What is the sound of one musician meditating?


That book is by the German Jesuit priest and Zen master Father Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle whose pupils included Herbert von Karajan. Discussions of Karajan invariably touch on his opportunistic membership of the Nazi party. Yet discussions of John Cage almost always touch on his involvement with Zen Buddhism without exploring the not inconsiderable connections between his Zen teacher D. T. Suzuki and Fascism. Three erudite articles by Brian Victoria are important sources:
~ D.T. Suzuki, Zen and the Nazis
~ The Formation and Principles of Count Dürckheim's Nazi Worldview and his interpretation of Japanese Spirit and Zen
~ A Zen Nazi in Wartime Japan: Count Dürckheim and his Sources—D.T. Suzuki, Yasutani Haku’un and Eugen Herrigel
Of course the past is a foreign country. But that foreigness should not be selective.

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Comments

Pliable said…
See also - http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/11/books/meditating-on-war-and-guilt-zen-says-it-s-sorry.html
6:30 pm
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