Zen and Violence

Some Westerners, dismayed by aggressive acts from the religions they're familiar with, regard Zen Buddhism as a welcome alternative, seeing it as an introspective way of life pursuing peace. Marvin Olasky writes in the latest edition of World that Buddhist scholars are having to rethink that assumption in light of history.  Scholars such as:

• Zen priest Brian Victoria. In his Zen at War (Rowman & Littlefield, 2nd edition, 2006) and Zen War Stories (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), Victoria reveals how Zen leaders in the 1930s Japanese aggression in China applauded killing.
• D.T. Suzuki, who became the leading Zen popularizer in the United States. In his book Zen and Japanese Culture (republished in 1970 by Princeton University Press), acknowledged that Zen "treats life and death indifferently" and can be "wedded to anarchism or fascism, communism or democracy . . . or any political or economic dogmatism."
• Former Zen Priest Josh Baran, who reviewed Zen violence for the Buddhist publication Tricycle magazine.

Olasky writes:

Adherents to the key Buddhist doctrine of non-attachment--to things, people, or life itself--argue that we only imagine the difference between war and peace, civilization and savagery: All are illusions. Brian Victoria shows how that doctrine hardened Japanese soldiers with Buddhist training. Others also worry about Zen teaching that, according to Buddhist Josh Baran, pushes adherents to "give up our rational thinking and intelligence."

Baran's review of Victoria's writing noted, "For too long, we have accepted all eastern teaching with childlike reverence, placing our thinking faculties on hold. Perhaps now, with these new revelations, it is time to re-honor intelligence and questioning and look more carefully at what we inherited and where we are headed." Christians have gone through such self-appraisals concerning the Crusades. Some Buddhists are ready to do the same.

My point in all this is not to suggest that Buddhism is a religion of violence--it rarely is these days--but that it can be. Buddhism gets a great press in the United States, but it is one more man-made religion that reflects our naturally sinful natures. Murderers and adulterers all need Christ.