Zen's funeral business
The arguments that the Zen of Japan is not primarily a funeral religion are hardly persuasive. It was through funerary rites that Zen won the hearts and minds of important patrons and the lay population. In fact, many Zen temples in Japan are more or less mortuary temples.
In their book, Zen Ritual, Heine and Wright have some interesting things to say about Zen, especially its importance with regard to the conduct of funerals which even included ordination for deceased lay people (cf. p. 45). To reiterate, in some respects, doing funerals is what helped to make Zen popular (cf. pp. 46, 47).
That the West is interested in Zen because of its underlying philosophy is rather a new phenomenon which only came about recently with the help of Japanese Buddhist scholars like D.T. Suzuki and others who looked to a time before funerals and memorial services became synonymous with Zen including other forms of Japanese Buddhism.
Todays Western Zen center is really attempt to pull Zen out of the funeral business! Making matters more difficult with transplanted Japanese Zen is making seated meditation or zazen the centerpiece ignoring the importance of the Sutrasthe true centerpiecewhich constitute the real teachings of the Buddha. They teach us how we should actually meditate which is based on comprehending pure Mindnot just sitting.
