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Traditional Chinese | 禪 | ||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 禅 | ||||||||||
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Vietnamese | Thiền | ||||||||||
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Hanja | 禪 | ||||||||||
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Kanji | 禅 | ||||||||||
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Sanskrit | dhyāna |
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Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism[a] and originated in China during the 6th century CE as Chán. From China, Zen spread south to Vietnam, to Korea and east to Japan.[2]
The word Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪 Dzyen (Modern Mandarin: Chán), which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "absorption" or "meditative state".[3]
Zen emphasizes the attainment of enlightenment and the personal expression of direct insight in the Buddhist teachings.[4] As such, it de-emphasizes mere knowledge of sutras and doctrine[4][5], and favors direct understanding through zazen and interaction with an accomplished teacher.[6]
The teachings of Zen include various sources of Mahāyāna thought, especially Yogācāra, the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras and Huayan [7][8]. The Prajñāpāramitā literature[9] and, to a lesser extent, Madhyamaka have also been influential.
Chinese Chán
Origins and Taoist influences
When Buddhism came to China, it was initially adapted to the Chinese culture and understanding. Buddhism was exposed to Confucianist[10] and Taoist[11][12][13] influences. Goddard quotes D.T. Suzuki[b], calling Chán a "natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist conditions."[14] Buddhism was first identified to be "a barbarian variant of Taoism":[13]
Judging from the reception by the Han of the Hinayana works and from the early commentaries, it appears that Buddhism was being perceived and digested through the medium of religious Daoism (Taoism). Buddha was seen as a foreign immortal who had achieved some form of Daoist nondeath. The Buddhists’ mindfulness of the breath was regarded as an extension of Daoist breathing exercises.[15]
Taoist terminology was used to express Buddhist doctrines in the oldest translations of Buddhist texts[13], a practice termed ko-i, "matching the concepts"[16], while the emerging Chinese Buddhism had to compete with Taoism and Confucianism.[10]
The first Buddhist recruits in China were Taoists.[13] Against this background, especially the Taoist concept of naturalness seemed to have been inherited by the early Chán disciples[17]: they equated - to some extent - the ineffable Tao and Buddha-nature[18], and thus, rather than feeling bound to the abstract "wisdom of the sūtras", emphasized Buddha-nature to be found in "everyday" human life, just as the Tao.[18]
In addition to Taoist ideas, also Neo-Taoist concepts were taken over in Chinese Buddhism.[16] Concepts such as "T’i -yung" (Essence and Function) and "Li-shih" (Noumenon and Phenomenon) were first taken over by Hua-yen Buddhism[16], which consequently influenced Chán deeply.[19] On the other hand, Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being.[20]
Six Patriarchs
Traditionally the origin of Chán in China is credited to the Indian monk Bodhidharma. The story of his life, and of the Six Patriarchs, was constructed during the Tang Dynasty to lend credibility to the growing Chán-school.[21]
Bodhidharma is recorded as having come into China from India during the time of Southern and Northern Dynasties to teach a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words".[22] Only scarce historical information is available about him, but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century. By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chán in China was developed.[23] The short text Two Entrances and Four Acts, written by T'an-lín (曇林; 506–574), contains teachings which are attributed to Bodhidharma. The text is known from the Dunhuang-manuscripts.
The actual origins of Chán may lie in ascetic practitioners of Buddhism, who found refuge in forests and mountains.[24] Huike, "a dhuta (extreme ascetic) who schooled others"[24], figures in the stories about Bodhidharma. Huike is regarded as the second Chán patriarch, appointed by Bodhidharma to succeed him. One of Huike's students, Sengcan, to whom is ascribed the Xinxin Ming, is regarded as the third patriarch.
The link between Huike and Sengcan, and the fourth patriarch Daoxin (道信 580–651), "is far from clear and remains tenuous".[24] With Daoxin and his successor, the fifth patriarch Hongren (弘忍 601–674), there emerged a new style of teaching. A large group of students gathered at a permanent residence, and extreme ascetism became outdated.[24] The period of Daoxin and Hongren came to be called the East Mountain Teaching, due to the location of the residence of Hongren at Huamgmei. Hui-neng, a minor student of Hongren, came to be regarded as the Sixth Patriarch, due to the influence of his student Shenhui.[25][21]
Tang dynasty (618–907)
The term "East Mountain Teaching" was used by Shenxiu (神秀 606?-706), the most important successor to Hongren. In 701 he was invited to the Imperial Court by Empress Wu, who paid him imperial reverence. This gave his school the support and the legitimation of the imperial court.[26]
But the Chán-tradition depicts another student of Hongren, Huineng (惠能; 638–713), as the sixth and last patriarch, due to the influence of Shenhui, a successor to Huineng. The dramatic story of Huineng's life, as narrated in the Platform Sutra, tells that there was a contest for the transmission of the title of patriarch. After being chosen by Hongren, the fifth patriarch, Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples.
Historic research reveals that this story was created around the middle of the 8th century, beginning in 731 by Shenhui, a successor to Huineng, to win influence at the Imperial Court. He claimed Huineng to be the successor of Hongren's, instead of the then publicly recognized successor Shenxiu. Shenxiu's Northern School was denigrated as "gradual", in opposition to the self-acclaimed "sudden" approach of Shenhui's Southern School. Shenhui's story was so influential that all surviving schools regard Huineng as their ancestor. [21][25]
The An Lushan Rebellion (755-763) led to a loss of control by the Tang-dynasty, and changed the Chan scene again. Metropolitan Chan began to lose its status, while "other schools were arising in out-lying areas controlled by warlords. These are the forerunners of the Chan we know today."[27]
The most important of these schools is the Hongzhou school (洪州宗) of Mazu, to which also belong Shitou, Baizhang, Huangbo and Linji. This school became the archetypal expression of Zen, with its emphasis on the personal expression of insight, and its rejection of positive statements of this insight.[24] Shitou is regarded as the Patriarch of Caodong (Jp. Sōtō), while Linji is regarded as the founder of Rinzai-Zen.
During the Song Dynasty, when Chán was favoured by the imperial court and became the largest Buddhist school in China[21], the period of the Tang Dynasty came to be regarded as the "golden age" of Chan. This proliferation is described in a famous saying:
Look at the territory of the house of Tang —
The whole of it is the realm of the Chán school.[28]
During 845-846 Emperor Wu-tsung persecuted the Buddhist schools in China.[29] This persecution was devastating for metropolitan Chan, but the Chan school of Ma-tsu and his likes survived, and took a leading role in the Chan of the later Tang.[29]
This surviving rural Chan developed into the Five Houses (Ch. 五家) of Zen, or five "schools". These were not originally regarded as "schools" or "sects", but historically they have come to be understood that way. Most Zen lineages throughout Asia and the rest of the world originally grew from or were heavily influenced by the original five houses of Zen.
Song dynasty (960–1297)
After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, China was in turmoil during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was followed by the Song Dynasty, which established a strong central government. During the Song Dynasty, Chán (禪) was used by the government to strengthen its control over the country, and Chán grew to become the largest sect in Chinese Buddhism. An ideal picture of the Chán of the Tang period was produced, which served the legacy of this newly acquired status.[30] With the establishment of the Wu-shan (Gozan) system during the Southern Sung, the Chinese bureaucratic system entered into Zen temples throughout the country, and a highly organized system of temple rank and administration developed.[31]
During this period, a clear difference between the Caodong and the Linji schools emerged, which respectively emphasized silent illumination and koan-practice.[32]
Ming dynasty (1368-1644)
In the Ming Dynasty teachers such as Hanshan Deqing (憨山德清) taught Chán alongside Pure Land Buddhism in many Chinese Buddhist monasteries. In time much of the distinction between them was lost, and many masters taught both Chán and Pure Land.
Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) and modern times (after 1912)
After further centuries of decline during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), Chán was revived again in the early 20th century by Hsu Yun (虛雲), a well-known figure of 20th century Chinese Buddhism. Many Chán teachers today trace their lineage back to Hsu Yun, including Sheng-yen (聖嚴) and Hsuan Hua (宣化), who have propagated Chán in the West where it has grown steadily through the 20th and 21st century.
Chán was repressed in China during the recent modern era in the early periods of the People's Republic, but has more recently been re-asserting itself on the mainland, and has a significant following in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as among Overseas Chinese.
Spread of Chán Buddhism in Asia
Thiền in Vietnam
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20120719130603im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Buddhist_Monk_Service_Hue_Vietnam.jpeg/170px-Buddhist_Monk_Service_Hue_Vietnam.jpeg)
Thiền Buddhism (禪宗 Thiền Tông) is the Vietnamese name for the school of Zen Buddhism. Thiền is ultimately derived from the Chinese Chán Zōng (禪宗).
According to traditional accounts of Vietnam, in 580, an Indian monk named Vinitaruci (Vietnamese: Tì-ni-đa-lưu-chi) traveled to Vietnam after completing his studies with Sengcan, the third patriarch of Chinese Chán. This, then, would be the first appearance of Vietnamese Thiền Buddhism. The sect that Vinitaruci and his lone Vietnamese disciple founded would become known as the oldest branch of Thiền. After a period of obscurity, the Vinitaruci School became one of the most influential Buddhist groups in Vietnam by the 10th century, particularly so under the patriarch Vạn-Hạnh (died 1018).
