Zen Anybody

[Joe Mc]

Zen has the best stories,and it has poetry. It has formality and informality. Square Zen and Beat Zen was an idea that was around during the beatniks adventures with poetry and writing. Need I say it referred to the formal Zen training structure which included Zazen, Ritual and Koan practice and things of that nature. Beat Zen on the other hand, as opposed to square Zen, referred to a type of skepticism with everything a questioning, not to mention some drug taking lol.

It may seem obvious to say but Zen seems to be unique in this regard when compared to other schools of Buddhism. It has an iconoclastic aspect to it that doesn't exist amongst say Theravadin Buddhism or Mahayana Buddhism. This is debatable of course and one could easily argue that Tibetan Buddhism in the form of the Vajrayanic path has 'crazy wisdom' which sometimes completely leaps outside the rules of formal training.

Anyway I was just wondering also why there are not so many threads here, if any, on Zen Buddhism ? It seems like the Buddhist Forum has become a hot bed ,with no disrespect meant, to the crossing the 't's' and dotting 'i's of classical theravadin buddhistic debate. It almost feels to me sometimes that you have to be a librarian or an expert in Pali Canon classifications to be part of ? But I know some of that feeling is my own lack of education in that regard so please forgive me.

So perhaps this thread could be open to Zen Buddhism, stories anecdotes, personal stories, poetry , zazen, snowballs, thieves, alcoholism or none of the above or all of the above ? Perhaps there could be a place for Zen after all or not as the case may be ?

Kind Regards, Joe