Zen

From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)

Zen is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism which strongly emphasizes the practice of meditation. It emerged as a distinct school in China (as Chan) and spread to Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and, in modern times, the rest of the world. The common English name derives from the school's name in Japanese, zen (禅).

Contents

[edit]

History

Traditionally, Zen traces its roots back to Indian Buddhism; it takes its name from the Sanskrit term, dhyāna, which means meditative concentration (zen is short for the rarely-used form zenna). According to traditional accounts, Chinese Zen was established in approximately 500 CE by an Indian monk named Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma is said to have been the twenty-eighth patriarch of Zen and the last Indian successor in a line begun by the Gautama Buddha's disciple Mahakaśyapa.

Zen in the various Asian languages
Chinese Name
Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Chán
Mandarin Wade-Giles Ch'an
Cantones e Jyutping Sim
Shanghainese (Wu) Zeu [zø]
Traditional Chinese 禪
Simplified Chinese 禅
Japanese Name
Romaji Zen
Kanji 禅
Korean Name
Revised Romanization Seon
McCune-Reischauer Sŏn
Hangul 선
Hanja 禪
Pali Name
Romanization Jhāna
Devanāgarī झान
Sinhala ඣාන
Sanskrit Name
Romanization Dhyāna
Devanāgarī ध्यान
Vietnamese Name
Quốc ngữ Thiền
Hán tự 禅

An early Zen text, the Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, describes Bodhidharma travelling by sea, circa 520, to the territory of the Liang Dynasty in southern China. There, in a famous exchange with Emperor Wu of Liang China, he explained that good deeds done with selfish intention were useless for gaining enlightenment (bodhi). This argument having met with imperial disapproval, Bodhidharma travelled north to Shaolin Temple near the Song Mountains, where he established himself as a teacher. Martial arts legend also states that kung fu was also taught by Bodhidharma at Shaolin.

Shortly before his death, Bodhidharma appointed his disciple Huike to succeed him, making Huike the first Chinese patriarch and the second patriarch of Zen in China. The transmission then passed to the second, third, and fourth patriarchs, of whom little is known beyond their names. The sixth and last patriarch, Huineng (638-713), was one of the giants of Zen history, and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor. However, the dramatic story of Huineng's life tells that there was a controversy over his claim to the title of patriarch: after being chosen by the Hongren, the fifth patriarch, he had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples. In the middle of the 8th century, monks claiming to be the successors to Huineng, calling themselves the Southern Chan (school) cast themselves in opposition to those claiming to succeed Hongren's student Shenxiu (神秀). It was at this point, the debates between these rival factions, that Zen enters the realm of fully documented history. The Southern school eventually became predominant and their rivals died out.

Later, Korean monks studying in China learned what was by then called Ch'an, and which had by then been profoundly influenced by Chinese Taoism and to a lesser degree Confucianism. After the tradition was expanded to Korea, it came to be called Seon there (sometimes misspelled as Soen in the West).

It is important to note, however, that Chan, Seon and Zen continued to develop separately in their home countries, and all maintain separate identities to this day. Although lineage lines in China, Korea, Japan and elsewhere appear to show direct descent from Bodhidharma, changes in belief and practice have inevitably appeared with the profusion of Chan/Seon/Zen.

The Japanese Rinzai Zen philosopher D.T. Suzuki maintained that a Zen satori (awakening) has always been the goal of the training, but that which distinguished the tradition as it developed in China, Korea, and Japan was a way of life radically different from that of Indian Buddhists. In India, the tradition of the mendicant (holy beggar, or bhikku in Pali) prevailed, but in China social circumstances led to the development of a temple and training-center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks. These included food gardening or farming, carpentry, architecture, housekeeping, administration, and the practice of folk medicine. Consequently, the enlightenment sought in Zen had to stand up well to the demands and potential frustrations of everyday life.

[edit]

List of the Chinese Zen Patriarchs

The following are the six Patriarchs of Zen in China as listed in traditional sources:

  1. Bodhidharma (達摩, Chinese: Damo, Japanese: Daruma だるま) about 440 - about 528
  2. Huike (慧可, Japanese: Daiso Eka) 487 - 593
  3. Sengcan (僧燦, Japanese: Konchi Sosan) ? - 606
  4. Daoxin (道信, Japanese: Dai'i Doshin) 580 - 651
  5. Hongren (弘忍, Japanese: Daiman Konin) 601 - 674
  6. Huineng (慧能, Japanese: Daikan Eno) 638 - 713
[edit]

Zen in Japan

The schools of Zen that currently exist in Japan are the Soto (曹洞), Rinzai (臨済), and Obaku (黃檗). Of these, Soto is the largest and Obaku the smallest.

