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Zen Buddhism

Zen (Chinese: Chan; Japanese: Zen; Korean: Seon; Vietnamese: Thien) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (Chanzong), and later developed into various sub-schools and branches.

From China, Chan spread south to Vietnam and became Vietnamese Thien, northeast to Korea to become Seon Buddhism, and east to Japan, becoming Japanese Zen.

Zen refers to chan, a form of Indian meditation brought to China by Bodhidharma 1,500 years ago.

It has its source in the meditation of Siddhartha Gautama under the Bodhi tree by which he obtained enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago in India, but he was influenced by Taoism. There is also the Korean influence of Seon.

Japanese Zen mainly refers to Siddhartha Gautama's awakening seated meditation posture called zazen.

In the West, it is one of the best known and most practiced branches of Zen Buddhism, in the version of either the Soto school or the Rinzai school.

Soto Zen insists on the practice of seated meditation (zazen) and only sitting (shikantaza) while Rinzai Zen gives a large place to koan, aporias, paradoxes for educational purposes whose intellectual understanding is impossible but depends on intuition.

Seated meditation (zazen) can make it possible to achieve enlightenment (satori): for Dogen, the practice itself is realisation. It is enough to sit still and silent to harmonize with the enlightenment of the Buddha.

The koan (Rinzai school) are most often absurd or paradoxical propositions posed by the master and which the disciple must dissolve (rather than resolve) in the emptiness of nonsense and, consequently, drown his self in an absence of tension and will, which can be compared to the perfectly smooth surface of a lake reflecting the world like a mirror.

Like all sinicized versions of Buddhism, Zen belongs to the Mahayana group, which affirms that everyone has what it takes to achieve enlightenment.

The Zen position, closer to the philosophical current of yogacara, considers according to some that the only reality of the universe is that of consciousness; there is therefore nothing else to discover than the true nature of one's own unified consciousness.

Bodhidharma statue at Haedong Yonggung Temple.
Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and is regarded as its first Chinese patriarch.

  • He is known as Damo in China, as Dalma in Korea and as Daruma in Japan. His name means "dharma of awakening (bodhi)" in Sanskrit.
  • Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as an ill-tempered, large-nosed, profusely-bearded, wide-eyed non-Chinese person. He is referred to as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" in Chan texts.
  • Bodhidharma's teachings and practice centered on meditation and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra.
  • See more at Bodhidharma - Wikipedia.

See also

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Location

Location: 13 Ryōanji Goryōnoshitachō, Ukyo Ward, Kyoto, 616-8001, Japan