I remember once a few years back trying to get Tozen’s work recognized on Wikipedia; my request was refused since there was no wide-base of corresponding articles or resources available that recognized his efforts; all this despite the fact that the Tozen Teachings constitute many years of laborious efforts (even his vast work, The Dharmakaya Sutra, which has been available in print) to teach the Buddhadharma. The same can be said of the Zennist’s efforts (apart from references of Stuart Lachs) as witnessed by his prolific blog over the past 5 years. What do we find offered instead on Wikipedia? The stupid mass-media (becoming increasingly obese) Reality-Show wonder-child, Honey Boo Boo—just ramblin’ on while being exploited by both her crazed fan-base and family alike; just shows the sad and disgusting state of mind of where the culture is at in these fu**ed-up times! One also questions the far less-than-respectable and intellectually barren WikiLords who warrant this kind of crap being listed in the first place. How shit being lumped together with other compendiums of worthwhile and mentally challenging material is beyond me. Perhaps it’s a sign of the eminent downfall of a civilization the likes of the Roman Empire and world of long ago. Yesterday is tomorrow today.
In my humble opinion your fears that the fact you can’t publish an article about Tozen on Wikipedia is an omen of the forthcoming downfall of civilization are a bit exaggerated. I understand your frustration however, and I certainly do know there are many silly things on Wikipedia. If you think that you can find thousands of pages of information on pop stars, about Justin Bieber, and such things, but they won’t let you publish about someone who put a lot of effort into studying the mystical aspects of Buddhism like Tozen, does sound like total “bologna” AKA BS. But it’s not Wiki Lords being evil, it’s just their guidelines:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability
The reason is simply they don’t want every unknown schmuck to promote himself via Wikipedia; it would quickly escalate into a freak show. Imagine how many “artists” would create Wikipedia pages about themselves, having created just one song on their PC in their mother’s basement, or how someone might want to make a Wikipedia article about their cute pet!
So I must say I agree with Wikipedia’s guidelines. To gain more notoriety, the Dharmakaya Sutra would need more references to it, perhaps it will happen in the future. Some things need a lot of time to gain notoriety. Decades.
Keep up the good work, people will find your website if they look for the Dharmakaya, even though there’s no Wiki page.
Fair assessment; although the Boo-Boo thing is a pretty “freaky” thing to be included.
May be setting up a Facebook page dedicated to the DharmaKaya Sutra and UBM school, could be way to go? It may even have some weight of validity down the road for publishing on wikipedia? Just a suggestion. Though there is a lot of crap on fb, there is also a fair amount alternative media news and a wide array of political views and discussion. Many have set up shop in order to disseminate the teachings of their Guru or spiritual teacher. For instance, there are about a half dozen fb pages dedicated to Nisargadatta that I know of. Anyway, it may be worth exploring imo.
Rgds – Suki