Luke wrote: You're right: I don't know so much about samurai. Perhaps some of my ideas are wrong, but killing people with swords isn't pretty and there was torture in medieval Japan, wasn't there?
The medieval period in most countries wasn't pretty...
Well as I think of torturę, so torturę was pretty much used by Japanese police forces during Tokugawa period, cutting deeply into any criminal mentality and preventing offence... whether good or bad it helped to create very peacful society in general. As for smaurai they did not emply themselves in such things... as many many other things, since the state law and also their code strictly forbade it.
Anyway last 250 years of samurai rule was rather very quiet time after long 100 year war... samurai as they came to be known in the history were reaction to extreme political etc. corruption... as for zen and samurai, well it was counteract against Japanese mikkyo/vajrayana style of the Taira family and imperial aristocracy unfortunately responsible for the corruption... simplicity, poverty and more human values were part of this strong samurai reaction which revolutionised socjety and religion as well...
Samurai meant to be a servant not only to lords, but in their view also to the society which was amazingly played in the mid of the XIX century... together with shogun who decided to step down they donated all their assets to the country and to people, thus becoming common citizens and having almost nothing to live on.
Fighting etc. was commmon to any country, as well as wars etc. it was the way humans solved their various problems and still it is... I am less afraid of any samurai then modern trooper, combat sold. or soldier of occupying forces. Even the peaceful forces of the UN could be pretty much feared by civilians as we know today.
Torture, sensless killing, theft, rape etc. were considered to be extreme crimes in samurai Japan and punishment for such behavior was severe... samurai who did it was only a criminal loosing his status. Well if it was a real samurai he would end up by committing suicide I guess...
Were they good symbol for zen buddhism? I think so, if you consider they ideals, and wish to serve selflessly society, yes then for sure yes. There is no higher sacrifice then to lay down one's own life for others.. one cannot denny it. Well, it was 800 years ago, so no worry, all those people are gone..
The other great impact and interaction between samurai and zen was about 400 years ago due to historical events, this is also past... no samurais today, so there is no problem for anyone. It was just history and an interesting one...
Chan and good/bad things?
if you study history then you know how it really was... finally mature chan was not free from political engagement. Even today...