You can’t call it zen unless it’s from the zen region of Japan. Otherwise it’s just sparkling concentration.

I feel like it’s a short and convenient loaner word to describe calm/focus/concentration at this point.

if Asians suddenly started to use the terms “seventh day adventism-like” or “independent fundamentalist baptist-like” to refer to the elements of American culture they find exotic

oh please do fuck yeah lmao. unironically a great bit

It’s the same as crackers using karma wrong.

i think you get “zen” because it’s so much shorter and convenient than “meditative”. there’s definitely some magical overlap with midcentury martial arts, especially with kyudo being called “zen archery” sometimes.

was buddhism exported like yoga was? (it was but that guy sucks shit lol) i remember somebody tried to have a struggle session about crackers doing yoga but nothing came of it because that was given rather than plundered.

And why is it only ever “zen-like”? I’m sure everyone would find it strange if Asians suddenly started to use the terms “seventh day adventism-like” or “independent fundamentalist baptist-like” to refer to the elements of American culture they find exotic.

there’s a bunch of japanese media that treats christian symbols and syncretic mysticism the way that you get norse gods in marvel or whatever. that seems kinda normal and maybe there should be more of it.

Apparently some guy named DT Suzuki introduced a modernized version Zen to the West as like a secular buddhism in the 50s. So westerners see “Zen” as like the meditation and the folk wisdom bits of buddhism.

“wow this calm or focused thing reminds me of this rly specific kind of japanese zen buddhism which is the second most powerful out of all buddhisms after the dalai lama ones”

i let it slide for now

I dunno. The term is a bit silly but i cant be fucked to care one way or the other, honestly.

you can’t say zen unless you play zenyatta in overwatch

Maybe a little, I mean it is dumb but getting bothered by it enough to make a post would only really make sense if you are Buddhist I think

To me the most interesting thing about actual Zen is the stick.

Keisaku

In Zen Buddhism, the keisaku (Japanese: 警策, Chinese: 香板, xiāng bǎn; kyōsaku in the Soto school) is a flat wooden stick or slat used during periods of meditation to remedy sleepiness or lapses of concentration. This is accomplished through a strike or series of strikes, usually administered on the meditator’s back and shoulders in the muscular area between the shoulder and the spine. The keisaku itself is thin and somewhat flexible; strikes with it, though they may cause momentary sting if performed vigorously, are not injurious.

Zen was once the predominant sect followed by the Samurai ruling class so arguably butchering peasants and warring with opposing Buddhist sects is also “zen-like”.

As an idea for annoying these types of westoids, when they talk about Zen you express surprise that they’re into Chinese religion. When they sputter and talk about Zen being Japamese, point out that Zen originated as Chan Buddhism in the Tang dynasty and enquire about specific doctrinal differences between Zen and Chan.

It’s not orientalist, it’s just white people being vapid

I think you are not taking into account that Zen Buddhism has become a popular thing in the West. It’s basically quick and easy Buddhism without all the work and just saying things are zen is more like a shortcut than it is a derogatory term

because people think zen = nirvana so they’re saying “Nirvana-like” sort of like how people say “heavenly” but different and probably more bastardized