Other early Vietnamese Zen schools included the Vô Ngôn Thông, which was associated with the teaching of Mazu, and the Thảo Đường, which incorporated nianfo chanting techniques; both were founded by Chinese monks. A new school was founded by one of Vietnam's religious kings; this was the Trúc Lâm school, which evinced a deep influence from Confucian and Taoist philosophy. Nevertheless, Trúc Lâm's prestige waned over the following centuries as Confucianism became dominant in the royal court. In the 17th century, a group of Chinese monks led by Nguyên Thiều established a vigorous new school, the Lâm Tế, which is the Vietnamese pronunciation of Linji. A more domesticated offshoot of Lâm Tế, the Liễu Quán school, was founded in the 18th century and has since been the predominant branch of Vietnamese Thiền.
Zen master Thích Thanh Từ is credit for renovating Thien Trúc Lâm in Việt Nam. He is one of the most prominent and influential figures of Viet Nam zen masters currently alive. He was a disciple of Master Thích Thiện Hoa.
The most famous practitioner of syncretized Thiền Buddhism in the West is Thích Nhất Hạnh who has authored dozens of books and founded Dharma center Plum Village in France together with his colleague Chan Khong, Bhikkhuni and Zen Master.
Seon in Korea
Seon was gradually transmitted into Korea during the late Silla period (7th through 9th centuries) as Korean monks of predominantly Hwaeom (華嚴) and Consciousness-only (唯識) background began to travel to China to learn the newly developing tradition. During his lifetime, Mazu had begun to attract students from Korea; by tradition, the first Korean to study Seon was named Peomnang (法朗). Mazu's successors had numerous Korean students, some of whom returned to Korea and established the nine mountain (九山) schools. This was the beginning of Chán in Korea which is called Seon.
Seon received its most significant impetus and consolidation from the Goryeo monk Jinul (知訥) (1158–1210), who established a reform movement and introduced kōan practice to Korea. Jinul established the Songgwangsa (松廣寺) as a new center of pure practice. It was during the time of Jinul the Jogye Order, a primarily Seon sect, became the predominant form of Korean Buddhism, a status it still holds. which survives down to the present in basically the same status. Toward the end of the Goryeo and during the Joseon period the Jogye Order would first be combined with the scholarly 教 schools, and then be relegated to lesser influence in ruling class circles by Confucian influenced polity, even as it retained strength outside the cities, among the rural populations and ascetic monks in mountain refuges.
Nevertheless, there would be a series of important Seon teachers during the next several centuries, such as Hyegeun (慧勤), Taego (太古), Gihwa (己和) and Hyujeong (休靜), who continued to develop the basic mold of Korean meditational Buddhism established by Jinul. Seon continues to be practiced in Korea today at a number of major monastic centers, as well as being taught at Dongguk University, which has a major of studies in this religion. Taego Bou (1301–1382) studied in China with Linji teacher and returned to unite the Nine Mountain Schools. In modern Korea, by far the largest Buddhist denomination is the Jogye Order, which is essentially a Zen sect; the name Jogye is the Korean equivalent of Caoxi (曹溪), another name for Huineng.
Seon is known for its stress on meditation, monasticism, and asceticism. Many Korean monks have few personal possessions and sometimes cut off all relations with the outside world. Several are near mendicants traveling from temple to temple practicing meditation. The hermit-recluse life is prevalent among monks to whom meditation practice is considered of paramount importance.
Currently, Korean Buddhism is in a state of slow transition. While the reigning theory behind Korean Buddhism was based on Jinul's "sudden enlightenment, gradual cultivation", the modern Korean Seon master, Seongcheol's revival of Hui Neng's "sudden enlightenment, sudden cultivation" has had a strong impact on Korean Buddhism. Although there is resistance to change within the ranks of the Jogye order, with the last three Supreme Patriarchs' stance that is in accordance with Seongcheol, there has been a gradual change in the atmosphere of Korean Buddhism.
Zen in Japan
Kamakura (1185-1333)
Zen was not introduced as a separate school until the 12th century, when Myōan Eisai traveled to China and returned to establish a Linji lineage, which eventually perished.[web 1] Decades later, Nanpo Shōmyō (南浦紹明 ) (1235–1308) also studied Linji teachings in China before founding the Japanese Otokan lineage, the most influential and only surviving lineage of Rinzai in Japan.[web 1] In 1215, Dōgen, a younger contemporary of Eisai's, journeyed to China himself, where he became a disciple of the Caodong master Tiantong Rujing. After his return, Dōgen established the Sōtō school, the Japanese branch of Caodong. The Soto-school was further expanded by Keizan:
Soto priests say that if Dogen is the father of Japanese Soto Zen, Keizan Jokin (1268-1325) is its mother.[33]
Keizan's Soji-ji temple was a rival to Dogen's Eihei-ji. Others say that Dōgen gave "high religious ideals" while Keizan ensured Sōtō's survival. [34]
Muromachi (or Ashikaga) (1336-1573)
During the Muromachi period the Rinzai school was the most successful of the schools, since it was favoured by the Shogun. Rinzai was organized in the Gozan system. This system was extended throughout Japan, effectively giving control to the central government, which administered this system.[35] The Rinka monasteries, primarily found outside the cities in rural areas, had a greater degree of independence.[36] The O-to-kan lineage, that centered on Daitoku-ji, also had a greater degree of freedom.[37] A well-known teacher from Daytoku-ji was Ikkyū.[38] Another Rinka lineage was the Hotto lineage, of which Bassui Tokushō is the best-known teacher.[39]
Soto too spread out over Japan. Gasan adopted the Five Ranks of Tung-shan as a fit vehicle to explain the Mahayana teachings.[40]
Azuchi-Momoyama (1573-1600) and Edo (or Tokugawa) (1600-1868)
After a period of war Japan was re-united in the Azuchi–Momoyama period. This decreased the power of Buddhism, which had become a strong political and military force in Japan and was seen as a threat by the ruling clan. Neo-Confucianism gained influence at the expense of Buddhism, which came under strict state control. Japan closed the gates to the rest of the world.[38] New doctrines and methods were not to be introduced, nor were new temples and schools. The only exception was the Ōbaku lineage, which was introduced in the 17th century during the Edo period by Ingen, a Chinese monk.
Well-known Zen masters from this period are Bankei Yōtaku (盤珪永琢?, 1622–1693), Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉?, 1644 – November 28, 1694) and Hakuin Ekaku (白隠 慧鶴?, 1686–1768), who revived the Rinzai school.[38]
Meiji Restoration (1868-1912) and Imperial expansionism
During the Meiji period (1868–1912) Japan abandoned its feudal system and opened up to Western modernism. Shinto became the state religion, and Buddhism was coerced to adapt to the new regime. Rinzai and Soto Zen chose to adapt, with embarrassing consequences when Japanese nationalism was endorsed by the Zen institutions. War endeavours against Russia, China and finally during the Pacific War were supported by the Zen establishment.[41][42]
Within the Buddhist establishment the Western world was seen as a threat, but also as a challenge to stand up to.[41][43] Parties within the Zen establishment sought to modernize Zen in accord with Western insights, while simultaneously maintaining a Japanese identity.[44]
Present time (after 1945)
Interest in Zen grew in the West after World War II. Westerners such as Philip Kapleau and the Dutchman Janwillem van de Wetering went to Japan to study Zen.[45] Japanese teachers came to the West to share Zen practice and philosophy.[46]
Contemporary Zen organisations
There are three traditional schools of Zen in contemporary Japan are the Sōtō (曹洞 ), Rinzai (臨済 ), and Ōbaku (黃檗 ). Of these, Sōtō is the largest, Rinzai is middle, and Ōbaku the smallest. These are further divided into subschools by head temple, with 2 head temples for Sōtō (Sōji-ji and Eihei-ji, with Sōji-ji having a much larger network), 14 head temples for Rinzai, and 1 head temple (Manpuku-ji) for Ōbaku, for a total of 17 head temples. The Rinzai head temples, which are most numerous, have substantial overlap with the traditional Five Mountain System, and include Myoshin-ji, Nanzen-ji, Tenryū-ji, Daitoku-ji, and Tofuku-ji, among others.
Besides these traditional organizations, there are modern Zen organisations which have especially attracted Western lay followers, namely the Sanbo Kyodan and the FAS Society.
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 descendants of Asian immigrants, pursuing a serious interest in Zen began to reach a significant level. Especially Japanese Zen has gained popularity in the West. The various books on Zen by Reginald Horace Blyth, and Alan Watts published between 1950 and 1975, contributed to this growing interest in Zen in the West, as did the interest from beat poets such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder.[47].
Western Zen lineages
Over the last fifty years mainstream forms of Zen, led by teachers who trained in East Asia and their successors, have begun to take root in the West.
Derived from Japan
In North America, the Zen lineages derived from the Sanbo Kyodan school are the most numerous. The Sanbo Kyodan is a Japan-based reformist Zen group, founded in 1954 by Yasutani Hakuun, which has had a significant influence on Zen in the West. The most widespread are the lineages founded by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi and the White Plum Asanga. Maezumi's successors include Susan Myoyu Andersen, John Daido Loori, Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, Nicolee Jikyo McMahon, Joan Hogetsu Hoeberichts, and Charlotte Joko Beck.
The San Francisco Zen Center, for Sōtō practice, was established by Shunryu Suzuki. In 1967 it established the first Zen Monastery in America, called Tassajara, in the mountains near Big Sur. This Sōtō-center was followed by other official centers, such as the Sanshin Zen Community (Sanshinji) located in Bloomington, Indiana, established by Shohaku Okumura, and several Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota centers in the lineage of Dainin Katagiri.
There are also a number of Rinzai Zen centers in the West. In North America, some of the more prominent include Rinzai-ji founded by Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi in California, Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji established by Eido Shimano Roshi and Soen Nakagawa Roshi in New York, Chozen-ji founded by Omori Sogen Roshi in Hawaii, Daiyuzenji founded by Dogen Hosokawa Roshi (a student of Omori Sogen Roshi) in Chicago, Illinois, and Chobo-Ji founded by Genki Takabayshi Roshi in Seattle, Washington. In Europe there is Egely Monastery established by a Dharma Heir of Eido Shimano, Denko Mortensen.
