The problem is that consumerism is the polar opposite
of Buddhism. Even with socially responsible business
management behind them, advertisements ultimately try
to persuade others that fulfillment comes in packages
of plastic
________________________________________________________________________
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 09:56:50 -0000
> From: "Francisco Garcia Eymael"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: A New Western Path
>
>
>
> According to the critics of traditional Zen
> Buddhism, there is, in
> Japan, a great distance between the Monastic pratice
> and the lay
> practice, the latter being simply a set of social
> and colective
> cerimonies of social nature, while the latter would
> be the `Real`
> Zen, consisting of zazen practice and study of the
> buddhist
> tradition. The critics also say that the `Real` Zen
> is in decline in
> Japan, since only a tiny minority of the clergy
> actually follow the
> monastic path.
> Western Zen Buddhism, by its turn, is basically a
> lay version of
> the japanese monastic path. Not by coincidence, the
> western practice
> has a tendencie to draw the followers away from
> their normal lifes.
> The follower start by attending zazen and lectures
> at a local Zen
> Center. If he becomes really engaged in the
> practice, he will
> eventually attend week-long seshins (retreats) or
> spend two or three
> weeks in a Monastery. Finally, he may decide to
> become a monk. Of
> course, this path is a source of conflict with the
> followers� family,
> friends and professional life.
> In other words, in the West, we are recreating
> the same dichotomy
> that, ultimately, led to the decline of Zen
> institutions in Japan.
> Furthermore, it is interesting to point out that
> hundreds of years of
> monastic tradition and practice did not prevent Zen
> from becoming a
> tool of ideological indoctrination and fanatization
> during the 1930s
> and 1940s. Finally, physical and psychological abuse
> seem to be
> recurrent in the history of monastic Zen Buddhism (I
> read once that
> the chinese master of Dogen used to punch his
> disciples in the
> shoulder, during zazen, in order to prevent
> drousiness).
> Therefore, the question is: Can we, in the west,
> learn from the
> mistakes and problems of traditional Zen Buddhism
> and create a new
> form of Zen practice?
> According to an article published by the
> Financial Times in 2001
> (and republished in Brasil by the newspaper Folha de
> S�o Paulo, back
> in March of 2001), brands have become a new form of
> religion. In
> other words, the contemporary western citizen
> defines his ideological
> and personal identity through the acquisition of
> certain consumer
> goods and services, which represent values and
> beliefs held dear by
> the consumer. So, you dont buy a Harley Davidson
> just because you
> want to have a motorbike. You buy a Harley Davidson
> because you enjoy
> freedom. You dont buy a Pattek Phillipe just because
> you want a
> wristclock. You buy it because you are a
> traditional, conservative
> person (The add says that "You never actually own a
> Patek Phillipe,
> you merely look after it for the next generation").
> If it is our goal to create a new Western
> Buddhism, we could use
> the contemporary economic system in order to
> transmit certain values
> and principles of Zen Buddhism. In my experience,
> the contemporary
> worker is often ill-trained and not properly
> oriented by his
> superiors. We could create new training systems that
> emphasyze formal
> training, technical excellence and total attention
> to the execution
> of daily tasks and to the customer. We could create
> corporations that
> promote estable, long-term labour relationships. The
> basic idea is to
> create a new corporate enviroment and new brands
> that reflect the Zen
> ideology. This way, daily work could become the new
> lay practice.
> And, this way, the Zen ideology could become
> integrated with daily,
> normal life in the contemporary society.
> When I was a ten years old, I really liked to go
> airports (My
> father used to travel a lot). The airport was not
> just a parking lot
> for airplanes, it was also a gateway for a better,
> more
> sophisticated, elegant world of travel. This new
> approach could also
> become a gateway for a more serene, elegant way of
> interacting and
> living in the world.
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