The Rinzai school was originally founded in China by Linji Yiyuan, who is known as Rinzai Gigen in Japanese; it was introduced to Japan in 1191 by Myoan Eisai. Soto is the Japanese branch of another Chinese school, Caodong; it was brought to Japan in the early 13th century by Dogen, who had studied under Eisai. Obaku was introduced in the 17th century by Ingen, a Chinese monk.

Some contemporary Japanese Zen teachers, such as Daiun Harada and Shunryu Suzuki, have criticized Japanese Zen as being a formalized system of empty rituals in which very few Zen practitioners ever actually attain realization. They assert that almost all Japanese temples have become family businesses handed down from father to son, and the Zen priest's function has largely been reduced to officiating at funerals.

The Japanese Zen establishment—including the Soto sect, the major branches of Rinzai, and several renowned teachers— has been criticized for its involvement in Japanese militarism and nationalism during World War II and the preceding period. A notable work on this subject was Zen at War (1998) by Brian Victoria, an American-born Soto priest.

[edit]

Zen and Buddhism

Zen is a branch of Buddhism and as such is based on and deeply rooted in the Buddha's teachings. It is also very much the child of China and has some teaching derived from Confucianism and Taoism. The Zen branch calls itself the Buddha Heart School and traces its lineage back to the Buddha, with the Flower Sermon being the first transmission of the Dharma. It's common for daily chanting to include the lineage of the school, reciting the names of all "dharma ancestors" and teachers that have transmitted Zen teaching.

Zen is part of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism (Northern) and some practical differences are to be found with the Theravadins (Southern). For example, Zen and other Mahayana traditions place greater emphasis on the practice of the Paramitas (Path of Perfection) and less on the Eightfold Path, although familiarity with the Eightfold Path is still required. Another difference is in sutra study; Zen and other Mahayana traditions focus on the Mahayana Canon, while the Southern schools place emphasis on Tripitaka study.

All Zen schools, Rinzai or Soto, are versed in Buddhist Doctrine and Buddhist Philosophy, including the Precepts, Four Noble Truths, Pratitya Samutpada, Three Signs of Being, Five Skandhas, Three Fires, Four Right Efforts, Five Hindrances, Ten Fetters, and the Bhavacakra (and its symbolic representation). At the same time, Zen's emphasis on direct seeing into one's nature keeps it lively and at the edge of the tradition.

This openness has allowed non-Buddhists to practice Zen, especially outside of Asia, and even for the curious phenomenon of an emerging Christian Zen lineage, as well as one or two lines that call themselves "nonsectarian." With no official governing body, it's perhaps impossible to declare any authentic lineage "heretical." Some schools emphasize lineage and trace their line of teachers back to Japan, Korea, Vietnam or China; other schools do not.

[edit]

Zen teachings and practices

Zen teachings are deeply rooted in the Buddhist textual tradition, drawing primarily on Mahāyāna sutras composed in India and China, particularly the Heart Sutra; the Diamond Sutra; the Lankavatara Sutra; the Samantamukha Parivarta, a chapter of the Lotus Sutra; and the Platform Sutra of Huineng. The body of Zen doctrine also includes the recorded teachings of masters in the various Zen traditions.

Zen is not primarily an intellectual philosophy nor a solitary pursuit. Zen temples emphasize meticulous daily practice, and hold intensive monthly meditation retreats. Practicing with others is valued as a way to avoid the traps of ego. In explaining the Zen Buddhist path to Westerners, Japanese Zen teachers have frequently made the point that Zen is a way of life and not solely a state of consciousness. D.T. Suzuki wrote that the aspects of this life are: a life of humility; a life of labor; a life of service; a life of prayer and gratitude; and a life of meditation.

Zen teachings often criticize textual hermeneutics and the pursuit of worldly accomplishments, concentrating primarily on meditation in pursuit of an unmediated awareness of the processes of the world and of the mind. Zen, however, is not a purely passive doctrine: the Chinese Chan master Baizhang (720-814 CE) left behind a famous saying which had been the guiding principle of his life, "A day without work is a day without eating."

