Zen (2009 film) of Buddhism, which has had a huge cultural influence but is little understood — let alone practiced — by ordinary Japanese." The film premiered in Japan in 2009. The following year, it had its US debut at the International Buddhist Film Festival. The film was released on DVD and includes a short documentary entitled "The Zen of Dogen" with Kazuaki Tanahashi. Zen (2009 film) The film is a biography of Dōgen Zenji, a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher. After travelling to China to study, Dogen founded the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. The Buddhist Film Foundation described it as "a
Buddhism in the West general distinction between Buddhism brought to the West by Asian immigrants, which may be Mahayana, Theravada or a traditional East Asian mix ("ethnic Buddhism"), and Buddhism as practiced by converts ("convert Buddhism"), which is often Zen, Pure Land, Vipassana or Tibetan Buddhism. Some Western Buddhists are actually non-denominational and accept teachings from a variety of different sects, which is far less frequent in Asia. Demographically as a convert religion, Western Buddhism appeals more to whites and to the middle and upper-middle classes as well as to the politically left wing and to those who live in urban areas. While retaining