Ryan, I have no reason to doubt your statement below, but that would lead me to believe you haven't spent much time outside the US or the West in general.
Buddhism has two main schools: Theravada and Mahayana. Theravada is practiced in India, Sri Lanka and most all of Southeast Asia - and has by far the largest number of adherents. In my experience (I live in Thailand and have travelled extensively around Southeast Asia and have been to India a number of times) virtually all Theravada practicioners either have never heard of any other form of Buddhism, or condsider any other form as false or a cult. Mahayana is practiced in East Asia - mainly in China, Japan and Korea. The Buddhsit practices there include Pure Land, Nichiren Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Shingon, Tiantai (Tendai), Shinnyo-en - and oh yes, almost as an afterthought - Zen. It's called 'Zen' in Japan and most of the West, 'Chan' in China and 'Seon' in Korea. Again, most practicioners of these other (non-Zen) schools of Mahayana Buddhism think their particular practice is the only 'true' practice and pretty much universally completely reject, or at least have a lot of serious doubts about Zen/Chan/Soen. It's mainly in China, Japan, Korea and of course the West (USA, Europe) that Zen Buddhism is accepted unconditionally as a real, bonafide expression of Buddhism. ...Bill! --- In [email protected], "Ryan" <ryan.mishler@...> wrote: > > I have never heard a Buddhist call Zen illegitimate or cultish. > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