[edit]

Zazen

Zen sitting meditation, the core of zen practice, is called zazen. During zazen, practitioners usually assume a sitting position such as the lotus position, half-lotus, Burmese posture, or seiza postures. Awareness is directed towards one's posture and breathing. Often, a square or round cushion (zafu) placed on a padded mat (zabuton) is used to sit on; in some cases, a chair may be used. In Rinzai Zen, practitioners typically sit facing the center of the room; while Soto practitioners traditionally sit facing a wall.

In Soto Zen, shikantaza meditation ("just-sitting") that is, a meditation with no objects, anchors, or content, is the primary form of practice. Considerable textual, philosophical, and phenomenological justification of this practice can be found in Dogen's Shobogenzo. Rinzai Zen, instead, emphasizes attention to the breath and koan practice (q.v.).

The amount of time spent daily in zazen by practitioners varies. Dogen recommends that 5 minutes or more daily is beneficial for householders. The key is daily regularity, as Zen teaches that the ego will naturally resist, and the discipline of regularity is essential. Practicing Zen monks may perform four to six periods of zazen during a normal day, with each period lasting thirty to forty minutes. Normally, a monastery will hold a monthly retreat period (sesshin), lasting between one and seven days. During this time, zazen is practiced more intensively: monks may spend four to eight hours in meditation each day, sometimes supplemented by further rounds of zazen late at night. Dogen's teacher Rujing was said to sleep fewer than four hours each night, spending the balance in zazen (Dogen's formative years in China by Takashi James Kodera ISBN 0710002122). However, in practice, it is not uncommon for monks to actually sleep during zazen. Some meditation researchers have theorized that Zen adepts who are able to achieve the deeper levels of samadhi in meditation are actually fulfilling the same need as REM sleep, so that when zazen time is added to actual sleep time, they are in effect still getting the normal amount of daily sleep that the brain requires. However, such ability to enter into deep samadhi during zazen is apparently fairly rare, and may not arise even after decades of meditation.

Meditation as a practice can be applied to any posture. Walking meditation is called kinhin. Successive periods of zazen are usually interleaved with brief periods of walking meditation to relieve the legs.

[edit]

The teacher

Because the Zen tradition emphasizes direct communication over scriptural study, the role of the Zen teacher has traditionally been central. Generally speaking, a Zen teacher is a person ordained in any tradition of Zen to teach the dharma, guide students of meditation, and perform rituals.

An important concept for all Zen sects in East Asia is the notion of Dharma transmission the claim of a line of authority that goes back to the Buddha via the teachings of each successive master to each successive student. This concept relates to the ideas expressed in a description of Zen attributed to Bodhidharma:

A special transmission outside the scriptures； (教外別傳)
No dependence upon words and letters; (不立文字)
Direct pointing to the human mind; (直指人心)
Seeing into one's own nature and attaining Buddhahood. (見性成佛) [1]

Since at least the Middle Ages, Dharma transmission has become a normative aspect of all Zen sects. Normally, every Zen teacher must stand within one lineage or another. Some sects, including most Japanese lines, possess formal lineage charts documenting the lineage back to Gautama Buddha, drawn up for the ceremonial practice of transmission.

In Japan during the Tokugawa period (1600–1868), some came to question the lineage system and its legitimacy. The Zen master Dokuan Genko (1630–1698), for example, openly questioned the necessity of written acknowledgement from a teacher, which he dismissed as "paper Zen." The only genuine transmission, he insisted, was the individual's independent experience of Zen enlightenment, an intuitive experience that needs no external confirmation. An occasional teacher in Japan during the Tokugawa period did not adhere to the lineage system; these were termed mushi dokugo (無師獨悟, "independently enlightened without a teacher") or jigo jisho (自悟自証, "self-enlightened and self-certified"). They were generally dismissed and perhaps of necessity leave no independent transmission. Nevertheless, modern Zen Buddhists also consider questions about the dynamics of the lineage system, inspired in part by academic research into the history of Zen.

Honorific titles associated with teachers typically include, in Chinese, Fashi (法師) or Chanshi (禪師); in Korean, Sunim or Seon Sa (선사); in Japanese, Osho (和尚), Roshi (老師), or Sensei (先生); and in Vietnamese, Thầy. Note that many of these titles are not specific to Zen but are used generally for Buddhist priests; some, such as sensei are not even specific to Buddhism.

