with a very different kind of mind -- a prey animal, who must be taught to be brave, to disregard danger, and to act in a way more appropriate to a predator. The ability to do that is what produces all the qualities of character that made knights seem fine to ladies, I argue.
What I've said about chivalry is that it is nothing other than the character one develops from learning to master a horse, and ride it to war.
Ah, now I remember that.
I don't think I can be as succinct about bushido. Each warrior clan had its own code for its warriors to live by, and I've only looked in detail at two of them. There were probably hundreds, maybe thousands, of warrior codes developed in Japanese history.
Pre-1600, they all seemed to be about achieving success in war: how to train properly, how to act day-to-day (i.e., as opposed to how members of other classes should act), how to act in war, etc. In the Edo period, at least one of them changed to a more philosophical code of conduct that was less interested in success in war.
The bujutsu for horses included bajutsu (military horsemanship) and yabusame (mounted archery).
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