Derived from China
Hsuan Hua was the first Chinese master to teach Westerners in North America. He taught Chán and other traditions of Chinese Buddhism in San Francisco during the early 1960s. He went on to 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 Chán teacher with a Western following is Sheng-yen, a master trained in both the Caodong and Linji schools. He first visited the United States in 1978 under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Association of the United States, and subsequently founded the CMC Chán Meditation Center in Queens, New York and the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in Pine Bush, New York.[web 2]
The Fo Guang Shan organization, which has branches worldwide, also belongs to the Chán school; its founder, the Venerable Master Hsing Yun is a lineage holder in the Linji (Rinzai) tradition.
Derived from Korea
The Kwan Um School of Zen, one of the largest Zen schools in the West, teaches a form of Seon Buddhism. Soeng Hyang Soen Sa Nim (b. 1948), birth name Barbara Trexler (later Barbara Rhodes), is Guiding Dharma Teacher of the international Kwan Um School of Zen and a successor of the late Seung Sahn Soen Sa Nim.
Derived from Vietnam
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.
Pan-lineage organizations
In the United States, two pan-lineage organizations have formed in the last few years. The oldest is the American Zen Teachers Association which sponsors an annual conference. North American Soto teachers in North America, led by several of the heirs of Taizan Maezumi and Shunryu Suzuki, have also formed the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.
Doctrinal background
Though Zen-narrative states that it is a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words"[22], Zen does have a rich doctrinal background. Most essential are "the most fundamental teaching [...] that we are already originally enlightened"[48], and the Bodhisattva ideal, which supplements insight with Karuṇā, compassion with all sentient beings.[49]
Original enlightenment
- See also: Chinese Chán
The teaching of "Original enlightenment" in classical Chinese Chán is expressed by a set of polarities: Buddha-nature - sunyata[50][51], absolute-relative[52], sudden and gradual enlightenment.[53]
Buddha-nature and sunyata
When Buddhism was introduced in China it was understood in terms of its own culture. Various sects struggled to attain an understanding of the Indian texts. The Tathāgatagarbha Sutras and the idea of the Buddha-nature were endorsed, because of the perceived similarities with the Tao. Sunyata was understood as pointing to an underlying essence, just as the Buddha-nature. It took Chinese Buddhism several centuries to understand that sunyata does not refer to a substance or essence underneath or behind the world of appearances.[web 3] This realisation was discernable in the course that Chán took.
Absolute-relative
The Prajnaparamita Sutras and Madhyamaka emphasized the non-duality of form and emptiness: form is emptiness, emptiness is form, as the Heart Sutra says.[52] The idea that the ultimate reality is present in the daily world of relative reality fitted into the Chinese culture which emphasized the mundane world and society. But this does not tell how the absolute is present in the relative world. This question is answered in such schemata as the Five Ranks of Tozan[54] and the Oxherding Pictures.
Sudden and gradual enlightenment
In the 8th century CE a doctrinal shift appeared from the Lankavatara Sutra to the prajnaparamita tradition, especially the Diamond Sutra. The Lankavatara Sutra, which endorses the Buddha-nature, emphasized purity of mind, which can be attained in gradations. The Diamond Sutra emphasizes sunyata, which "must be realized totally or not at all".[55] Once this dichotomy was in place, it defined its own logic and rhetoric, which are also recognisable in the distinction between Caodong (Soto) and Lin-ji (Rinzai) Chán.[56]
The Bodhisattva ideal
An important, though easily overlooked aspect of Zen is the bodhisattva ideal.[57] It supplements kensho and insight into the absolute with Karuṇā, compassion with all sentient beings.[49] This ideal is reflected in the Bodhisattva vow and the Bodhisattva Precepts[58] or jukai.[web 4]
Part of this Bodhisattva-ideal are the pāramitās, which are also being mentioned in the Diamond Sutra:
- Dāna (generosity, giving of oneself),
- Śīla (virtue, morality, proper conduct),
- Kṣānti (patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance),
- Vīrya (energy, diligence, vigour, effort),
- Dhyāna (meditation, tranquility), and
- Prajñā (wisdom, insight).[59][c]
The Bodhisattva-ideal is a central theme in the prajnaparamita-sutras.[60] The Diamond Sutra tells
... men and women [how] to follow the Bodhisattva Path and [...] how they should proceed.[web 5]
Dogen mentions the Bodhisattva-ideal throughout his works.[web 6][web 7]
Hakuin saw "deep compassion and commitment to help all sentient beings everywhere"[61] as an indispensable part of the Buddhist path to awakening. Hakuin emphasized the need op "post-satori training"[62][63], purifying the mind of karmic tendencies and
[W]hipping forward the wheel of the Four Universal Vows, pledging yourself to benefit and save all sentient beings while striving every minute of your life to practice the great Dharma giving.[63]
The insight in the need of arousing bodhicitta formed Hakuin's final awakening:
Wasn't a shaven head and monk's robe the Mind of Enlightenment? Wasn't reciting sutras, mantras, and dharanis the Mind of Enlightenment? [...] [At] my forty-first year, [...] I at long last penetrated into the heart of this great matter. Suddenly, unexpectedly, I saw it — it was as clear as if it were right there in the hollow of my hand. What is the Mind of Enlightenment? It is, I realized, a matter of doing good — benefiting others by giving them the gift of the Dharma teaching.[63]
Buddhas and bodhisattvas such as Amitābha, Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, and Kṣitigarbha are venerated alongside Gautama Buddha.[64][d]
Zen scripture
The role of scripture in Zen
Contrary to the popular image, literature does play a role in the Zen-training. Unsui, Zen-monks, "are expected to become familiair with the classics of the Zen canon".[65] A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Zen masters clearly reveals that they were well versed in numerous Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras.[4]
Nevertheless Zen is often pictured as anti-intellectual.[66] This picture of Zen emerged during the Song Dynasty (960–1297), when Chán became the dominant form of Buddhism in China, and gained great popularity among the educated and literary classes of Chinese society. The use of koans, which are highly stylized literary texts, reflects this popularity among the higher classes.[21] The Chán of the Tang Dynasty, especially that of Mazu and Linji with its emphasis on "shock techniques", in retrospect was seen as a golden age of Chán.[21] This picture has gained great popularity in the west in the 20th century, especially due to the influence of D.T. Suzuki,[67] and further popularized by Hakuun Yasutani and the Sanbo Kyodan.[68] This picture has been challenged, and comlemented, since the 1970s by modern scientific research on Zen.[69][70][21][71][72][73]
The importance given to Zen's non-reliance on written words is often misunderstood as an opposition to the study of Buddhist texts. However, Zen is deeply rooted in the teachings and doctrines of Mahāyāna Buddhism[66][e][4][f], and gradually developed its own literature:
Although there is a great deal of rhetoric about Zen understanding beyond books and texts, right from their first year [Rinzai] Zen monks are studying a text called the Zenrin kushū (Zenphrase collection)as part of their kōan practice. In the advanced stages of kōan practice (which most monks do not experience because they leave at less advanced stages), monks spend a great deal of time researching Zen and other texts in order to compose essays in Japanese and poetry in classical Chinese which they write in brush and submit for approval to the rōshi.[75]
What the Zen tradition emphasizes is that enlightenment of the Buddha came not through conceptualization, but rather through direct insight:
Despite its teaching of “no dependence upon words and letters,” Chan did not reject the scriptures of the Buddhist canon, but simply warned of the futility of relying on them for the attainment of emancipating insight. The sacred texts — and much more so the huge exegetical apparatus that had grown up around them in the older scholastic schools — were regarded as no more than signposts pointing the way to liberation. Valuable though they were as guides, they needed to be transcended in order for one to awaken to the true intent of Śākyamuni’s teachings.[76]
Grounding Chán in scripture
The early Buddhist schools in China were each based on a specific sutra. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, by the time of the Fifth Patriarch Hongren (601–674), the Zen school became established as a separate school of Buddhism.[77] It had to develop a doctrinal tradition of its own to ascertain its position,[23] and to ground its teachings in a specific sutra. Various sutra's were used for this, even before the time of Hongren: the Śrīmālādevī Sūtra (Huike)[78], Awakening of Faith (Daoxin)[78], the Lankavatara Sutra (East Mountain School)[78][4], the Diamond Sutra[79] (Shenhui)[78], the Platform Sutra.[4][79] Subsequently, the Zen tradition produced a rich corpus of written literature which has become a part of its practice and teaching.
Other influential sutras are the Vimalakirti Sutra[80][81][82], Avatamsaka Sutra[19], the Shurangama Sutra[83], and the Mahaparinirvana Sutra.[15]
The growing Chán tradition also faced the challenge to put its teachings into words, to bolster its identity and to applicate it in formal teaching settings, without losing the central insight into the "suchness" of reality.[4] One solution to this was the shift of emphasis from the recorded sayings of the historical Buddha, to the sayings of living Buddhas, namely the Chán masters.[84][85] In time, these sayings, from the so-called "encounter-dialogues" between masters and students, but also from sermons, became codified and formed the basis of typical Zen-genres, namely the "yü-lü" (recorded sayings) and the classic koan-collections. These too became formalised, and as such became a subject of disputes on the right way to teach Zen and the avoidance of dependence on words.[86]
Zen literature
The Zen-tradition developed a rich textual tradition, based on the interpretation of the Buddhist teachings and the recorded sayings of Zen-masters.
