Why Anarchists Like Zen? A Libertarian Reading of Shinran (1173–1263)^81
the deconstruction, but also to the articulation of a Buddhist
anarchist project.^9
2. Rebellion Beyond Zen: Shinran’s Buddhism
The most significant and central feature of Shinran’s thought is
the logic of tariki, often translated as other-power.^10 Whereas in
most Buddhist traditions, including Zen, the individual is meant to
strive through some form of disciplined practice regime in order to
reach a given soteriological goal, Shinran formulated a Buddhism
based on a radical negation of self-effort and self-reliance as a
means to insight. In fact he harmonized means and ends by argu-
ing that if the end (becoming a Buddha) is a state of naturalness
and spontaneity (Jp. jinen, Ch. ziran) the means (the path towards
Buddhahood) must also reflect and be guided by those qualities.
Shinran’s formulation of tariki represented a significant departure
from the more conventional and established forms of Buddhism
and, consequently, had important social implications. Shinran
lived during the turbulent Kamakura period (1185–1333), at a
time when other Japanese Buddhist ‘reformers’, such as Shinran’s
own teacher, Honen (1133–1212), as well as Dogen (pioneer of
Japanese Soto Zen, 1200–1253) or Nichiren (1222–1282), were
often critical of the established socio-religious order and substan-
tially reformulated existing ideas about Buddhist practice, social
relations and hierarchy. In order to explore the anarchic potential
of Shinran’s thought I will first discuss how Zen has been (mis)
construed as the most anarchist of Buddhisms.
Paraphrasing Christmas Humphreys and John Clark, Peter
Marshall refers to Zen as “the apotheosis of Buddhism” and the
Buddhism that “developed its libertarian potential to the fullest”.^11
The libertarian thrust of Zen lies in its iconoclastic statements and
the often playful, absurdist and rhizomatic dynamics that animate
many of the narratives of the Zen lore.^12 However, most Zen an-
archists or anarchists with Zen Buddhist sympathies present Zen
in an ahistorical, uncritical and decontextualized fashion, some-
times enshrining meditation as an inherently revolutionary tool
for social change.^13 The self-legitimizing discourse of Zen is also
often taken at face value leaving unquestioned the histories of the