Neoliberalism in zen

In 2022 the term ‘neoliberalism’ has come to be come a leftist code for turning a society towards Fascism. Though many may think that the Left in America is promoting Communism, the actual fact is that they promote Fascism.

Fascism is simple the private corporate control over sociable policy with the consent of the ruling government. This is what Nazi Germany was like, the ruling government gave consent to the private companies to build the war machine for Hitler, as well as institute social policies that the corporate oligarchs aka ‘The elite’ demanded. The ruling government simply made it legal, or in many cases ‘turned a blind eye’ towards the corporate dominance. Communism is the nationalization of all businesses, in where individuals own nothing and the State allocates resources to the people for their needs. So, while the left may be using Chinese Communist Party means and ways to sway the nation, they are in-fact creating a Fascist society.

Anyone who has been alive during 2020 to 2022 has seen the censorship, the banning, and the denigration of those who disagree the social policies of the corporations and their oligarchs, who are given consent to do such though Government. If you disagree with whatever issue that they deem as imperative or absolute, you get not only censored, but banned and dragged though their media machines to be bullied and tarnished to the public at-large. The message they send is: If you dare to stand up for yourself, you will be treated as an unwanted guest, and thus kicked out of their society.

To think that the Zen Centers would be immune to this Neoliberalism is laughable. Back around 1995 there was this movement in the American Zen centers called ‘Engaged Buddhism’, the message was: Vegetarianism, conflict resolution, and meditation. This all looks good on the surface, yet underneath is where the corruption and evil lays.

When someone can control what you eat, well they can pretty much control just about everything about you. Often called the Camel nose syndrome, in where from an old proverb, once the camel puts its nose in the tent, well the entire camel enters the tent quickly after. Conflict resolution is a camel and also is a loaded term, in where one thinks it is a way to settle personal disputes however the reality is to eliminate personal disputes by elimination of the source of disputes. Thus, if properties where not owned by individuals and allocated by the State or corporations for specific purposes, then the personal disputes are eliminated. This idea expands to all aspects of current American society to all aspects, till when you own nothing, and you are completely dominated by the corporation Fascism.

Now, the right-wing calls this neoliberalism “Marxism”, and uses this term to stir an emotional response out of those who may be unaware as to what neoliberalism is, or simply uneducated as to the realities of what is happening. Right-wing tends to mean ‘Individualism’, in where the individuals control the destiny of their life, property, and economics. The Cryptocurrency revolutions is an example of Right-wing economics, as are farms, home-schooling, church and local governance.

Zen, is a subset created out of the Mahayana Sutras. This is a particular school of self-realization, aka ‘awaking’ though the contemplation of the nature of mind. Now, this zen school is old and has taken on the trappings of the cultures and times it has passed though, primary Chinese and Japanese. However, nothing fundamentally has changed in the metaphysical teachings of Zen.

It is the dull and deluded person who sees Zen as the trappings, the cultural baggage and customs picked up along the way. For just open up the Diamond Sutra, a major Zen Mahayana text, and you see that nothing cultural or any custom is supported, rather we are told to renounce them, to relinquish and abandon all trappings and cultural idioms; to see them as delusions.

The aspect of Vegetarianism in Zen is a contentious debate. Many do not know that it was the Taoist Emperors of China that not only forbid the monks from going out on Alms rounds, but forbade them from eating meats. When Soto Ch’an entered in to Japan, approximately 1294, much of the imperial edicts also followed Soto as Traditional, but more so to keep a similarity for when Zen pilgrims from Japan went to China they would know they temple ways. This is not uncommon, for we still see that today in Buddhism in where the main group is in another country and culture but out of country groups keep to the cultural ways so that the pilgrims are familiar with the home countries customs.

So, the aspect of “what do you eat” does not appear in any of the Mahayana Sutras. Japanese Zen monks eat anything offered to them by laymen, including a bucket of KFC. Furthermore, Japanese do not consider fish as animals, so Zen priest are known to eat a lot of fish in their family temples with thier families. Western Zen students do not know this, and have a very idealistic view of Japanese Zen that simply does not exist.

Now enter neoliberalism in to the issue of “what do I eat” in the Zen centers, and we find a very political atmosphere of ‘food purist’ who demand that all Zen students be ‘pure’ or be bullied to conform. This hostile atmosphere creates what in the Chinese Communist System of Mind Control is called a ‘Struggle Session’ in where the elites and those who are conformist to their views, press upon the population at-large to renounce an idea or position or be ridiculed, humiliated, bullied, tortured or even killed by them. When the State turns a blind-eye to what the elites are doing, or in the case of a Zen center in where the Mahayana Sutras are chucked down a shit hole, it then becomes all to easy for a hostile atmosphere to develop in where elites rule though brutality.

And, who exactly are the elites in a Zen Center? Often it is the groups designated teacher at-the-moment and ideologues who ride on populist politics of the moment. They use any opportunity to create a hostile environment in where they can beat down any individualism, any sense of self-control and determination, to make others conform to their purist views, that they believe is the solution to all suffering and ills in the world.

I actually left the Zen Centers in 1997, never returning or setting foot in them again. Hostile atmospheres turn to violence rather quickly, and I mean physical violence. The day I got sucked punched in the head by a senior monk at a Monastic Zen Center, and was told that I was the problem for complaining about being suckered punched, was the day I knew I was in a very hostile environment that was dangerous to my life.

25 years later, has anything changed? I get emails sent to me, by Western Zen priest, threatening to hurt me if I continue on with my blogs and videos. Zen students tell me that their Zen Centers and teachers say that I am a racist, a homophobe, a right-wing nut. Not that I have ever said anything to give them that impression, but don’t you see what is happening? It’s them bullying the student to conform by saying that if they agree with what I say, or align to the positions I take, they will be deemed as ‘impure’ by the elites and thus ‘censored, banned, deleted’.

Though, Zen is not unique in this neoliberalism challenge. Church attendance in 2022 is 11% down from 2019, and an over all only 65% of Americans even say they are religious at all, with only34% of Americans attending any church at all. Neoliberalism often brings external forces and ideas that are seemingly incompatible with religious values. The unbridled wedge of neoliberalism further divides the next generation from the current and previous generations.

Many have told me that the future for Zen, Buddhism, and religion in general looks bleak. The Asian monks who see the degeneration of the teachings, the abandonment of the temples, and the lack of new monks to carry forth the Light of the Mahayana – all cry out that ‘this is the time of mappō, a Japanese word for the end of the Dharma in this world.

If you believe this is Mappō (the end of the Dharma) then it is. Choose to believe something else, and something else will happen!