Chinese texts
Hui-neng's Platform Sutra
Among the earliest of the specifically Zen texts, dating back to at least the 8th century CE, is the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch, attributed to Huineng. It was constructed over a longer period of time, and contains different layers of writing.[21] It is...
...a wonderful melange of early Chan teachings, avirtual respitory of the entire tradition up to the second half of the eight century. At the heart of the sermon is the same understanding of the Buddha-nature that we have seen in texts attributed to Bodhidharma and Hingren, including the idea that the fundamental Buddha-nature is only made invisble to ordinary humans by their illusions".[87]
It contains the well-known story of the contest for the succession of Hongren. According to the text, Huineng won this contest, but had to flee the monastery to avoid the rage of the supporters of Henxui. The story is not a factual account, but an 8th-century construction, probably by the so-called Oxhead School.
The Platform Sūtra cites and explains a wide range of Buddhist scriptures: the Diamond Sūtra, the Lotus Sūtra (Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra), the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana-sutra, and the Mahaparinirvana Sutra.
Transmission of the Lamp
The Chán-tradition developed from the established tradition of "Canonical Buddhism"[88], which "remained normative for all later Chinese Buddhism".[88] It was established by the end of the sixth century, as a result of the Chinese developing understanding of Buddhism in the previous centuries.[89][15] One of the inventions of this Canonical Buddhism were transmission lists, called "Transmission of the Lamp", a literary device to establish a lineage. Both T'ien Tai and Chán took over this literary device, to lend authority to those developing traditions, and guarantee it's authencity:[90][91]
Chan texts present the school as Buddhism itself, or as the central teaching of Buddhism, which has been transmitted from the seven Buddhas of the past to the twenty-eight patriarchs, and all the generations of Chinese and Japanese Chan and Zen masters that follow.[92]
Another literary device for establishing those traditions was given by the Kao-seng-chuan (Biographies of Eminent Monks), compiles around 530.[90] The Chán-tradition developed its own corpus in this genre, with works as Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952) and the Jingde Records of the Transmission of the Lamp (published 1004). McRae considers Dumoulin's A History of Zen to be a modern example of this genre, disguished as scientific history.[71]
Recorded Sayings and Encounter Dialogue
From the "question-and-answer format that had been developed as a means of conveying Buddhist teachins" developed the "yü-lü" genre[93], the recorded sayings of the masters, and the encounter dialogues. The best-known example is the "Lin-ji yü-lü".[web 8] It is part of the Ssu-chia yü lu (Jp. Shike Goruku, The Collection of the Four Houses), which contains the recorded sayings of Mazu Daoyi, Baizhang Huaihai, Huangbo Xiyun and Linji.[94]
These recorded sayings are not verbatim recordings of the sayings of the masters, but well-edited texts, written down up to 160 years after the supposed sayings and meetings.[95]
Koan-collections
This "encounter dialogue"-genre developed into various collections of kōans, which form itself another extensive literary corpus.
Koan practice developed from a literary practice, styling snippets of encounter-dialogue into well-edited stories. It arose in interaction with "educated literati".[96] There were dangers involved in such a literary approach, such as fixing specific meanings to the cases.[96] Dahui Zonggao is even said to have burned the woodblocks of the Blue Cliff Record, for the hindrance it had become to study of Chán by his students[97]
The two best known koan-collections (in the west) are the "Gateless Gate" and the "Blue Cliff Record". The Gateless Gate (Chinese: 無門關 Wumenguan; Japanese: Mumonkan) is a collection of 48 kōans and commentaries published in 1228 by Chinese monk Wumen (無門) (1183–1260). The title may be more accurately rendered as Gateless Barrier or Gateless Checkpoint). The Blue Cliff Record (Chinese: 碧巖錄 Bìyán Lù; Japanese: Hekiganroku) is a collection of 100 kōans compiled in 1125 by Yuanwu Keqin (圜悟克勤 1063–1135).
Japanese texts
The Japanese Zen-tradition also developed a corpus of its own. During the Tokugawa-period Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō became the authoritative text of the Soto-school. In the Rinzai-school, the koan-curricula were systematized by dharma-heirs of Hakuin, who himself produced an extended corpus of written texts.
Dogen's Shōbōgenzō
During the Tokugawa-period the Soto-school started to place a growing emphasis on textual authority. In 1615 the bakufu declared that "Eheiji's standards (kakun) must be the rule for all Soto monks".[98] In time this came to mean all the writings of Dogen, which thereby became the normative source for the doctrines and organisation of the Soto-school.[98]
A key factor in this growing emphasis on Dogen was Manzan's appeal to change the rules for dharma transmission, based on arguments derived from the Shōbōgenzō.[98] Another reformation was implemented by Gento Sokuchu (1729–1807), who tried to purify the Soto-school of the use of koans.[99] Gento Sokuchu implanted new regulations, based on Dogen's regulations.[100]
This growing status of Dogen as textual authority also posed a problem for the Soto-school:
The Soto hierarchy, no doubt afraid of what other radical reformers might find in Dogen's Shobo Genzo, a work open to a avriety of interpretationbs, immediately took steps to restrict access to this traditional symbol of sectarian authority. Acting at the request of the Soto prelates, in 1722 the government prohibited the copying or publication of any part of Shobo Genzo.[98]
During the Meiji-restoration, the memory of Dōgen was used to ensure Eihei-ji's central place in the Soto-organisation, and "to cement closer ties with lay people". In 1899 the first lay ordination ceremony was organized in Eihei-ji.[100] Eihei-ji also promoted the study of Dōgen's works, especuially the Shōbōgenzō, which changed the view of Dōgen in Soto's history.[100]
Zen teachings
To point out 'essential Zen-teachings' is almost impossible, given the variety of schools, the extended history of 1500 years, and the emphasis on suchness, reality just-as-it-is, which has to be expressed in daily life, not in words. But common to most schools and teachings is this emphasis on suchness, the Bodhisattva-ideal, and the priority of zazen.
Pointing at the moon
Zen teachings can be likened to "the finger pointing at the moon".[101] Zen teachings point to the moon, awakening, "a realization of the unimpended interpenetration of the dharmadhatu".[102] But the Zen-tradition also warns against taking its teachings, the pointing finger, to be this insight itself:[103]
Wujin Chang, a nun, asked the Sixth Zen patriarch, Hui Neng, for help in understanding the Mahanirvana Sutra. The master answered that he could not read, but if the nun would read it aloud for him, he would do his best to help her.
The nun then asked, "If you can't even read the words, how can you understand the truth behind them?"
"Truth and words are unrelated. Truth can be compared to the moon," answered Hui Neng, pointing to the moon with his finger, "And words can be compared to a finger. I can use my finger to point out the moon, but my finger is not the moon, and you don't need my finger in order to be able to see the moon".[web 9][g]
This warning against confusing the finger and the moon resembles the Diamond-sutra:
[E]very disciple who is seeking Anuttara-samyak sambhodi should discard, not only conceptions of one's own selfhood, other selves, living beings and a Universal Selfhood, but should discard, also, all ideas about such conceptions and all ideas about the non-existence of such conceptions.
While the Tathagata, in his teaching, constantly makes use of conceptions and ideas about them, disciples should keep in mind the unreality of all such conceptions and ideas. [59]
Varieties in Zen-teaching
The various traditions lay various emphasizes in their teachings and practices:
There are two different ways of understanding and actually practicing Zen. These two different ways are termed in Chinese pen chueh and shih-chueh respectively. The term pen chueh refers to the belief that one’s mind is from the beginning of time fully enlightened, while shih-chueh refers to the belief that at some point in time we pass from imprisonment in ignorance and delusion to a true vision of Zen realization: “Our enlightenment is timeless, yet our realization of it occurs in time.” According to this belief experiencing a moment of awakening in this life is of central importance.[105]
Rinzai
The Rinzai-tradition emphasises kensho, insight into one's true nature:[106]
Hakuin prefers the term "seeing into one's nature", which for him means ultimate reality. The Buddha nature and the cosmic Buddha body, wisdom (prajna), and emptiness (sunyata), the original countenance one had before one was born, and other expressions from the rich palette of Mahayana terms were all familiar to him from his continued study of the sutras and Zen literature.[106]
This is followed by further practice to attain Buddhahood:[107]
zen is not something that you stop when you have understood and discard when you have realized. The more you understand, the more you study. the more you realize, the more you take up.[108]
This gradual cultivation is described by contemporary Chan Master Sheng Yen as follows:
Ch'an expressions refer to enlightenment as "seeing your self-nature". But even this is not enough. After seeing your self-nature, you need to deepen your experience even further and bring it into maturation. You should have enlightenment experience again and again and support them with continuous practice. Even though Ch'an says that at the time of enlightenment, your outlook is the same as of the Buddha, you are not yet a full Buddha.[109]
Other Zen-teachers have also expressed sudden insight followed by gradual cultivation. Chinul, a 12th-century Koran Seon master, followed Zongmi, and also emphasized that insight into our true nature is sudden, but is to be followed by practice to ripen the insight and attain full Buddhahood. This is also the standpoint of the contemporary Sanbo Kyodan, according to whom kensho is at the start of the path to full enlightenment.[110]
To attain this primary insight and to deepen it, zazen and kōan-study is deemed essential. This trajectory of initial insight followed by a gradual deepening and ripening is expressed by linji in his Three mysterious Gates, and the Four Ways of Knowing of Hakuin.[49] Another example of depiction of stages on the path are the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures which detail the steps on the Path.
