
[[Image:BodhidharmaYoshitoshi1887.jpg|thumb|250px|Bodhidharma, woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, 1887.]] Zen is the Japanese name of a well known branch of Mahayana Buddhism, practiced originally in China as Chan, and subsequently in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Zen emphasizes the role of meditation (zazen) in pursuing Enlightenment (Buddhism). Zen can be considered a religion, a philosophy, or simply a practice depending on one's perspective. Besides this, it has been described as a way of life, work, and an art form. ''Zen'' is the common name for this branch of Buddhism in Japanese language as well as in English language, however Zen is an international phenomenon, with centers in many countries around the world. __TOC__ ==Spread of Zen== Traditionally, Zen traces its roots back to Indian Buddhism, where it was known by "dhyana" (ध्यान), a Sanskrit term for meditation. This name was transliterated into Chinese language as ''Chán'' (禪 / simplified 禅); "Chán" was later borrowed into Korean language as ''Seon'', Vietnamese language as ''Thien'' and into Japanese as "Zen." According to traditional accounts, Zen was founded in China by a Central Asian or Indian Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma (Daruma in Japanese). He was the 28th in the line of transmission from the Buddha's disciple Kasyapa. He traveled from Conjeeveram, near Madras (now Chennai), India, to Guangdong (Canton), China in 520 CE, where he met the Liang-dynasty (502-557) emperor Wudi and had a famous exchange declaring that good deeds done with selfish intention were useless (conferred no merit) for gaining enlightenment. He then went to a monastery near Luoyang in eastern China and, according to legend, spent nine years meditating before a cliff wall before accepting any disciples. As a legendary culture hero Bodhidharma has also been linked to the Shaolin Temple and the subsequent spread of East Asian martial arts in the oral traditions of schools like Kung Fu and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, as well as in much popular wuxia fiction. Later, Korean monks studying in China learned what was by then called Chan, and which had by then been influenced somewhat by Chinese Taoism. After the tradition was expanded to Korea, it came to be called Seon there (sometimes misspelled as Soen in the West). Korean monks then brought it to Japan around the 7th century, where it came to be called Zen. {| border=1 width=300 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 align=right style="margin:0 0 1em 1em;" |- ! colspan=2 align=center bgcolor=#FFCCCC | Zen |- ! colspan=2 align=center | Sanskrit Name |- | Sanskrit | ध्यान dhyana |- ! colspan=2 align=center | Chinese Name |- | width=150 | Hanyu Pinyin | width=150 | Chan |- | width=150 | Wade-Giles | width=150 | Ch'an2 |- | width=150 | Cantonese languageJyutping | width=150 | sim4 |- | Traditional Chinese character | 禪 |- | Simplified Chinese character | 禅 |- ! colspan=2 align=center | Korean language Name |- | width=150 | Revised Romanization of Korean | width=150 | Seon |- | width=150 | McCune-Reischauer | width=150 | Sŏn |- | Hangul | 선 |- | width="150" | Hanja | width="150" | 禪 |- ! colspan=2 align=center | Japanese language Name |- | Romaji | Zen |- | Kanji | 禅 |- ! colspan=2 align=center | Vietnamese language Name |- | Vietnamese_alphabet | Thien |- |} 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 scholar D.T. Suzuki maintained that a Zen ''satori'' (awakening) was 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. ==Zen in Japan== The following Zen traditions still exist in Japan: Rinzai, Soto, and Obaku School. Originally formulated by the eponymous Chinese master Linji (Rinzai in Japanese), the Rinzai school was introduced to Japan in 1191 by Eisai. Dogen, who studied under Eisai, would later carry the Caodong, or "Soto" Zen school to Japan from China. 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 with very few Zen practitioners ever actually ''attaining'' 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. Some Japanese Zen sects and teachers have also been criticized for their involvement in Japanese militarism and nationalism especially during World War II. In particular an American Soto Zen priest Brian Victoria has exposed a number of instances where Buddhist teachings were used to justify acts of killing. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0834804050/103-9814091-3292632?v=glance] Zen is also associated with Japanese tea ceremony. ==Zen and Buddhism== Zen is considered by some as not necessarily a Buddhist religion as a number of non-Buddhists, particularly Christians, have been formally acknowledged as Zen masters. Zen is often described as a ''way of life'' not dependent on one's particular culture. At the same time, the institutions that support Zen practice have historically all been Buddhist and uphold the fundamental teachings of Gautama Buddha. Even today there are very few non-Buddhist Zen teachers and fewer organizations to support non-Buddhist practice. So, for all practical purposes Zen is Zen Buddhism. Though Zen meditation practice does derive from the Buddha's original Eightfold Path teaching, where dhyana is one element of the eightfold way, Zen has been occasionally criticized byTheravada Buddhists for not adequately emphasizing the other elements of the Eightfold Path and for not emphasizing study of the traditional Tripitaka or for being ignorant of, or unconcerned with, Buddhist philosophy in general. In practice, however, most Zen teachers, monks and centers have good relationships with those of other Buddhist schools and often cooperate with them. ==Zen teachings and practices== 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 the mind. Zen, however, is no mere quietistic doctrine: the Chinese Chan master Baizhang (720-814 CE), (Japanese language: ''Hyakujo''), left behind a famous saying which had been the guiding principle of his life, "A day without work is a day of no eating." When Baizhang was thought to be too old to work in the garden, his devotees hid his gardening tools. In response to this, the master then refused to eat, saying "No working, no living." These teachings are in turn deeply rooted in the Buddhist textual tradition, drawing primarily on Mahayana sutras composed in India and China, particularly the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Lankavatara Sutra, and the ''Samantamukha Parivarta'', a chapter of the Lotus Sutra. The body of Zen doctrine also includes the recorded teachings of masters in the various Zen traditions. The heavy influence of the Lankavatara Sutra, in particluar, has led to the formation of the "mind only" concept of Zen, in which consciousness itself is recognized as the only true reality. Zen is not primarily an intellectual philosophy nor a solitary pursuit. Zen centers emphasize meticulous daily practice, and hold monthly intensive 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 pointed out, moreover, that Zen is a ''way of life'' and not solely a state of consciousness. D.T. Suzuki wrote that the aspects of this life were: a life of humility; a life of labor; a life of service; a life of prayer and gratitude; and a life of meditation. ===Zazen=== Zen meditation is called zazen. Zazen translates approximately to "sitting meditation", although it can be applied to practice in any posture. During zazen, practitioners usually assume a lotus position, half-lotus, Burmese posture, or seiza sitting position. A round cushion (zafu) placed on a padded mat (zabuton) is used to sit on, or a chair may be used. Rinzai practitioners typically sit facing the center of the room, while Soto practitioners sit facing a wall. Awareness is directed towards complete cognizance of one's posture and breathing. In this way, practitioners seek to transcend thought and be directly aware of the universe. In Soto, shikantaza meditation ("just-sitting") that is, a meditation with no objects, anchors, "seeds," or content, is the primary form of practice. Considerable textual, philosophical, and phenomenological justification of this practice can be found in Dogen's Shobogenzo. The daily time spent in zazen varies, Dogen recommends even 5 minutes daily for householders is beneficial. The key being daily regularity, as Zen teaches that the ego will naturally resist, and the discipline of regularity is essential. Practicing Zen monks may spend 4-6 periods of zazen 30-40 minutes each during a normal day. During the monthly retreat sesshins of 1, 3, 5, or 7 day duration, they may spend 9-12 periods of scheduled group zazen, and occasionally more individual zazen late at night. The zazen periods are usually interleaved with brief periods of walking meditation to relieve the legs. Dogen's teacher Rujing was said to spend less than 4 hours in actual sleep each night, spending the balance in zazen (see ''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. ===The teacher=== Because the Zen tradition emphasizes direct communication over scriptural study, the role of the Zen teacher is crucial. 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. In some cases, especially in modern western Zen movements, a person not ordained may be able to fulfill some or all of these roles. A central part of all Zen sects is the notion of "Dharma transmission," the claim of a line of authority that goes back to the Buddha. Originally this derived from the description of Zen attributed to Bodhidharma: :''A special transmission outside the scriptures; :No dependence upon words and letters; :Direct pointing to the soul of man: :Seeing into one's own nature and attainment of Buddhahood.'' [http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/awakening101/welter.html] [http://www.mro.org/zmm/dharmateachings/talks/teisho18.htm] Since at least the Middle Ages, Dharma Transmission has become a normative aspect of all Zen sects. Every