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Zen is extremely misunderstood in the west. Mostly because what we understand of it comes from a conman and his followers who appropriated it a la scientology/mormonism.

Therefore, the default assumption when seeing 'zen' mentioned is that it's the bogus religion version.

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That's interesting, what was his name and where can I read more about it?

This may be a leak of the pet theory of /r/zen that Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen, was a fraud and that Zen is somehow not Buddhism. I haven't seen this theory taken seriously anywhere else.

Calling it a 'pet theory' is extremely disingenuous. Of course every scientologist will 'not take seriously' claims that their founder was a conman, because to do so is to admit their beliefs are based on falsehoods. It's a self reinforcing system.

If most of what we know of Zen in the West was disseminated by him and his followers, that points to DT Suzuki. I'm not aware that he was a con-man, although he appears to have had some pretty distasteful opinions.

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