Soto
This gradual cultivation is also recognized by the Caodong-teacher Tozan, who described the Five ranks of enlightenment.[web 11]
Dogen, the founder of Soto in Japan, emphasised that practice and awakening cannot be separated. By practicing shikantaza, attainment and Buddhahood are already being expressed:[111]
Fundamental to Dogen's Buddha-Way is the conviction that every act as a disciple of the Buddha and the ultimate testimony (of enlightenment) are one and inseparable.[112]
For Dogen, zazen, or shikantaza, is the essence of Buddhist practice:
Properly seated meditation is the core of what has been passed down from the Buddha to his disciples, from one master to another down through the generations, without interruption and without modifications.[113]
The Sōtō-school has de-emphasized kōans since Gentō Sokuchū (circa 1800), and instead emphasized shikantaza.[99]
Western understanding
In the west, Zen-teachings have tended to become part of a modern version of the Perennial philosophy, "the idea of a common set of truths held by all peoples in all times and places".[114] The writings of D.T. Suzuki have been instrumental in this understanding, but Suzuki in his turn was influenced by western esoteric traditions.[115] This interpretation emphasizes "spiritual progress"[116], experience[70] and the direct cognition of a "divine, ineffable reality, transcendent yet pervading everything and to which the individual mind is directly connected or even identical".[114] This understanding differs from Japanese Zen, which is basically a monastic training[web 12] in which communal aspects[116] and daily life[web 12] are emphasized.
Zen practice
Zen meditation
Central to Zen-practice is dhyana or meditation. The Zen tradition holds that in meditation practice, notions of doctrine and teachings necessitate the creation of various notions and appearances (Skt. saṃjñā; Ch. 相, xiāng) that obscure the transcendent wisdom of each being's Buddha-nature. This process of rediscovery goes under various terms such as "introspection", "a backward step", "turning-about" or "turning the eye inward".
Zazen
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20120719130603im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Hsuan_Hua_Hong_Kong_1.jpeg/170px-Hsuan_Hua_Hong_Kong_1.jpeg)
Sitting meditation is called zazen (Jp.: 坐禅, lit. "seated meditation"), and in Chinese it is called zuòchán (坐禅), both simply meaning "sitting dhyāna". During this sitting meditation, practitioners usually assume a position such as the lotus position, half-lotus, Burmese, or seiza postures, using the dhyāna mudrā. To regulate the mind, awareness is directed towards counting or watching the breath or put in the energy center below the navel (see also anapanasati).[web 13] Often, a square or round cushion placed on a padded mat is used to sit on; in some other cases, a chair may be used.
Shikantaza
In the Soto school of Zen, meditation with no objects, anchors, or content, is the primary form of practice. The meditator strives to be aware of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference. Considerable textual, philosophical, and phenomenological justification of this practice can be found throughout Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō, as for example in the "Principles of Zazen"[web 14] and the "Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen".[web 15]
Sesshin
Zen traditions[which?] include periods of intensive group meditation in a monastery. While the daily routine in the monastery may require monks to meditate for several hours each day, during this intensive period they devote themselves almost exclusively to the practice of sitting meditation. The numerous 30–50 minute long meditation periods are interleaved with short rest breaks, meals, and sometimes, short periods of work should be performed with the same mindfulness; nightly sleep is kept to a minimum: 7 hours or less. In modern Buddhist practice in Japan, Taiwan, and the West, lay students often attend these intensive practice sessions, which are typically 1, 3, 5, or 7 days in length. These are held at many Zen centers, especially in commemoration of the Buddha's attainment of Anuttarā Samyaksaṃbodhi. One distinctive aspect of Zen meditation in groups is the use of a flat wooden slat used to keep meditators focused and awake.
Kōan practice
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20120719130603im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Wu_%28negative%29.svg/170px-Wu_%28negative%29.svg.png)
At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, practice with the kōan method became popular, whereas others practiced "silent illumination."[117] This became the source of some differences in practice between the Linji and Caodong traditions.
A kōan, literally "public case", is a story or dialogue, describing an interaction between a Zen master and a student. These anecdotes give a demonstration of the master's insight. Koans emphasize the non-conceptional insight that the Buddhist teachings are pointing to. Koans can be used to provoke the "great doubt", and test a student's progress in Zen practice.
Responding to a kōan requires a student to let go of conceptual thinking and of the logical way we order the world, so that insight into sunyata arises naturally and spontaneously in the mind. But this does not mean that words are useless, as is demonstrated already by the mere fact that koans are words:
[T]he way to Satori is not through dependence upon words, even if they be words of the Buddha or past Masters; however, one should not reject words, for, imperfect as they are, they are the only means we have of attaining enlightenment. They should use the words and ideas contained in the koans to reach satori, but they should never confuse the two. Conceptualizations, words, logic and reason are means whereby one attains enlightenment, but they must not be equated [w]ith enlightenment.[web 16]
Kōans and their study developed in China within the context of the open questions and answers of teaching sessions conducted by the Chinese Zen masters. The recorded encounter dialogues, and the koan collections which derived from this genre, mark a shift from solitary practice to interaction between master and student:
The essence of enlightenment came to be identified with the interaction between masters and students. Whatever insight dhyana might bring, its verification was always interpersonal. In effect, enlightenment came to be understood not so much as an insight, but as a way of acting in the world with other people[118]
This mutual enquiry of the meaning of the encounters of masters and students of the past gave students a role model:
Today, the Zen student's mastery of a given kōan is presented to the teacher in a private interview (referred to in Japanese as dokusan (独参), daisan (代参), or sanzen (参禅)). Zen teachers advise that the problem posed by a kōan is to be taken quite seriously, and to be approached as literally a matter of life and death. While there is no unique answer to a kōan, practitioners are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the kōan and of Zen through their responses. The teacher may approve or disapprove of the answer and guide the student in the right direction. There are also various commentaries on kōans, written by experienced teachers, that can serve as a guide. These commentaries are also of great value to modern scholarship on the subject. Kōan-inquiry may be practiced during sitting meditation (zazen), walking meditation (kinhin), and throughout all the activities of daily life. Kōan practice is particularly emphasized by the Japanese Rinzai school, but it also occurs in other schools or branches of Zen depending on the teaching line.[120]
Interaction with a teacher
Another important, though easily overlooked aspect of the Zen-tradition, is the interaction with a Zen-teacher. This importance is reflected in the private interrogations. Even the literary devices and traditions on which this koan-study is based, are regarded inadequate:
Thus, even the kung-an that had been redacted and commented upon by earlier masters were perceived as inadequate. All props are taken away and no texts or hermeneutical methods are left, except for recourse to religious practice under an enlightened master. In this way, the use of scripture, transmission lineages, yu-lu, and kung-an collections is relegated to a secondary level, as hermeneutical variations on the recurring Ch'an challenge to seek enlightenment oneself through a face-to-face encounter with a Ch'an master.[121]
Yet, it is this same accent on interaction which makes Zen-practice, at least in the west, also vulnerable to misunderstanding and exploitation.[122]
Zen chanting and liturgy
A practice in many Zen monasteries and centers is a daily liturgy service. Practitioners chant major sutras such as the Heart Sutra, chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra (often called the "Avalokiteshvara Sutra"), the Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness, the Great Compassionate Heart Dharani (Daihishin Dharani), and other minor mantras.
The Butsudan is the altar in a monastery where offerings are made to the images of the Buddha or Bodhisattvas. The same term is also used in Japanese homes for the altar where one prays to and communicates with deceased family members. As such, reciting liturgy in Zen can be seen as a means to connect with the Bodhisattvas of the past. Liturgy is often used during funerals, memorials, and other special events as means to invoke the aid of supernatural powers.[citation needed]
Chanting usually centers on major Bodhisattvas like Avalokiteshvara (see also Guan Yin) and Manjusri. According to Mahayana Buddhism, Bodhisattvas are beings who have taken vows to remain in Samsara to help all beings achieve liberation from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Since the Zen practitioner's aim is to walk the Bodhisattva path, chanting can be used as a means to connect with these beings and realize this ideal within oneself. By repeatedly chanting the Avalokiteshvara sutra (観世音菩薩普門品 Kanzeon Bosatsu Fumonbon ) (chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra[web 17]), for example, one instills the Bodhisattva's ideals into ones mind. The ultimate goal is given in the end of the sutra, which states, "In the morning, be one with Avalokiteshvara; in the evening, be one with Avalokiteshvara". Through the realization of emptiness and the Mahayana notion that all things have Buddha-nature, one understands that there is no difference between the cosmic bodhisattva and oneself. The wisdom and compassion of the Bodhisattva one is chanting to is seen to equal the inner wisdom and compassion of the practitioner. Thus, the duality between subject and object, practitioner and Bodhisattva, chanter and sutra is ended.
Lay services
Though in western Zen the emphasis is on zen-meditation, and the application of Zen-teachings in daily life, Japanese Zen also serves a function in public religion. Funerals play an important role as a point of contact between the monks and the laity. Statistics published by the Sōtō school state that 80 percent of Sōtō laymen visit their temple only for reasons having to do with funerals and death, while only 17 percent visit for spiritual reasons and a mere 3 percent visit a Zen priest at a time of personal trouble or crisis.[123]
Zen organisation and institutions
Religion is not only an individual matter, but "also a collective endeavour".[124] Though individual experience[68] and the iconoclastic picture of Zen[125] are emphasised in the western world, the Zen-tradition is maintained and transferred by a high degree of institutionalisation.[126][127] In Japan, modernity has led to criticism of the formal system and the commensement of lay-oriented Zen-schools such as the Sanbo Kyodan[128] and the Ningen Zen Kyodan.[web 18] How to organize the continuity of the Zen-tradition in the west, constraining charismatic authority and the derailment it may bring on the one hand[129][130][122], and maintaining the legitimacy and authority by limiting the number of authorized teachers on the other hand[124], is a challenge for the developing Zen-communities in the west.