Zen teacher stands within one lineage or another. Some sects, including all Japanese lines possess formal lineage charts that are drawn up for the ceremonial practice of transmission, which document the lineage back to Shakyamuni Buddha. Honorific titles associated with teachers typically include, in Chinese: ''Fashi'' (法師) or ''Chanshi'' (禪師); in Korean, ''Sunim'' or ''Seon Sa''; in Japanese: Osho (priest) ''Roshi'' (old master) or ''Sensei'' (teacher); and in Vietnamese, ''Thich'' adopted in place of a surname. Note that many of these titles are common among Buddhist priests of all schools present in the specific cultural context. Some titles, such as the Japanese sensei are also used beyond the Buddhist schools. The 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 can be called a Zen master. The term is less common in reference to modern teachers, because they are generally reluctant to proclaim themselves "masters." At the same time these teachers willingly acknowledge their lineage connections, naming who authorized them as teachers. This is important as there are a number of people in the west, some leading relatively large centers, who claim to be Zen teachers but who will not say where they trained or who authorized them to teach. This is a radical departure from normative Zen where "lineage" is considered crucial. As such it is reasonable to assume such people are not what they claim to be. People seeking a teacher should be aware that there are a surprisingly large number of such self-declared masters. Some schools such as the Kwan Um publish lists of their teachers. The American Zen Teachers Association is in the process of providing lists of their members at the Association's website. When posted, while not a complete record of legitimately authorized Zen teachers in North America, it will be an enormous help to those attempting to find people who at least have formal authorization in some traditional lineage. Of course even formal authorization should not be considered "enough." The moral lapses of any number of contemporary Zen teachers should be a warning in this regard. As the relationship between a teacher and a student requires complete intimacy and a profound trust on the part of the student, any one seriously considering studying with a Zen teacher should read widely about the prospective teacher, ask people who've studied Zen for some years, do web searches, and perhaps most importantly look closely at the teacher's students. Much can be discovered in such simple acts. ===Koan practice=== [[Image:Wu (negative).png|130px|left|thumb|Chinese character for "nothing." Chinese language: ''wú'' (Japanese language: ''mu'').]] The Zen schools (especially but not exclusively Rinzai) are associated with koan (Japanese; Chinese: gongan; Korean: gong'an). The term originally referred to legal cases in Tang Dynasty China. In some sense, a koan embodies a realized principle, or law of reality. Koans often appear paradoxical or linguistically meaningless. 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. Through assimilation of a Koan it is possible to 'jump-start' an altered mindset that then facilitates enlightenment. An example of a Zen koan is: "Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?" It is sometimes said that after diligent practice, the practitioner and the koan become one. Though most Zen groups aim for a "sudden" enlightenment, this usually comes only after a great deal of preparation. For examples of 'successful' koan practice resulting in enlightenment experiences, see the anecdotes of Rinzai koan practice recounted in the first book in English to engage Zen as a practice, 'The Three Pillars of Zen' by Philip Kapleau. For examples of years of futile and fruitless koan practice see the book 'After Zen' by Janwillem van de Wetering. The most important book on the subject in English is probably Isshu Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki's 'Zen Dust,' sadly long out of print. Fortunately the text, while lacking the extensive footnotes, continues to be available as 'The Zen Koan: It's History and Use in Rinzai Zen.' Probably the best relatively brief survey of koan study is the introduction to Victor Sogen Hori's 'Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice" which can be found on the web. Also of importance, although marred by the ideological perspectives of several of its authors, is the anthology edited by Steven Heine and Dale Wright, 'The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism.' Zen teachers advise that the problem posed by a koan is to be taken quite seriously, and to be approached quite literally as a matter of life and death. There is a sharp distinction between right and wrong ways of answering a koan — though there may be many "right answers", practitioners are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the koan and of Zen with their whole being. The Zen student's mastery of a given koan is presented to the