Traditions

One of the things that I "discussed" endlessly when I ws a regular member of a local zen group was chanting in a foreign language, especially the "Heart Sutra."

I reasoned that the Japanese version chanted in some Zen Centers might sound nice but the Japanese monks didn't chant in Chinese and that the Chinese monks didn't chant in Tibetan. Why should I be chanting in Japanese?

One of the reasons given by some adherents of the process is tradition.

The idea of tradition snuck on me this afternoon.

Tradition. Should a tradition be related to the socio-economic group or the geographic area?

Maybe we should adopt the "traditions" of the first people in our area. Maybe we need to translate the "Heart Sutra" into Cherokee. "It's tradition."

Got to laugh.