Customer Reviews

Zen Inklings: Some Stories, Fables, Parables, and Sermons (Buddhism & Eastern Philosophy)

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Donald Richie strays from his core strength, Japaense cinema, and writes stories - some invented, some historical - about Zen. Much as "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is not a tome of Buddhism, this book should be taken for what it is: stories about Zen from an interested non-practioner. As one of the stories suggests, those who are enlightened have no use for writing or reading about Zen anyways.

This book by Donald Richie, a well known critic of Japanese film and Japan-watcher generally, has had reasonable reviews in the press (Japan Times, USA Today). Still, some would say that Donald ought not to have written this book at all. Like the monochrome prints accompanying the text - which surely rank among the least artistic anyone has got away with putting in a book for sale, there is a contrived feel to the presentation of this text.

'Publishers Weekly' called 'Zen Inklings' a "delightful, original introduction to Zen, its inner spirit and application to daily living" - and, for their own part, Richie's publisher placed a promotional cover-band round the text, conveying similar illusions, stating - 'Zen Niumon' ('entering the gate of Zen') in Japanese, as if the book might be used as a beginner's manual for Zen training.

However, readers expecting to find anything of the sort inside the covers of this book - will be disappointed, for 'Zen Inklings' was not written with such needs in mind. Richie's Preface included a disclaimer to this effect - claiming only to have presented a few Zen influenced stories and anecdotes. Some of these are interesting, but more like the Buddhist folk-tales presented by Lafcadio Hearn, than the terse dialogues or pithy
remarks usually associated with Zen material. Others convey little more than rather passe generalisations, such as the story titled 'The Zen Library' (p.37-40) a rather over-blown message, telling us, for the nine zillionth time, that 'words about Zen' - and libraries, 'stink.' So far as 'words,''Zen' - and 'libraries' are concerned, some Zen commentaries actually convey something useful about Buddhism, unlike 'pop' Zen literature written by those who try to pre-empt the situation, taking refuge in meaningless platitudes about 'wordless' Zen.

If these sound like harsh strictures - well, it is just that given his background, evident talent - and the resources at his disposal, Richie could have given us something more substantial than this book. As I say - Richie did attach a disclaimer, stating that this book was not meant to be an account of orthodox Zen, but something "personal, idiosyncratic, even eccentric, and deeply heterodox. " Unfortunately, it wasn't that - either, just rather bland. Richie's publisher presented the book as if it promised to be an introduction to orthodox Zen. This ambivalence is reflected in the fact that some of the stories are traditional, while others were made up - by Richie. In the preface, Richie says he is interested in 'the process' of Zen, not its 'attainments.' That, in itself, is an odd statement to make, for with Zen - 'process' and 'attainment' go hand-in-hand. Richie had only 'one leg' in this project, and it shows. Save the money, or buy someone flowers.