teacher in a private session (called in various Japanese schools dokusan, daisan or sanzen). The answer to a koan is more dependent on "how" it is answered. Or, to put it somewhat differently, the answer is a function not merely of a reply, but of a whole modification of the student's experience; he or she must ''live'' the answer to the koan rather than merely offering a correct statement. It is misleading to suggest there is a single correct answer for any given koan, though there are "correct" and "incorrect" answers, and, indeed, students in a cheating mindset would often compile books of accepted answers to koans to help prepare for the interview. These collections are of great value to modern scholarship on the subject. Following the tradition of "living koans," a number of western Zen teachers supplement the traditional koan curriculum using various western sources, such as apparently paradoxical sayings from the Bible. ==Radical teachings== Some of the traditional zen fables describe Zen masters using controversial methods of 'teaching', which modern zen enthusiasts may have a tendency to interpret too literally. For example, though Zen and Buddhism deeply respect life and teach non-violence, the founder of the Zen Rinzai school, Linji said: "If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet a Patriarch, kill the Patriarch." A contemporary Zen Master, Seung Sahn, has echoed this teaching in saying that in this life we must all 'kill' three things: first we must kill parents; second we must kill Buddha; and last, we must kill the zen teacher (e.g. Seung Sahn). Of course, ''kill'' here is not literally killing. What is meant is to kill one's devotion to teachers or other external objects. Rather than see concepts outside of themselves, zen practitioners must integrate these objects with their concepts of ''self''. When visiting Zen centers, people who began with the stories featuring apparent iconoclastic encounters are often surprised by the conservative and ritualistic nature of the practice. Since, most zen centers in the west, like their counterparts in the east, emphasize regular meditation on both a daily basis and in monthly retreat as well as a discpline based in practice schedules and everyday household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and gardening as the path of enlightenment. ==Zen and Western culture== Since the 1930s in the United Kingdom, and at least since the Beatnik movement of the 1950s in the United States, the West has had a growing interest in Zen. 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 Rene Daumal translated D.T. Suzuki as well as Buddhist sanskrit texts. Eugen Herrigel's book ''Zen and the Art of Archery'' (ISBN 0375705090), described his training in the Japanese Zen martial art of Kyudo [http://www.tokokyudojo.org/info/], which inspired many early Zen practitioners. The British-American philosopher Alan Watts had a personal interest in the Zen school of Buddhism and wrote and lectured extensively on it. He was interested in it as a vehicle for a mystical transformation of consciousness, and also in the historical example of a non-Western, non-Christianity 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 lifestyle experimentation by a small group of mainly west-coast American youths. Besides the narrator, the main character in this novel was Gary Snyder, thinly veiled as "Japhy Ryder" by his friend Kerouac. The story was based on actual events that occurred when Snyder pursued formal Zen studies in Japanese monasteries between 1956 and 1968. Many youths in the Beat generation and among the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s misunderstood the goals and methods of Zen. While the scholar D.T. Suzuki may have brought attention to concepts in Zen such as humility, labor, service, prayer, gratitude, and meditation, the "hip" subculture often focused on states of consciousness in themselves. Japanese Zen master Zenkei Shibayama commented: "It may be true that the effect which such scientifically prepared hallucinogens as LSD produce may have some superficial resemblance to some aspects of Zen experience.... When the effect of the drug is gone, the psychological experience one may have had is also weakened and dispersed, and does not endure as a living fact." The book ''Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'', by Robert M. Pirsig, was a 1974 bestseller, but is not specifically about Zen per se, but 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.