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Summary

　　Zen in Europe is currently a patchwork quilt of somewhat competitive perspectives with much investment in contrasting metaphysical positions and ancient loyalties to church or humanistic faiths.　While good Zen practice is cultivated in many centres the Dharma upon which Zen relies and its Buddhist history is poorly understood and in some cases ignored largely as a consequence of accepting Daisetsu Suzuki’s pan-religious mysticism.

　　D. T. Suzuki provided a one sided view of Zen emphasizing sudden enlightenment and a process that functioned outside history and indeed the intellect.　This vision was eagerly taken up by Westerners in the early part of this century.　Since the “post-modern” turn a renewed emphasis on the contextuality of metaphysical discourse has arisen necessitating a reconsideration of views concerning Zen which were standard in the 1950s.　A brief survey of some of the more significant Zen movements in Europe is provided.

　　Chinese Chan as presented by Master Sheng-yen provides a thoroughly Dharma based understanding of Zen that challenges most of the issues that concern European Buddhists today, in particular the validity of “Christian Zen” and other inclusivist mainstreamings that tend to understate the enlightenment project of the Buddha.　In addition the Chan interest in the Avata.msaka tradition of Hue-

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yen philosophy provides a positive image of Buddhism warmly related to current environmental concerns.　Chan may provide a more sure footed Zen than is currently available in Europe.

Key words: 1. Chan  2. Post Modernity  3. D.T. Suzuki  4. European Zen  5. Hua-yen  6. Environmentalism

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Introduction

　　   When Master Sheng-yen got a shoe full of muddy water on alighting from his car in a remote farmyard in Wales in 1989 it was a but a damp prelude to the first presentation of Chinese Zen on intensive retreat in Britain.　His subsequent visits have provided us with a fresh and profound discourse on the Chinese view of Zen hitherto dominated by Japanese versions.　Few of us at the time also understood that these visits were perhaps unconsciously also a contribution to a considerable reinterpretation of the meaning of Zen for the West, or at least Europe.

　　When I was first asked to contribute to this volume I was rash enough to consider writing about the face of Zen in the mirror of contemporary “post-modern” western thought.　Reflection quickly revealed the arrogance of this idea.　At least I should restrict myself to my own backyard in Europe.　To speak of American Zen without extensive research and travel was beyond my capacity.　Yet the relation between the ideas about Zen current in the 1950s when I was first interested in the subject (Crook 1998) and the perspectives with which it is regarded today is an important field of enquiry for me personally.　In 1994 Master Sheng-yen passed on to me transmission in the Lin Chi lineage of Chan with the “mission” to run intensive retreats and teach Dharma not only in Britain but where possible also in Europe (see NCF 9:2-5).[1]  How to do this? I asked him.　He replied by remarking that since I was British and he was Chinese it would be my task to find out!  This article expresses some aspects of my attempts in this direction.

On the practical side my colleagues and I gradually established a small institution for planning and running intensive Buddhist retreats at my center in Wales.　Eventually this took the form of the

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Western Chan Fellowship with charitable status and small branches in several cities.　We have focused especially on teaching meditation and the Dharma of Chan anchored most particularly in the Silent Illumination tradition as taught us by Shi-fu on retreat in Wales and again in Berlin in 1999.　I also teach and run retreats in Warsaw, Berlin and once in St. Petersburg, and am one of the founding members of GREZ (Groupe de Recherches et d’Etudes sur le Zen) in Paris.

Since we are all lay practitioners the question of the nature of a lay Zen has much preoccupied us.　For me, particularly, there has been the question of what emphasis to stress in the teaching of Dharma.　The exciting opportunity apparent in the transmission of the Chan Dharma to Europe must necessarily engage the rapid changes in European culture and thought characteristic of our time.　This change from a “modern” to a “post-modern” culture calls into question some of the interpretations of Zen and Buddhism that were accepted doctrine in the fifties.　Without an examination of this critique there is a risk of failing to connect the profundity of the Dharma to our prevailing ways of life and thought.　The skilful means are undoubtedly there but still to be fully uncovered.

Suzuki Zen and the Post-modern Turn

　　   The shift to so called “post-modernity” arose fundamentally from the enormous changes resulting from a growing globalization as reflected in the growth of transnational corporations and the world wide success of market capitalism.　One aspect has been the availability at all times and seasons of food products from anywhere in the globe in the super markets of the developed world.　In parallel, each and every religious belief and practice is nowadays represented on all our book stalls.　One can sign up for virtually anything.　The manner in which business, political and cultural transactions have developed has transformed our world to set up a complex, computerized, global interdependence of economic and