Article on the relationship between Zen Buddhism and hipster Nipponico.com published on the website.
Hipster Trends
zen influences and pop art and religion of Christian Martorella
February 24, 2003. In the 50s and 60s of last century there was a growing and lively interest in religion in Eastern Europe and America. Besides increasing the appreciation of Hinduism, also revealed the complex pop of the Beatles with a trip to India and the production of a record by George Harrison to the Hare Krishna, there was interest in another religious sect, that is, the Japanese Zen. The framers of the boom of Zen in the West were in America and Suzuki Daisetsu Deshimaru Taisen in Europe, who with their travel, conferences and publications provide more than superficial exposure of Zen. This interest was not confined to academic circles, but in particular, exploded in the artistic trends of the period. It is not undue the association between Zen and the arts since it was already present in the original matrix Japanese (1). Art is also an essential component of the hipster movement (in Japanese hippusuta) rejecting the American way of life. Born in the artistic communities of North Beach in San Francisco and the Village of New York's hipster Zen adopted as a justification their social disengagement. In fact, the traditional Zen criticized the artificiality of society increases the power of liberation of the individual through self-awareness. The hipster rebelled against the system through a total disengagement, not trying to change the social order, but ruled out. A radical and therefore more rebellious attitude. In art zen
found the legitimacy of their hipster aesthetic conception of life and poetry of their spontaneous and informal. Conversely hipster, beatnik and hippie was also an experimental laboratory in which they made reference to the avant-garde art from 1947, period of birth action painting of Jackson Pollock, until the '60s and '70s and consolidation experience dei gruppi Fluxus e Gutai. Sarebbe inesatto ritenere conclusa la parabola di queste correnti artistiche che sono ancora influenti. Piuttosto dagli anni '80 si è assistito a un riconoscimento dell'arte ribelle che ha coinciso con un inserimento nei musei e uno studio accademico, il quale snatura il carattere trasgressivo e contestatario. Questa osservazione vale anche per l'utilizzo dell'espressione subcultura che si rivela utile come etichetta sociologica, ma fuorviante per la comprensione dei reali fenomeni storici. Come si è detto in precedenza, dagli anni '80 in poi si è assistito a una normalizzazione dell'arte pop che divenne inglobata e divorata dal marketing delle aziende. L'industria della cultura nata con la società del consumo di massa non spared the vanguard, turning into a commodity even more radical challenge to the phenomena. But you can not even say that the avant-garde are the helpless victims of approval. In fact, were the avant-garde, experimental artists and groups like the hipster, to support an egalitarian spirit and an aesthetic conception of life which condemned the art elite (2). They themselves have contributed to a mass culture and bring out the art from its traditional boundaries. In addition, the use of mass media distributes an overview of aestheticized life. Rather than inform the media produce consensus and a common feeling. Yet this view was to the purpose of hipster aesthetic. And this connection did not stop here.
Mass culture extensively uses pop art was born spontaneously and transgressive. Therefore, it is misleading to contrast the culture and subculture. The culture as understood in the nineteenth century no longer exists. If we were to oppose mass culture and subculture would be a contradiction in terms. There can be no mass culture in which we exclude a group culture. Mass culture reaches everywhere, especially in the globalized world, and realize it by studying the subcultures. In fact they rely on the pervasive power of the mass media (radio, television, internet, etc.).. If we speak of subcultures is solely for the purpose of academic nature. In fact it is much more restrict comfortable labeling it a topic of study instead of determining the relationships between complex cultural phenomena. By contrast, the pop culture denies a contrast between high culture and basic education, in favor of egalitarian art as the aesthetic whole. Those who continue to use the terminology of the subculture proves decidedly conservative proposing the distinction between high and low culture. And it is evident in one term subculture (something that is below).
For these reasons it is not unfair to study the influence of traditional Zen had on Western popular movements in all its forms. Alan Watts was the first Westerner to highlight what it was foolish to oppose the traditional zen studied in universities and the eclectic folk of hipster zen (3). Zen is not a formal discipline has taken on even if the institutional aspects. The practice of Zen is the quest for spiritual awakening, liberation (Gedatsu) conventions that do not allow to have knowledge of the true nature of the universe. How this happens is irrelevant, and Zen masters are aware of how enlightenment (satori) is an individual matter. One aspect stressed by saying "if you meet Buddha kill him," a statement that must be understood as scaling of teaching by a master (4). Kill the Buddha when you come to destroy the hope that someone other than us can be nostro padrone. Uccidere il maestro era un'espressione già usata da Rinzai Gigen nel IX secolo.
