Some Reflections on Critical Buddhism (original) (raw)

The intellectual movement known as "Critical B u d d hism " (hihan Bukkyd 批判仏教)began around the mid-1980s in Soto Zen circles, led by Hakamaya Noriaki and Matsumoto Shiro, both Buddholoeists as well as ordained Soto priests. Since then it has indeed raised storm waves on the normally placid waters of Japanese academic Buddhist studies. "Criticism alone is Buddhism， ， ， declares Hakamaya, by which he means the critical discrimination of truth from error. Aggressively normative, Critical Buddhism does not hesitate to pronounce on what represents "true" Buddnism and what does not. By its definition, Bud dhism is simply the teachings of non-self (anatman) and dependent origination (pratitya-samutpdda). Many of the most influential of Mahayana ideas, including notions of universal B uddha nature, tathagata-garbha, original enlightenm ent, the nonduality of the Vimalakirti Sutra, and the "absolute nothingrness" of the Kyoto school, are all condem ned as reverting to fundam entally non-Buddhist notions of dtman, that is, substantial essence or ground.1 hus they are to be rejected as "not Buddhism"一 the "pruning" of this volume's title. At stake is not merely a claim about doctrinal correctness but a reform of Buddhism's social role. For Critical Buddhists, the proposi tion that all things participate in an innate, original enlightenment, far from being egalitarian, has in fact engendered and perpetuated social injustice by sacralizme the status quo. The present volume both examines the issues raised by Critical Buddhism and introduces to a Western readership the major points of