Temple-training
Since the East Mountain Teaching, Zen has centered on monastic life. In modern Soto and Rinzai, monasteries serve as training facilities to educate Zen priests, most of whom move on to run their own temple.[126][127] Japanese laity has been allowed to participate in Zen training only since the Meiji Restoration.
Japanese Soto and Rinzai are organized in a system of head-temples and sub-temples.
Soto
Contemporary Soto-shu has four classes of temples:[131]
- Honzan (本山 ), head temples, namely Eihei-ji and Sōji-ji;
- Kakuchi, teaching monasteries, where at least once a year an ango (ninety-day retreat) takes place;
- Hōchi, dharma temples;
- Jun hōchi, ordinary temples.
The two head temples or honzan (本山 ) of the Sōtō sect are Eihei-ji and Sōji-ji. While Eihei-ji owes its existence to Dōgen, throughout history this head temple has had significantly fewer sub-temple affiliates than the Sōji-ji. During the Tokugawa period, Eiheiji had approximately 1,300 affiliate temples compared to Sōji-ji's 16,200. Furthermore, out of the more than 14,000 temples of the Sōtō sect today, 13,850 of those identify themselves as affiliates of Sōji-ji. Additionally, most of the some 148 temples that are affiliates of Eiheiji today are only minor temples located in Hokkaido— founded during a period of colonization during the Meiji period. Therefore, it is often said that Eiheiji is a head temple only in the sense that it is "head of all Sōtō dharma lineages.[132]
In an advice to western practitioners, Kojun Kishigami Osho, a dharma heir of Kodo Sawaki, writes:
Every year, about 150 novices arrive. About 90 percent of them are sons of temple heads, which leaves only 10 percent who chose this path for themselves. For the autumn session, about 250 monks come together. Essentially what they are learning in these temples is the ability to officiate all kinds of ceremonies and rites practiced by the Soto School – the methods for fulfilling their role. Apart from this aspect, practicing with the idea of developing one’s own spirituality is not prevalent.[web 19]
Rinzai
The Rinzai-school has 14 main-temples, to which subsidiary temples are attached. The 14 branches of Rinzai, by head temple, are:[web 20]
- Myōshin-ji (founded in 1342 by Kanzan Egen Zenji)
- Nanzen-ji (founded by Musō Soseki)
- Kenchō-ji
- Tōfuku-ji (founded by Enni Ben'en, 1202–1280)
- Engaku-ji
- Daitoku-ji (founded by Shūhō Myōchō)
- Hōkō-ji
- Eigen-ji
- Tenryū-ji (founded by Musō Soseki)
- Shōkoku-ji
- Kennin-ji
- Kōgaku-ji
- Kokutai-ji
Sometimes a 15th is included:
- Manpuku-ji, properly part of Ōbaku instead
Dharma transmission
In the western understanding, dharma transmission is primarily the affirmation of awakening by a teacher.[122] But is also part of the continuation and maintanance of Zen-institutions.
Function of Dharma Transmission
Esoteric and exoteric transmission
According to Borup the emphasis on 'mind to mind transmission' is a form of esoteric transmission, in which "the tradition and the enlightened mind is transmitted face to face".[133] Metaphorically this can be described as the transmission from a flame from one candle to another candle[133], or the transmission from one vein to another.[134]
Exoteric transmission requires "direct access to the teaching through a personal discovery of one's self. This type of transmission and identification is symbolized by the discovery of a shining lantern, or a mirror."[133]
This polarity is recognizable in the emphasis that the Zen-tradition puts on maintaining the correct Dharma transmission, while simultaneously stressing seeing into one's nature. Seeing one's nature gives an autonomous confirmation of Zen's ultimate truth, which may conflict with the need to maintain institutions and traditions.[i]
Family structure
According to Bodiford, "Zen is the predominant form of Buddhism because of dharma transmission":[137]
[I]t has ancestors whom it honors. It honors those ancestors by transmitting their legacy to proper descendants, from generation to generation, who will maintain and carry on their family traditions [...] [I]n Zen this process of transmitting a family legacy is given structural form through the ritual of dharma transmission.[137]
Bodiford distinguishes seven dimension which are discernible in both family relationships and in dharma lineages:
- Ancestral dimension: "Ancestors (so) constitute a fundamental source of power".[137] Performing rituals in honour of the ancestors keeps them in high regard "among the living".[137]
- Biological dimension: the dharma lineage creates (spiritual) offspring, just as the family creates new life.[138]
- Linguistic dimension: dharma heirs receive new names, which reflect their tie to the dharma 'family'.[139]
- Ritual dimension: rituals confirm the family relationships. One's teacher is honored in rituals, as are deceised teachers.[140]
- Legal dimension: teachers have the obligation to discipline their students, just as students have the obligation to obey their teachers.[141]
- Institutional and financial dimension: dharma heirs have an obligation to support their home temple, both financially and ritually.[142]
- Temporal dimension: long-term relationships foster the previous dimensions.[143]
The family-model is easier recognized when East Asian languages are being used, because the same terminology is used to describe both earthly and spiritual family relations.[144]
Contemporary use of Dharma transmission
In Soto, dharma transmission establishes a lifelong relation between teacher and student. To qualify as a Zen priest, further training is required.[web 12][web 21][web 22]
In Rinzai, the most common form of transmission is the acknowledgement that one has stayed in the monastery for a certain amount of time, and may later become a temple priest.[145] The common transmission does not include inka shōmei, which is being used for the transmission of the "true lineage" of the masters (shike) of the training halls.[145] Training halls are temples which are authorised for further training after being qualified as a temple priest. There are only about fifty[web 23] to a hundred of such inka shōmei-bearers in Japan.
Although the formal transmission of the dharma-lineage, from Shakyamuni Buddha to the present day, is preserved in this way, it is also seen as problematical in contempary Zen.[122][146]
Self-awakening
The Zen tradition has always stressed the importance of formal Dharma transmission, but there are indeed well known examples of Mushi dokugo, self-awakening, such as Nōnin, Jinul and Suzuki Shōsan who attained awakening on their own, though all of them were familiair with the Zen-teachings.
Zen Universities
- See also: Buddhist universities and colleges
Both Soto and Rinzai have educational institutions, such as Komazawa University and Hanazono University, which stand in strong competition. Several Zen-teachers known in the west have studied there, such as Shohaku Okumura and Keido Fukushima. The Kyoto University was the centre of activities for the Kyoto School, to which belong Keiji Nishitani and Masao Abe.
Organisation of Western Zen
Western Zen is mainly a lay-movement, though grounded in formal lineages. It's Japanese background is in mainly lay-oriented new religious movements, especially the Sanbo Kyodan. Though a number of zen-buddhist monasteries exist in the western world, most practice takes place in Zen centers throughout the western world.
Koné sees three issues in the emerging western Zen tradition: sustainability, legitimicay, and authority.[124]
- Sustainability: Zen groups and organizations need income to survive. "Covert centers" offer meditation courses, for which they charge a fee. These groups "often experience a high turnover, with a core of long-time practitioners".[124] "Residential centers" have a limited number of long term residents, with a high commitment, who serve a larger lay community. Income is generated by donations. Publicity is low-key, since a rapid growth would threaten the continuity.[124]
- Legitimacy: Zen groups need legitimacy, which is "social recognition and acceptance".[124] The primary means for this is the "master-disciple relationship" and the "central reference to transmission".[124] Various attitudes toward the tradition are possible: emulating the traditions, adaptation of the tradition, a critical stance toward the tradition, and borrowing from the tradition.[124]
- Authority: two patterns are discernable, namely spiritual achievement and "spiritual friendship", and "spiritual hierarchy".[124] Smaller groups tend toward egalitarity and spiritual friendship, where-as larger groups tend toward more hierarchical organisation.[124]
A recurrent issue has been the reliance on charismatic authority and the resulting teacher scandals.[129][130] Sandra Bell has analysed the scandals at Vajradhatu and the San Francisco Zen Center and concluded that these kinds of scandals are
... most likely to occur in organisations that are in transition between the pure forms of charismatic authority that brought them into being and more rational, corporate forms of organization".[129]
Robert Sharf also mentions charisma from which institutional power is derived, and the need to balance charismatic authority with institutional authority.[128] Elaborate analyses of these scandals are made by Stuart Lachs, who mentions the uncritical acceptance of religious narratives, such as lineages and dharma transmission, which aid in giving uncritical charismatic powers to teachers and leaders.[130][147][148][122][149]
The scandals eventually lead to rules of conduct by the American Zen Teachers Association, and the reorganising of Zen Centers,[150] to spread the management of those centers over a wider group of people and diminish the role of charismatic authority. Another affect was the split in various Zen organisations, such as Robert Aitken leaving the Sanbo Kyodan, and Joko Beck leaving the White Plum Sangha.
