Zen, American-Style

2820 Seventh Street,Berkeley CA 94710

10 May, 2023

Description

Zen was America’s first Buddhist crush. Following the defeat of Japan in World War II, many became fascinated with the tradition’s celebration of natural spontaneity and immediate awakening — openings to the One Mind communicated through enigmatic, poetic, and sometimes hilarious texts. What other dharma tradition is capable of declaring in its scriptures that “Buddha is a shit-stick”? Over the decades, Zen’s path of radical realization not only shaped the experiential spirituality of these shores, but inspired artists, poets, systems thinkers, technologists, and writers to apply Zen (or “Zen”) to everything from motorcycles to management theories to the design of computers. Meanwhile, Zen also crystalized into an often rigorous religion with roshis, lineages, and strict homegrown monasteries. Today, as Western Buddhism continues to transform, the destiny of both these institutional frameworks and the elusive and magical “spirit of Zen” are unclear. Beginning April 26, and meeting again over the following four Wednesdays, the Alembic’s own Erik Davis will break down the American reception, mutation, distortion, and revitalization of Zen. After introducing some of the essential features of Japanese Zen we will move on to topics that include: D.T. Suzuki and the avant-garde, Alan Watts and cybernetics, Beat poets and freak anarchists, mystical slapstick and Shunryu Suzuki’s masterful Zen Mind Beginners Mind, and the radical dharma of the street and the earth. By uncovering this story, and dipping into deep well of Zen thought and practice, including zazen and koan, we can glimpse the sort of transformations the dharma manifests as it spreads through the West, and discover some of the vast treasures that the Zen spirit still offers. No prior knowledge or experience of Zen is required, and remote participants are welcome. Erik Davis is an author, award-winning journalist, sometimes podcaster, and popular speaker based in San Francisco. He is the author of five books, including High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies (MIT Press/Strange Attractor), Nomad Codes (Yeti), and the cult classic Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information (Crown). Davis graduated from Yale University in 1988, and earned his PhD in religious studies at Rice University in 2015.