This book is critical reading for anyone seriously interested in Zen. Having committed his life as a Buddhist monk only to make these shocking discoveries must have been heartbreaking for Victoria, and it is remarkable that his tone remains as objective as it does.
Victoria is a refreshing and desperately needed antidote to Kapleau, Suzuki and all the rest the phony gurus peddling sundry brands of spiritual snake oil to vulnerable people desperately seeking some measure of assurance and comfort in this harsh world. His book reminds us that, however we may seek our own individual peace and spiritual security, we can never find it through lies, self-delusion, gurus and preachers.
What I found most disturbing about this book was not so much what Victoria had to reveal about the Zen culture of Imperial Japan, (don't get me wrong, that was pretty darn disturbing too)but rather the reaction that came from many, if not most, of North America's Zen masters. Almost to a one, they refused to even admit the core issue that the book arises: "If an _enlightened_ person can support an evil empire, what does it say about being enlightened?" No one doubts that Catholic Popes can committ evil acts (Dante fills Hell with them), but then the Catholic faith makes far lessor claims about the spiritual powers and insight of its clerics.
In contrast, Zen Buddhism makes the extraordinary claim that each and every Zen master is part of an intact person-to-person chain of direct mind contact to Bodhidarma, through to Guatama Buddha himself. Moreover, they maintain that this direct contact through the Zen transmission is essential to enlightenment, which cannot be learned "on ones own" or "through books". Moreover, Buddhist make the claim that Masters, and people they acknowledge as "awakened", have achieved some sort of real "awakening".
The cheesy responses that I have read and received from the Zen Masters I have read on the subject all invariably come up with the same sort of defence: cultural relativism. I was horrified to see this because it strikes me that not only were they willing to so "scale back" what "enlightenment" means that a deeply enlightened Zen master (ie: in Imperial Japan) would lack the discernment to see through government propaganda, it means that the individual modern master (ie: the one writing in "Tricycle" or communicating to me over the internet) lacks the discernment to see the profound implications of Victoria's book.
The process of reading Victoria's book and investigating the reaction of the North American Zen "establishment" made me totallly re-examen my understanding of Zen and Buddhism as part of the "community of world religions". It gave me an increased sense of my own worth as a Master of Western Philosophy and a student of world religions in the face of the significant claims exerted by Buddhists about their own implied superiority over these alternative spiritual systems.
I do not want to denigrate the significant and obvious merits of Buddhism and Zen, but _Zen at War_ has shown that there are no "priviledged" ways to wisdom. All are equally valid, and all are equally flawed.