Zen Narratives
Modern scientific research on the history of Zen discerns three main narratives concerning Zen, its history and its teachings: Traditional Zen Narrative (TZN),[151][web 24] Buddhist Modernism (BM),[43] Historical and Cultural Criticism (HCC).[151]
Traditional Zen Narrative (TZN)
The Traditional Zen Narrative developed in phases in China during the Tang Dynasty and the beginning of the Song Dynasty, from the 7th to 11th century. It became dominant during the Song Dynasty, when Chán was the dominant form of Buddhism in China, due to support from the Emperial Court.[21]
Its main phases were the development of the traditional Chan lineage, culminating in the "Transmission of the Lamp"-genre,[23] the encounter dialogue culminating in the kōan collections,[23] and the "climax-paradigm of the Song period, when Chan became the dominant Buddhist school in China.[23]
The Traditional Zen Narrative bases its self-understanding especially on the encounter stories of the well-known teachers of the later Tang-period, such as Mazu Daoyi and Linji.[152] This period is seen as the "golden age" of Chan, a "romantic coloring"[152] discarded by McRae:
"...what is being referred to is not some collection of activities and events that actually happened in the 8th through 10th centuries, but instead the retrospective re-creation of those activities and events, the imagined identities of the magical figures of the Tang, within the minds of Song dynasty Chan devotees"[152][152][...]"This retrospective quality pervades the Chan tradition. Time and again we find we are dealing, not with what happened at any given point, but with what people thought happened previously.[153]
Buddhist Modernism (BM)
In the 20th century the Traditional Zen Narrative was transformed into a modern narrative, due to the power of the Western colonial forces and the modernisation of Japan,[41][43] and the popularization in the Western world.[43]
Romanticism and transcendentalism
As a consequence of the adaptation of Zen to the modern world, and the cross-cultural fertilization of western transcendentalism and esotery and Japanese Zen,a romantic idea of enlightenment as insight into a timeless, transcendent reality has been popularized.[67]. This is especially due to the influence of D.T. Suzuki,[154][155][156] who, though known as a Zen Buddhist, was also influenced by Theosophy.[157] Further popularization was due to the writings of Heinrich Dumoulin.[25][158][159] Dumoulin viewed metaphysics as the expression of a transcendent truth, which according to him was expressed by Mahayana Buddhism, but not by the pragmatic analysis of the oldest Buddhism, which emphasizes anatta.[160] This romantic vision fits into Western romantic notions of self-realization and the true self, being regarded as a substantial essence being covered over by social conditioning:
Westerners do have a preconception of what ought to happen in mystical insight and in the attainment of enlightenment. True mystical insight, they will object, is not something that can be imposed from outside by a social system; instead it is a welling up of psychic energy from within, a breakthrough in which the true self erupts through the shell imposed by intellect, self-images, and socialization.[161]
The Traditional Zen Narrative atrracted the interest of Beat poets and writers in the 1950's:
What was particularly attractive about Zen, however, was not the rigorous zazen and koan study that Maezumi and others would be teaching a decade later, but rather the unusual discourse and eccentric behaviors of the masters of the "golden age" of Chinese Chán described in the classic literature of Zen.[162]
Historical and Cultural Criticism (HCC)
Contemporary research on Buddhism has shed new light on the history of Chan and Zen.
Since the 1960s the scientific research on Zen has created another narrative of Zen.[159] The "grand saga"[163] of Zen appears not to be an accurate historical documentation, but a skillfully created narrative, meant to lend authority to the Zen school.[23] The consequences of this critical narrative seem hardly to be recognized in the Western world.[44][web 25]
Enlightenment as timeless transcendence
The romantic notion of enlightenment as a timeless insight into a transcendental essence has been thoroughly criticized.[70] According to critics it doesn't contribute to a real insight into Buddhism:
...most of them labour under the old cliché that the goal of Buddhist psychological analysis is to reveal the hidden mysteries in the human mind and thereby facilitate the development of a transcendental state of consciousness beyond the reach of linguistic expression.[164]
Charismatic authority
The introduction of Zen in the West has been accompanied by problems which seem to be connected to this "grand saga". The teacher scandals which have occurred in Western Zen have been explained as being caused by an overreliance on charismatic authority,[129] and a misinterpretation of the meaning of dharma transmission and the position of a roshi.[148][122][149]
In Western Zen dharma transmission is highly esteemed. In the Japanese monastery system dharma transmission is a formal notification that someone is fully qualified to take a leading role in this system[154][165] In the USA and Europe dharma transmission is linked to the unofficial title roshi, older teacher. In the Western world roshis have been given an archetypal status as wise old man, someone who has realized an infallible insight into the true self, and a perfect personality. In daily life this appears to be an idealized view, give the repeated cases of abuse of power, and financial and sexual misbehaviour.[165][166]
The dependence on charismatic authority and lack of central authority may also lead to fragmentarisation and "new sects spinning off in several directions".[128]
Zen and World War II
Japanese Zen organisations supported Japanese nationalism and its endeavours during the Pacific War. This support has been made widely known in the Western world by Brian Victoria in his groundbreaking study Zen at War, though in Japan this was already more common knowledge.[41] D.T. Suzuki too supported these endeavours.[42][44][167] This Japanese nationalism, and the Japanese uniqueness was also a reaction to perceived western imperialism during the 19th century.[168]
See also
Notes
- ^ Dumoulin writes in his preface to "Zen"A History. Part One: India and China": "Zen (Chin. Ch'an, an abbreviation of ch'an-na, which transliterates the Sanskrit dhyana or its Pali cognate jhana, terms meaning "meditation") is the name of a Mahayana Buddhist school of meditation originating in China and characterized by the practice of meditation in the lotus position (Jpn., zazen; Chin., tso-ch'an and the use of the koan (Chin., kung-an), as well as by the enlightenment experinece of satori[1]
- ^ Godard does not provide a source for this quote
- ^ Wai-tao and Goddard re-arranged theit translation of the Diamond Sutra topically, using the six paramitas as a framework[47]
- ^ Lathouwers 2000:221 mentions: Blofeld, John (1988), Bodhisattva of compassion - the mystical tradition of kuan Yin. Boston: Shanbhala
- ^ Albert Low: "It is evident that the masters were well versed in the sutras. Zen master Tokusan, for example, knew the Diamond Sutra well and, before meeting with bhis own Zen master, lectured upon it extensively; the founder of the Zen sect, Bodhidharma, the very one who preached selfrealization outside the scriptures, nevertheless advocated the Lankavatara Sutra; Zen master Hogen knew the Avatamsaka Sutra well, and koan twenty-six in the Mumonkan, in which Hogen is involved, comes out of the teaching of that sutra. Other koans, too, make reference directly or indirectly to the sutras. The autobiography of yet another Zen master, Hui Neng, subsequently became the Platform Sutra, one of those sutras so condemned by those who reject intellectual and sutra studies"[74]
- ^ Poceski: "Direct references to specific scriptures are relatively rare in the records of Mazu and his disciples, but that does not mean that they rejected the canon or repudiated its authority. To the contrary, one of the striking features of their records is that they are filled with scriptural quotations and allusions, even though the full extend of their usage of canonical sources is not immediately obvious and its discernment requires familiarity with Buddhist literature." See source for a full-length example from "one of Mazu's sermons", in which can be found references to the Vimalakīrti Scripture, the Huayan Scripture, the Mahāsamnipata-sūtra, the Foshuo Foming Scripture 佛說佛名經, the Lankāvatāra scripture and the Faju jing.[4]
- ^ This anecdote refers to a passage from the Lankavatara Sutra: "As the ignorant grasp the finger-tip and not the moon, (224) so those who cling to the letter, know not my truth." [web 10]
The phrase can also be found in the Surangama Sutra: "The Buddha said: You are still using your clinging mind to listen to the Dharma; since, however, this Dharma is also causal, you fail to realize the Dharma-nature. This is like a man pointing a finger at the moon to show it to others who should follow the direction of the finger to look at the moon. If they look at the finger and mistake it for the moon, they lose (sight of) both the moon and the finger. Why? Because the bright moon is actually pointed at; they both lose sight of the finger and fail to distinguish between (the states of) brightness and darkness. Why? Because they mistake the finger for the bright moon and are not clear about brightness and darkness.[104] - ^ This role-taking is described by the Swedish psychologist of religion Hjalmar Sundén, though McRae does not seem to be aware of this
- ^ See Sharf (1995-C) [135] for an exposition of the problems that the Sanbo Kyodan faced, after the death of Yamada Koun. As Sharf notes:
- "[C]harisma can spread too widely, and the resulting centripetal forces pull the organisation apart, with new sects spinning off in several directions".[136]
- "[T]he Sanbo Kyodan would not survive long were it to elevate every student with kensho to the status of master".[136]
- "The institution would have little chance of survival were it not to balance claims concerning the ultimacy and autonomy of kensho with a course of training that inspires obedience and loyalty to the tradition".[136]
References
Book references
- ^ Dumoulin-A 2005, p. xvii.
- ^ Harvey 1995, p. 159-169.
- ^ Kasulis 2003, p. 24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Poceski Year unknown.
- ^ Borup 2008, p. 8.
- ^ Yampolski 2003-A, p. 3.
- ^ Dumoulin 2005-A, p. 48.
- ^ Lievens 1981, p. 52-53.
- ^ Dumoulin 2005-A, p. 41-45.
- ^ a b Brown Holt 1995.
- ^ Goddard 2007, p. 10.
- ^ Verstappen 2004, p. 5.
- ^ a b c d Fowler 2005, p. 79.
- ^ Goddard 2007, p. 11.
- ^ a b c Lai Year unknown.
- ^ a b c Oh 2000.
- ^ Dumoulin 2005-A, p. 167.
- ^ a b Dumoulin 2005-A, p. 168.
- ^ a b Dumoulin 2005-A, p. 45-49.
- ^ Lai Year unknown, p. 8.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i McRae 2003.
- ^ a b Dumoulin 2005-A, p. 85-94.
- ^ a b c d e f McRae 2003
- ^ a b c d e Whalen Lai Year unknown B.
- ^ a b c Dumoulin 2005-A.
- ^ McRae 2003, pp. 33–36.
- ^ Yampolski 2003-A:11
- ^ Huaijin 1997:95
- ^ a b Yampolski 2003-A:15
- ^ McRae 1993:119–120
- ^ Yampolski 2003-B:266
- ^ Schlütter 2008.
- ^ Matthiessen 1987, p. 198.
- ^ Bodiford 1993, p. 21, 81–84.
