xenophobic American culture preoccupied with war in the Middle East and
ceaseless debates over immigration laws. Nevertheless, in such a critical
time for American art and poetry in the twenty-fi rst century, Zen has found
an unlikely home.
In 2005, Andrew Schelling published a concise yet complete anthology
called The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry. This
anthology includes an array of Buddhist poems written by living poets.3
Schelling writes that his anthology is “a gathering of contemporary, living
poets, and contains recent work, much of which appears in book format
here for the fi rst time” (xv)4. Some of the writers included are Scalapino,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane DiPrima, Gary Snyder, Shin Yu Pai, Norman
Fischer, and Eliot Weinberger. Schelling comments on the anthologized
selections: “Some of it is the mature work of long-seasoned practitioners,
some of it the opening work of young writers just now publishing their
fi rst books” (xv).
Lazer, a practicing zennist, responded with “Refl ections on The Wisdom
Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry,” published in Talisman: A
Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. In this article, Lazer discusses
the nature of contemporary Buddhist poetry within the context of modernday
America. He argues that the essence of Buddhist poetry is nontotalizable,
meaning that it is unable to be bound by defi nition (9).5 Modern Buddhist
poetry resists the constraints of exactitude and defi nitiveness; it refuses
conclusiveness. The idea that Zen poetry resists defi nition coincides with
Wallaceʼs characterization of postlanguage poets. He believes that “many
postlanguage writers refuse to fi t singular and identifi able categories, in
some cases even switching forms and infl uences radically … a tendency
which makes them hard to anthologize, generalize, or even critique in more
than individual cases or small groups” (10).
3 With the exception of Philip Whalen whose works are published here
posthumously.
4 The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry. Ed. Andrew
Schelling. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2005.
5 Lazer, Hank. “Refl ections on The Wisdom Anthology of North American
Buddhist Poetry.” Talisman: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics.
Vol. 32-33. Summer/Fall 2006.
Zen Buddhism
The University of Alabama McNair Journal
54
Zen Buddhism, as a mode of spirituality, is highly reliant on the
individual as it is primarily non-dogmatic. Enlightening states of mind
can be experienced in a multitude of ways; each journey is unique and
irreproducible. One person may experience an enlightening or intensifi ed
moment of awareness while meditating in a Buddhist cultural center while
another person may experience it while sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffi c
looking at the big blue sky. While these experiences are different from one
another, one is not more valuable or legitimate than the other, since they
both lead to some higher level of consciousness, a particularized moment
of being. Such is the nontotalizable nature of Buddhist poetry; as a total
body of poetry, it cannot be captured by a single defi nition. It is vast and
variegated, and the beauty of Schellingʼs work lies in the variety of texts
which he provides. The reader is exposed to writing styled after traditional
Buddhist forms in addition to unconventional and experimental modes of
poetry.
The Zen Aesthetic
Schelling articulates that “poetry actually carries you or transports
you” (3). “To where?” is the essential question. Lazer suggests that the
poetic process is a path. Poetry is a pathway which can lead to a deeper and
richer understanding. He says that “it is a realization of the oblique present
tense grace of the experience of poetic practice itself” (15). However, the
exact destination of this path is impossible to determine. It will be different
for each poet and each audience upon each reading. Even re-reading the
same poem will lead to a different place, a new thought, a new experience.
Each breath taken and every passing moment are new and irreproducible.
Buddhism and poetry share a homeomorphous relationship in that each of
them separately is amorphous, existing outside the borders of materiality
and regulation. Since there are no absolute rules, the door is open for almost
anything.
While Zen lends itself to experimentalism and a wide variety of
possibilities, it does not necessarily mean that “anything goes.” In a
collection of essays entitled This is it, Alan Watts criticizes those artists
who use Zen as an excuse “to justify the indiscriminate framing of simply
anything – blank canvases, totally silent music, torn up bits of paper … or
dense masses of mangled wire” (94).6 While he recognizes the value in “the
profound willingness to listen to or gaze upon anything at all that frees the
6 Watts, Alan. “Beat Zen, Square Zen.” This is it. New York: Vintage,