It is not because an institution claims to be the guarantor of a tradition,
It’s not even because, to a certain extent, it is the guarantor of the teachings of a tradition,
that it is its owner or representative.
In this respect, the Sotoshu (the official institution of Soto Zen in Japan), when its 2021/22 brochure displays masked practitioners under the headline « The New Normal, » ceases to represent the teaching and acts solely in accordance with its status as an official institution.
It contributes to the confusion and, moreover, demonstrates its lack of subtlety in interpreting events.
Nevertheless, the texts it relays do not lose their intrinsic value and their power to impact the practitioner.
However, this seems to me to be a fraudulent use of tradition, a usurpation, a trap into which it is easy to fall.
The Heart of Zen, Breath of the Spirit, is not humanly institutionalizable; that’s the official error: Seeking Zen in an institution.
Let’s smile.
©FJ Sept. 2025
Recueils / Participation/
Notes & Silence 
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J’aimeAimé par 1 personne
There is a reason I made a promise to myself never again to join a religious group or organisation. I think you may be saying much the same.
J’aimeAimé par 1 personne
I mafr s promise to myself to be free from any religious organisation.
One may easily think it is the same thing.
Maybe it gives me even more freedom.(?)
J’aimeAimé par 1 personne
I suppose one may be free of an organisation whilst within it, or bound to it, though not a member.
But it is more likely that freedom and not being joined will coincide.
« I will not be bound. »
J’aimeAimé par 1 personne
That is exactly what I meant.
I’m thinking of people who try to define themselves as completely opposed to their parents,
not realising that they are therefore as defined by the as those who reproduce the same patterns they experiences in their upbringing.
Defined as…
Defined against…
…in both cases, dependent from..
J’aimeAimé par 1 personne