- ^ Dumoulin 2005-B:151–152
- ^ Dumoulin 2005-B:185
- ^ Dumoulin 2005-B:185–186
- ^ a b c Snelling 1987.
- ^ Dumoulin 2005-B:198
- ^ Dumoulin 2005-B:208–209
- ^ a b c d Victoria 2006
- ^ a b Victoria 2010
- ^ a b c d McMahan 2008
- ^ a b c Sharf 1993
- ^ Wetering 1999
- ^ Suzuki 2011
- ^ a b Aitken 1994.
- ^ Schlütter 2008, p. 3.
- ^ a b c Low 2006.
- ^ Kasulis 2003, pp. 26–29.
- ^ McRae 2003, pp. 138–142.
- ^ a b Liang-Chieh 1986:9
- ^ McRae 2003, pp. 123–138.
- ^ Kasulis 2003:29
- ^ Kasulis 2003:26–28
- ^ McRae 2003:123
- ^ Batchelor 2004.
- ^ Anderson 2000.
- ^ a b Wai-tao 1994.
- ^ Dumoulin 2005-A, p. 41.
- ^ Low 2006, p. 35.
- ^ Waddell 2010.
- ^ a b c Hakuin 2010.
- ^ Lathouwers 2000
- ^ Sharf 1995-C, p. 427.
- ^ a b Low 2000.
- ^ a b McMahan 2008.
- ^ a b Sharf 1995-B.
- ^ Sharf 1993.
- ^ a b c Sharf 1995.
- ^ a b McRae 2005.
- ^ Heine 2007.
- ^ Jorgensen 1991.
- ^ Low 2000, p. 4.
- ^ Hori 1994, p. 11.
- ^ Yanagida 2009, p. 62.
- ^ Ferguson 2000:17
- ^ a b c d Lai Year unknown, p. 17.
- ^ a b McRae 2003, p. 62.
- ^ Domoulin-2005-A, p. 49-51.
- ^ Snelling 1987, p. 157-158.
- ^ Low 2000, p. 83-112.
- ^ Low 2000, p. 135-154.
- ^ Buswell 1991.
- ^ Kasulis 2003.
- ^ Haskel 1984.
- ^ McRae 2003, p. 65-66.
- ^ a b Chappell 1993, p. 177.
- ^ Chappell 1993, p. 177-184.
- ^ a b Chappell 1993, p. 181.
- ^ McRae, p. 2-9.
- ^ McRae 2003, p. 4.
- ^ Chappell 1993, p. 192.
- ^ Dumoulin 2005-A, p. 179.
- ^ Welter Year unknown.
- ^ a b McRae 2003:131
- ^ Yampolski 2003-A:20
- ^ a b c d Bodiford 1991, p. 450.
- ^ a b Heine 2000, p. 245.
- ^ a b c Bodiford 2006.
- ^ Suzuki 1997, p. 154.
- ^ Buswell 1993, p. 245.
- ^ Abe 1996, p. 19.
- ^ Luk Year unknown, p. 59-60.
- ^ Lachs 2012, p. 4.
- ^ a b Dumoulin 2005-B, p. 380.
- ^ Sekida (translator) 1996.
- ^ Cleary 2010, p. xii-xiii, quoting Hakuin.
- ^ Yen 1996, p. 54).
- ^ Kapleau 1989.
- ^ Tomoaki 2003.
- ^ Tomoaki 2003, p. 280.
- ^ Tomoaki 2003, p. 284.
- ^ a b McMahan 2008, p. 71.
- ^ McMahan 2008, p. 72.
- ^ a b Bodiford 2008, p. 331 note 41.
- ^ Blyth 1966.
- ^ Kasulis 2003:30
- ^ McRae 2003, p. 130.
- ^ Loori 2006.
- ^ Chappell 1993, p. 198.
- ^ a b c d e f Lachs 2006.
- ^ Bodiford 1992.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Koné 2000.
- ^ McRae 2002.
- ^ a b Borup 2008.
- ^ a b Hori 1994.
- ^ a b c Sharf 1995-C.
- ^ a b c d Bell 2002.
- ^ a b c Lachs 1999.
- ^ Bodiford 2008, p. 330, note 29.
- ^ Bodiford 1993.
- ^ a b c Borup 2008, p. 9.
- ^ Faure 2000, p. 58.
- ^ Sharf 1995-C, p. 444-452.
- ^ a b c Sharf 1995-C, p. 445.
- ^ a b c d Bodiford 2008, p. 264.
- ^ Bodiford 2008, p. 264-265.
- ^ Bodiford 2008, p. 265.
- ^ Bodiford 2008, p. 265-266.
- ^ Bodiford 2008, p. 266.
- ^ Bodiford 2008, p. 266-267.
- ^ Bodiford 2008, p. 267.
- ^ Bodiford 2008, p. 267-268.
- ^ a b Borup 2008, p. 13.
- ^ Tetsuo 2003.
- ^ Lachs Year unknown.
- ^ a b Lachs 2002.
- ^ a b Lachs 2011.
- ^ Wright 2010.
- ^ a b Heine 2008:6
- ^ a b c d McRae 2003:19
- ^ McRae 2003, p. 14.
- ^ a b Sharf 1995
- ^ Hu Shih 1953.
- ^ Wright 2010, p. 242.
- ^ Tweed 2005.
- ^ Dumoulin 2005-B.
- ^ a b McRae 2005
- ^ Dumonlin 2000.
- ^ Hori 1994, p. 25-26.
- ^ Wright 2010, p. 241-242.
- ^ Jaksch 2007
- ^ Kalupahana 1992, p. xi.
- ^ a b Lachs 2006
- ^ Ford unknown
- ^ Sato unknown
- ^ Hori 2005
Web references
- ^ a b Rinzai-Obaku Zen - What is Zen? - History
- ^ Ven. Master Sheng Yen, The Founder of Dharma Drum Mountain
- ^ Whalen Lai, Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey
- ^ Dogen, On Receiving the Precepts
- ^ Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedika Prajna Paramita)
- ^ Dogen, Sobogenzo, On Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion
- ^ dogen, Shobogenzo, On the Four Exemplary Acts of a Bodhisattva
- ^ Translation of the Lin-ji yü-lü by Fuller-Sasaki
- ^ Pointing at the moon
- ^ Lankavatara Sutra, chapter LXXXII, p.192 Suzuki-translation, p.223/224 in brackets
- ^ The Five Ranks of Tozan
- ^ a b c What does it take to become a full-fledged Soto-shu priest and is it really worth the whole deal? Part 1
- ^ Sheng, Yen. "Fundamentals of Meditation". http://www.chancenter.org/chanctr/ddp/talks/zuochan.html.
- ^ Soto Zen Text Project. "Zazengi translation". Stanford University. http://hcbss.stanford.edu/research/projects/sztp/translations/shobogenzo/translations/zazengi/zazengi.translation.html. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
- ^ Soto Zen Text Project. "Fukan Zazengi". Stanford University. http://www.stanford.edu/group/scbs/sztp3/translations/gongyo_seiten/translations/part_3/fukan_zazengi.html. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
- ^ John F. Fisher (1978), An Analysis Of The Koans In The Mu Mon Kwan. In: Numen, Vol. 25, Fasc. 1. (Apr., 1978), pp. 65-76
- ^ Avalokiteśvara Sutra
- ^ Ningen Zen
- ^ Kojun Kishigami Osho, Of roots and branches
- ^ Head Temples,/ref>,ref group=web>Rinzai-Obaku zen
- ^ Ten points to keep in mind about dharma transmission
- ^ Ten-e and some words about Zui-se
- ^ Muho Noelke, Part 10: What does it take to become a full-fledged Sōtō-shu priest and is it really worth the whole deal?
- ^ Andre van de Braak, ZEN SPIRITUALITY IN A SECULAR AGE. Charles Taylor and Zen Buddhism in the West
- ^ Weblog of David Chapman
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Further reading
Modern classics
- D.T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series (1927), Second Series (1933), Third Series (1934)
- R. H. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, 5 volumes (1960–1970; reprints of works from 1942 into 1960's)
- Paul Reps & Nyogen Senzaki, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (1957)
- Alan Watts, The Way of Zen (1957)
- Lu K'uan Yu (Charles Luk), Ch'an and Zen Teachings, 3 vols (1960, 1971, 1974), The Transmission of the Mind: Outside the Teaching (1974)
- Philip Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen (1966)
- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970)
- Katsuki Sekida, Zen Training: Methods & Philosophy (1975)
Classic historiography
- Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 1: India and China. World Wisdom Books. ISBN 978-0-941532-89-1
- Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 2: Japan. World Wisdom Books. ISBN 978-0-941532-90-7
Critical historiography
- Sharf, Robert H. (1995-A), Whose Zen? Zen Nationalism Revisited, http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/CriticalZen/whose%20zen_sharf.pdf
- Borup, Jorn (Year unknown), Zen and the Art of inverting Orientalism: religious studies and genealogical networks, http://terebess.hu/english/borup.html
- Mcrae, John (2003), Seeing through Zen. Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism. The University Press Group Ltd . ISBN 978-0-520-23798-8
- McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518327-6
(Japanese) Zen as living religious institution and practice
- Borup, Jørn (2008), Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism: Myōshinji, a Living Religion, Brill
- Hori, Victor Sogen (1994), Teaching and Learning in the Zen Rinzai Monastery. In: Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol.20, No. 1, (Winter, 1994), 5-35, http://www.essenes.net/pdf/Teaching%20and%20Learning%20in%20the%20Rinzai%20Zen%20Monastery%20.pdf
External links
- thezensite
- Zen Buddhism WWW Virtual Library
- Sweeping Zen: Who's who in Zen
- Glossary of Japanese Zen terms
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