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striking ways the Avata.msaka inspired Mountains and Rivers Sutra of Dogen and Tung-shan’s realisation on seeing his reflection in the water of a stream.　“I am not it yet it is all of me.”──a profound metaphor for the relations between sentience and the universal.[3]

　　 Loorie emphasises that the key to this understanding is no mere philosophy but rather an intimacy with insentient things, a feeling of closeness between oneself and the flowering of daffodils in spring or the falling leaves of autumn, between oneself and the mountains that are always moving, rocks, stones, and trees.　To develop such intimacy requires stepping beyond our dualistic, romantic aspiration and its culture of individualism.　A certain sort of empathic imagination is needed for such an act, an imagination stimulated by meditation on the diversity in unity that Chan Dharma can inspire.　Here we have an outreach from Zen to the problems of the environment that face us all and which need urgent attention.

Chan and the Future of European Zen

　　 Zen in Europe is currently a patchwork quilt of somewhat competitive perspectives with much invested 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 Chan 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.

　　 Chan as presented by Master Sheng-yen can provide an important corrective through an emphasis on the anchoring of Zen practice in Zen Dharma and the proper investigation through intellect and experience of what that actually may be.

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　　 It remains of course unclear how attractive such a position may become in Europe.　Tolerance of diversity between contrasting perspectives as well as between Buddhist and Christian exponents must be nurtured and sustained.　Yet there is a real danger that forms of “inclusivism” that align meditation practices with Christian or Humanist mainstreamings may vitiate the entire Enlightenment project as understood by the Masters.　Helen Tworkov’s (1994) warnings from the USA apply to Europe too.　Yet, even if it is at first only a minority who pursue the Chan way with its inherent difficulties as well as depth, the distinctive value of Chan as an open, well argued, perspective on the place of sentience in the universe, may well begin to win debates to create a much more sure footed unity of understanding and practice than at present obtains.

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References

Batchelor, M.

　　  1998. Principles of Zen.  Thorsons. London.

Batchelor, S.

　　  1994. The Awakening of the West: The encounter between Buddhism and Western culture. Parallax. Berkeley.

　　  1998. Buddhism without Beliefs.

Blofield, J.

　　  1947. The Zen teaching of Huang Po on the transmission of Mind. Buddhist Society. London.

Chang, G.C.C.

　　  1972. The Buddhist teaching of totality: The philosophy of Hwa-yen Buddhism. Geouge Allen and Unwin. London.

Cleary, T.

　　  1990. Book of Serenity: One hundred Zen Dialogues. Lindisfarne. New York.

　　  1993. The Flower Ornament Scripture: A translation of the Avata^msaka Suutra. Shambhala. Boston and London.

Crook, J. H.

　　  1980. The Evolution of Human Consciousness. Clarendon. Oxford.

　　  1990. Catching a feather on a fan: A Zen retreat with Master Sheng-yen. Element. Shaftesbury.

　　  1998. Hilltops of the Hong Kong Moon. Minerva. London.

　　  1997. “Authenticity and the Practice of Zen.”  In: Pickering J. (Ed) The Authority of Experience. Essays on Buddhism and psychology. Curzon. Richmond.

In press.  “Zen──the challenge to dependency.” In: Batchelor, S. et al (Eds) The Psychology of Awakening.  Dartington Hall conference papers 1997.

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Crook, J.H. and D. Fontana (eds)

　　  1990. Space in Mind: East-West Psychology and Contemporary Buddhism. Element. Shaftesbury.

Epstein, M.

　　  1996. Thoughts without a Thinker. Duckworth. London.

Faure, B.

　　  1993. Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition. Princeton University Press. Princeton. NJ.

Jones, K.

　　  1989. The Social Face of Buddhism: An approach to Political and Social Activism. Wisdom. London.

　　  1993. Beyond Optimism: A Buddhist Political Ecology.  Carpenter. Oxford.