A Zen Buddhist Encounters Quakerism

by Teruyasu Tamura

Overview

I had a chance to study Quakerism at Swarthmore College as a visiting scholar for one year from April, 1989. I attended from time to time the Sunday worship at Swarthmore Friends Meeting and at Pendle Hill (a Quaker center for study and contemplation near Swarthmore). I also became one of the more regular sitters at a weekly meeting for Zen sitting held at Pendle Hill. Through these experiences I had a glimpse of Quakerism as it actually lives today for many Friends in that area.

The present article tries to compare Quakerism with Zen Buddhism, but it is by no means a systematic, exhaustive comparison. Rather, it is a personal attempt to understand more deeply some salient features of Quakerism that I have happened to notice as a Zen follower.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149400089
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	04/04/2014
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #302
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	30
File size:	70 KB

About the Author

Teruyasu Tamura is a professor of American literature at Chukyo University in Japan. He was educated at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and received a master�s degree from International Christian University. He grew up at Izumozaki, a small town on the coast of the Japan Sea, where a famous Zen priest named Ryokan (1758-1831) was born. This, together with the fact that his family belonged to a Soto Zen temple, may account for his early interest in Zen. Yet, it was not until 1979 when he was studying at the University of Pennsylvania as a visiting scholar that he actually began to sit in zazen. A few months later he attended a sesshin (Zen retreat) at Kongoji Temple in New York led by Eido Shimano Roshi, and on the last day experienced what Dogen referred to as �the body and the mind dropping off.� After returning to Japan, he received Koun Yamada Roshi�s guidance. In 1989 he came back to the U.S. to do research on Quakerism at Swarthmore College for one year. He is now writing a series of papers on the subject of Quaker influence in American literature.