An interesting article on how the use of "We" instead of "I" in spiritual texts may have implications on readers.
https://matthewremski.medium.com/edi...y-12baa888053c
The author argues that the use of First Person Plural Omniscient is part of the New Age spirituality patois.
I couldn't pin point why many Zen books seemed to me very different to other spiritual writings, now I know it perhaps may be due to this subtle grammatical use of "I" or "We".I hypothesize that learning how to detect the FPPO can be a powerful tool for examining the banalities of the privileged on one hand, and resisting the totalizing jargon of a cult on the other. But more importantly: it may give readers some insight into what many content-producers in the spirituality world might be up to: telling their followers how they are wounded, and how they should do what they themselves yearn for, and may find out of reach.
I realised that there's a lot of "I" in quite a few zen authors including Jundo's book and in Okumara's books, who stress that they're only presenting their version and understanding and avoid catchy generalisations.
Gassho
Sat