Nel 1959 Umberto Eco riprese e commentò il saggio di Alan Watts criticando l'idea che potesse esserci un'autentica influenza dello zen nelle mode culturali occidentali (5). Secondo Eco lo zen era piuttosto una semplice giustificazione degli hipster al proprio individualismo anarchico. Autori come Jack Kerouac adotterebbero i modi esteriori di un conformismo orientale per legittimare attraverso lo zen le intemperanze e i vagabondaggi (6). La tesi di Umberto Eco non ci sembra però sufficiente per spiegare il successo dello zen in Occidente. Liquidare in questo modo la questione, affrontandone soltanto un aspetto, non è vantaggioso per lo studioso. Dal point of view of social science interpretation of the phenomena must be done without a prior proceedings. However human behavior, it should be considered in relation to the values \u200b\u200bfirst made, and then judged. In addition, there remains a distinction between high and low culture that has little effect in the society of mass consumption. As stated by Alessandro Baricco, even Beethoven is a brand (7). Rather, there are many aspects of Zen that still escape. Alan Watts points out in his essay cited above, as the Japanese Zen is a movement of protest and reaction to the excessive formalism of Japanese society. He points out that the institutionalization of Zen has been a historical process (8) which led to a formalization exterior. But is not the outward appearance that we can explain the value of Zen. The hipster in the Eastern tradition captures the rejection of worldly life, and this is not wrong.
In the East there has always been an autonomous social space reserved for spirituality. In India, the yogis which was heavily influenced by the teachings of Patanjali, argued that the thought placed an erroneous conception of reality from which one could escape through physical exercises (asanas) and mental (dhyana). Buddhists in China and Japan recognized the illusory nature of reality and suggested to abandon the attachment (upadana) property. Buddha had accepted the religious order (sangha) the members of any caste, undermining the foundations of social hierarchy. In the Christian West, however, acknowledged the church is still a strong power to the upper classes. The undisputed ruler received the endowment from God (the opposite in China, for example, the mandate of heaven could be his withdrawn from the gods). When we made a proposal to separate the religious and political power was precisely because the overlap was allowed to continue resulting in conflicts tearing. But the space reserved for social religion was inevitably occupied by politics. Even in the East politics has invaded and has taken control of religion for utilitarian purposes. But the pantheistic and polytheistic religions are less vulnerable to political manipulation. And Zen is radically opposed to the authority, dogmas, customs that stiffen the human nature. The resumed
hipster Zen and its art forms that expressed this attitude well. The way we have achieved this recovery is also the question of philology and academia, but from the sociological point of view is completely indifferent to appearance than the result of social action. The aesthetic concept of life did not stop the movement hipster, but has saturated the entire society. We are not dealing more phenomena that belong to a subculture, rather we are faced with what is constitutive of contemporary culture. To determine this is sufficient to turn on a TV and tune in to MTV. No longer can speak of protest movements when they represent the majority of tastes and trends. Instead, you should reflect on the contrast between political power and citizens who should represent it in what are regarded as liberal democracies. Religion is an existential need that can not be regulated by administrative power with only bureaucratic and formal criteria. We must ensure above all a social space for religion and that is taken into account the ability of group.
Notes 1. Hoover, Thomas, Zen Culture, Arnoldo Mondadori, Milan, 1981.
2. The conventional view of art, cf. Vattimo, Gianni, The end of modernity, Garzanti, Milan, 1991, pp. 59-72.
3. Watts, Alan, Beat Zen & Other Essays, Aries / Arcana Editrice, Milano, 1996.
4. Kopp, Sheldon, If you meet the Buddha on the road kill, Astrolabe Editrice, Roma, 1975.
5. Zen and the West, published in 1959, was included in The Open Work, in a note reiterating the criticism and dissent from the transplantation of Zen in the West as an art form, cf. Eco, Umberto, The Open Work, Bompiani, Milano, 1962. Watts's essay appeared in the previous year, cf. Watts, Alan, Beat Zen, Square Zen and Zen, in "Chicago Review, Summer 1958.
6. Contemporary art is deeply influenced by Zen and its aesthetics. Include two case studies: the American composer John Cage (1912-1992) and the French painter Yves Klein (1928-1962).
7. See Baricco, Alessandro, Next. Little book on globalization and the world to come, Feltrinelli, Milan, 2002, pp. 52-54.
8. It should be now known as the movements can be transformed into institutions due to the lessons of the sociologist Alberoni. See Alberoni, Francesco, Movement and Institution. General Theory, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1981.
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