The English term Zen master is often used to refer to important teachers, especially ancient and medieval ones. However, there is no specific criterion by which one may be called a Zen master. The term is less common in reference to modern teachers.

[edit]

Koan practice

Some Zen Buddhists practice meditation on koans during zazen. A koan is a story or dialog, generally related to Zen or other Buddhist history; the most typical form is an anecdote involving early Chinese Zen masters. Koan practice is particularly emphasized by the Japanese Rinzai schools, but it is also occurs in other forms of Zen.

In some sense, a koan embodies a realized principle, or law of reality. Koans often appear paradoxical or linguistically meaningless dialogs or questions. The 'answer' to the koan involves a transformation of perspective or consciousness, which may be either radical or subtle, possibly akin to the experience of metanoia in Christianity. They are a tool to allow the student to approach enlightenment by essentially 'short-circuiting' the logical way we order the world.

The Zen student's mastery of a given koan is presented to the teacher in a private interview, referred to as dokusan (独参), daisan (代参), or sanzen (参禅). Zen teachers advise that the problem posed by a koan is to be taken quite seriously, and to be approached as literally a matter of life and death. Koans do not have "no answer". There is a sharp distinction between right and wrong ways of answering a koan—although there may be many "right answers", practitioners are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the koan and of Zen through their answers.

While there is no single correct answer for any given koan, there are compilations of accepted answers to koans that serve as references for teachers. These collections are of great value to modern scholarship on the subject.

Mu, in Japanese, means "no thing" or "the absence of a thing". It does not mean "nothing", for in zen, nothing is still something.

[edit]

Radical teachings

Some of the traditional Zen fables describe Zen masters using controversial methods of teaching, the meaning of which is not always clear. For example, although Zen and Buddhism deeply respect life and teach non-violence, the founder of the Rinzai Zen school, Linji Gigen, said: "If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet a Patriarch, kill the Patriarch."

When first visiting Zen temples and centers, people who are familiar with iconoclastic stories of medieval Zen master encounters are sometimes surprised by the conservative and ritualistic nature of the practice. For example, when Philip Kapleau first encountered Soen Nakagawa, a Japanese priest, at his temple, Kapleau was disturbed at the sight of Nakagawa bowing to a statue of an earlier Zen master. Kapleau exclaimed, "The old Chinese masters burned or spit on Buddha statues! Why do you bow down before them?", to which Nakagawa replied, "If you want to spit, you spit. I prefer to bow."Kapleau, Philip, editor. Three Pillars of Zen

Most Zen monasteries and training centers, in the East and abroad, emphasize regular meditation, both on a daily basis and in monthly retreat, as well as a discipline based in practice schedules and everyday household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and gardening as an essential part of the path to enlightenment.

[edit]

Zen in the Western world

Although it is difficult to trace when the West first became aware of Zen as a distinct form of Buddhism, the visit of Soyen Shaku, a Japanese Zen monk, to Chicago during the World Parliament of Religions in 1893 is often pointed to as an event that enhanced its profile in the Western world. It was during the late 1950s and the early 1960s that the number of Westerners, other than the descendents of Asian immigrants, pursuing a serious interest in Zen reached a significant level.

[edit]

Zen and Western culture

In Europe, the Expressionist and Dada movements in art tend to have much in common thematically with the study of koans and actual Zen. The early French surrealist René Daumal translated D.T. Suzuki as well as Sanskrit Buddhist texts.

Eugen Herrigel's book Zen in the Art of Archery (1953) (Zen in the Art of Archery ISBN 0375705090), describing his training in the Zen-influenced martial art of Kyudo, inspired many of the Western world's early Zen practitioners. However, many scholars are quick to criticize this book.

The British-American philosopher Alan Watts took a close interest in Zen Buddhism and wrote and lectured extensively on it during the 1950s. He understood it as a vehicle for a mystical transformation of consciousness, and also as a historical example of a non-Western, non-Christian way of life that had fostered both the practical and fine arts.

The Dharma Bums, a novel written by Jack Kerouac and published in 1959, gave its readers a look at how a fascination with Buddhism and Zen was being absorbed into the bohemian lifestyles of a small group of American youths, primarily on the West Coast. Beside the narrator, the main character in this novel was "Japhy Ryder", a thinly-veiled depiction of Gary Snyder. The story was based on actual events taking place while Snyder prepared, in California, for the formal Zen studies that he would pursue in Japanese monasteries between 1956 and 1968.

While Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig, was a 1974 bestseller, it in fact has little to do with Zen per se. Rather it deals with the notion of the metaphysics of "quality" from the point of view of the main character. Pirsig was attending the Minnesota Zen Center at the time of writing the book. [2] He explains how, despite its title, the book "should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice."

[edit]

Western Zen lineages

Over the last fifty years, mainstream forms of Zen, led by teachers who trained in East Asia and by their successors, have begun to take root in the west. In North America, the Zen lineages derived from the Japanese Soto school are the most numerous type. Among these are the the lineage of the San Francisco Zen Center, established by Shunryu Suzuki; the White Plum Asanga, founded by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi and the Ordinary Mind school, founded by Joko Beck, one of Maezumi's heirs; and the Katagiri lineage, founded by Dainin Katagiri, which has a significant presence in the midwest.

Taizan Deshimaru was Soto Zen priest from Japan who taught in France. The International Zen Association, which he founded, remains influential.

The Sanbo Kyodan is a Japan-based reformist Zen group, founded in 1954 by Yasutani Hakuun, which has had an significant influence on Zen in the West. Sanbo Kyodan Zen is based primarily on the Soto tradition, but also incorporates Rinzai-style koan practice. Yasutani's approach to Zen first became prominent in the English-speaking world through Philip Kapleau's book The Three Pillars of Zen (1965), which was one of the first books to introduce Western audiences to Zen as a practice rather than simply a philosophy. Among the Zen groups in North America, Hawaii, Europe, and New Zealand which derive from Sanbo Kyodan are those associated with Kapleau, Robert Aitken, and John Tarrant.

There are also a number of Rinzai Zen centers in the West, such as the Rinzaiji lineage of Kyozan Joshu Sasaki and the Dai Bosatsu lineage established by Eido Shimano.

Not all the successful Zen teachers in the West have been from Japanese traditions. There have also been teachers of Chan, Seon, and Thien Buddhism. The first Chinese Buddhist priest to teach Westerners in North America was Hsuan Hua, who taught Zen, Chinese Pure Land, Tiantai, Vinaya, and Vajrayana Buddhism in San Francisco during the early 1960s. He went on the found the City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a monastery and retreat center located on a 237 acre (959,000 m²) property near Ukiah, California. Another Chinese Zen teacher with a Western following is Sheng-yen, a master trained in both the Caodong and Linji schools (equivalent to the Japanese Soto and Rinzai, respectively). He first visited the United States in 1978 under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Association of the United States, and, in 1980, founded the Ch’an Mediation Society in Queens, New York. [3]

The most prominent Korean Zen teacher in the West was Seung Sahn. Seung Sahn founded the Providence Zen Center in Providence, Rhode Island; this was to become the headquarters of the Kwan Um School of Zen, a large international network of affiliated Zen centers.

Two notable Vietnamese Zen teachers have been influential in Western countries: Thich Thien-An and Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Thien-An came to America in 1966 as a visiting professor at UCLA and taught traditional Thien meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh was a monk in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, during which he was a peace activist. In response to these activities, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 by Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1966, he left Vietnam in exile and now resides at Plum Village, a monastery in France. He has written more than one hundred books about Buddhism, which have made him one of the very few most prominent Buddhist authors among the general readership in the West. In his books and talks, Thich Nhat Hanh emphasizes mindfulness (sati) as the most important practice in daily life.

[edit]

Pan-lineage organisations

In the United States, two pan-lineage organizations have formed in the last few years. The oldest is the American Zen Teachers Association which includes the majority of Zen teachers in North America and sponsors an annual conference. North American Soto teachers in North America, led by the heirs of Taizan Maezumi and Shunryu Suzuki, have also formed a Soto Zen Buddhist Association.

[edit]

See also

  • List of Zen teachers
  • Tathagatagarbha doctrine
  • Dogen
  • Hakuin Ekaku
  • Huangbo Xiyun
  • Ryōkan
  • Zen garden
[edit]

Bibliography

  • Hogi, Victor Sogen, Zen Dust
  • Miura & Sasaki, Zen Koan
[edit]

External links


--Angel 17:37, 22 May 2006 (CDT)

Retrieved from "http://book-of-thoth.com/thebook/index.php/Zen"