Zen Sells Zen Things

This chapter explores Japanese Zen material culture and materialism in a contemporary American monastic context. It examines the adaptation of mainstream business operations by The Monastery Store at Zen Mountain Monastery, established by John Daido Loori near Woodstock, New York, in 1980. It provides a visual and critical analysis of The Monastery Store’s mail-order catalogue, website, and brick-and-mortar facility on the monastery grounds, and it contrasts “retail Zen” (i.e., the mass marketing of vaguely Zen-like articles by multinational distribution chains for maximum profit) and “Zen retail” (i.e., the selective sale of sustainably sourced Zen items by nonprofit Zen monasteries to support adherents’ practice). In so doing, this analysis contributes to our understanding of Buddhist economics, practice, ethics, and other Zen matters.