People misunderstand Buddhism because they get wrong information from supposedly reliable sources, that's why. I found this in the Rocky Mountain Collegiate, which I take to be the student newspaper at Colorado State University:
Everyone has their own coping methods, and according Larry Ward and his wife Peggy Rowe, Zen is just another school of thought that helps to ease the mind and bring life to the body.
"We don't convert people," Ward said. "...they instead keep their beliefs and place Buddhist philosophies on top of that."
Zen is just another school of thought? What happened to Dogen Zenji's "think not thinking?" Oh, and the headline says, "Zen masters speak at CSU about meditation, Buddhist tips." Zen masters?
Ward and Rowe were ordained as dharma teachers by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2001, the article says. I don't know exactly what that "ordained as dharma teachers" means in the Vietnamese tradition, but if those two are "Zen masters," I'm a bag of popcorn.
The assault continues:
"Zen is not considered a religion, but a way in which a person thinks mindfully and lives fully in the moment," said Zen Club President Erich Stroheim.
This school of Zen is also called "Zen Lite." Or perhaps, "McZen."
Going back to "keep their beliefs and place Buddhist philosophies on top of that," this is something actual Zen practice discourages. Vigorously discourages. Piling on another layer of ideas about stuff is antithetical to Zen. I doubt very much these two got that from Thich Nhat Hanh.
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