I am an active buddhist. I try to live by the the noble truths and eightfold path and the precepts, However, I wish to practice soto zen. I haave read the heart sutra and I also meditate. My problem is, can I call myself a zen buddhist by meditating the zen way and not reading the lankavatara sutra?
I don't see why not, many people who call themselves by a religion barely even know about it, so you've gotta be closer than them.
with the greatest respect to your beliefs, the essence of zen is to liberate the mind and to free yourself from constrained and conditioned action. you may call yourself what you like, but to truley follow zen is to find a path where you can leave all labels of yourself and others behind the sutras and the teachings should not be viewed in the same way as the religious texts of other faiths, for zen is not a matter of faith it is a matter of fact. use them as tools and then leave them behind when the work is done. enjoy the path
and why, if the zen life and the sutra's are so important to you don't you read it? here are the results from a quick search on google..read them if you wish and adopt any label you feel you need... http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=lankavatara+sutra&btnG=Search&meta=
