Re: Good reply, Earl.
Originally posted by Charlie Kondek
As to the historicity of zen and the MA: well, I'd have to double-check my sources, but I'm pretty sure I've read, over and over again, that the samurai were greatly impacted by zen. . . . A quick search under "zen" and "samurai" yields this text, for example:
"The most important influence on the code of the samurai was the introduction of Zen Buddhism during the Kamakura period (1192-1333 AD), which became the philosophical basis of bushido. Bushido demands, above all else, the willingness to face death - and facing death willingly means conquering fear. According to Zen principles, fear can only be truly conquered by eliminating the notion of self. By the period of the Warring States (late 15th -16th centuries), the most colourful period of the samurai chronicles, Zen and bushido had taken deep root among the samurai, and had penetrated into the culture and values of the Japanese people as a whole."
This from an intro to books at KeganPaul.com
I don't know what particular book this passage comes from, but in a word, it's twaddle (ok, so that's a very un-samurai-like word, what can I say?). It's an excellent example, though, of the sort of thing I was talking about the other day in a post to the "Zen and Koryu" thread under the Koryu forum. The reasoning connecting Zen and bushi values is logical, but there's no foundation for it in historical evidence, and much evidence that contradicts the notion that large numbers of samurai ever thought along similar lines.
Karl Friday
Dept. of History
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602