ABSTRACT
Zen is beyond being described as just a religion, philosophy, or a type of human inquiry; it is a way of liberation to achieve actualization of human spiritual and mental potential. True, social psychology, aided by statistics, has at times reified the self and its close psychological “cousin construct” personality in ways unimagined by Zen roshis. Like folk heroes, writers could graft onto Hui-neng’s legend and into his sayings and sermons the germane issues and perspectives they wished such a person would say. McRae likens the images of classic Zen masters conjured by Zen’s own historiographers to a string of pearls. Zen, at least in its North American form, also offers a commercial panoply of accessories and appurtenances associated with meditation and the wider Buddhist lifestyle. Past Zennists had negative things to say about becoming “hung up” on sutra-knowledge, excessive devotion of or “obsessing” on doctrines, and enlarging the inevitable ritual practices growing up around this emerging branch of Buddhism.