[http://www.psybertron.org/timeline.html] Pirsig explains in the book that, despite its title, the book "should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice." Many modern students have made the mistake of thinking that since much of Zen sounds like nonsense, especially in translation and out of context, any clever nonsense is also Zen. This is not the case — see ''koan'' — although the Church of the SubGenius and especially Discordianism have been influenced by this idea. More "mainstream" forms of Zen, led by teachers who trained in East Asia or were trained by such teachers have begun to take root in the west. In North America the largest "lineages" are derived from the Japanese Soto school, followed in number by the Korean derived Kwan Um School of Zen. There are also a number of Japanese derived Rinzai centers and a few centers based in Chinese Chan. The Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has developed the Order of Interbeing as an independent school that combines some aspects of Zen together with other disciplines. There is now an American Zen Teachers Association, which gathers the majority of Zen teachers in North America and sponsors an annual conference. Soto lineage teachers in North America have also recently formed a Soto Zen Buddhist Association where they are exploring the possibilities of a "western Soto." ==See also== * Hakuin Ekaku * Huangbo Xiyun * karesansui * Ryokan * Tathagatagarbha doctrine ==External links== *Open Directory Project: [http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Buddhism/Lineages/Zen/Centers/ Zen Centers] *[http://zenfilter.com Zen Filter] *[http://www.acmuller.net/ddb Digital Dictionary of Buddhism] *[http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-Zen.html Zen Buddhism WWW Virtual Library] *[http://www.zendo.org American Zen Centers] *[http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/index.htm#north Zen texts] *[http://www.centrebouddhisteparis.org/En_Anglais/Sangharakshita_en_anglais/Sudden_Enlightenment/sudden_enlightenment.html Nietzsche, Zen and Sudden Enlightenment] Branches of Buddhism Japanese religion Japanese terms Zen vi:Thiền tông
include www.cuke.com and Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki also - dokusan is the Soto term while sanzen the Rinzai ==Dogen and Soto stuff== [moving this comment from zen for future use] There are some errors in text. Dogen was not founder of Soto school, he is the first soto-school ancestor in Japan. Also Rinzai-school was founded by master Rinzai who lived in China. Some generations after Bodhidharma chan divided into 5 major chan shools in China. Only Soto and Rinzai survived into this day. Zazen is japanese name for sitting meditation (za = to sit). This can include following practises: counting the breath, following breath, koan practize and shikantaza. Shikantaza is this just_sitting practize, pure awareness of this moment. ==Dhyana/Channa== ''channa'' was removed since ''dhyana'' was mentioned. Anyone know why ''channa'' was mentioned as the root for ''Zen''? User:Usedbook 19:18 May 7, 2003 (UTC) :I think Channa was a Chinese transliteration of Sanskrit word for meditation, shortened to Chan to refer to the training centers, and then modified to Zen on introduction to Japan. user:munge 22 August 2004 ::that sounds familiar. there's a book by thomas hoover called ''zen culture'' that tells the story (or a version of it) in a really sweetly clear way. i'm pretty sure he goes into the Chan to Zen thing there. ---- ==Recc reading== In the list of recommended reading, "Zen in the Art of Archery" appears. If the list was more than 5 or 6 entries long, I might not have a problem with that book being there, but I can name ten books, easily, which are more pertinent to Zen. It is an interesting book, but personally I think Herrigel (sp?) was full of s--- and the book has very little to do with Zen per se. I just hate to see someone actually use that list to learn more about Zen and end up reading that book. User:Jordan Langelier : OK, I went and deleted "Zen in the Art" and added "Into. to Zen". If someone wants to go ahead and put "Zen in the Art" back I don't have a big problem with that and will let it be without question. User:Jordan Langelier ::Don't put Herringel back in the list. Why? See http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/586.pdf. When it was published, the West was hungry for anything that gave the flavor. That stuff is very dubious compared to what we have available in English today. ::Update: I see where someone restored mention of Herrigel, this time simply as a book that inspired Western interest in Zen. I guess that's fine, but I might add something to the article at some point that, as documented in the above-mentioned article ("The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery", Yamada Shoji, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 2001, v28, n1-2, p1-30), his archery teacher was not trained in Zen and did not necessarily endorse Zen. And the irony of Herrigel's influence on Western Zen practitioners may be even worse than that; serious allegations arose that on return to Germany, he joined the National Socialists and remained loyal to them to the end. See op. cit. p28 note 14 (did Yamada follow up with a further article on that?). See also [http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/Bulletin_and_Shoho/pdf/23-Heisig.pdf "Jung, Christianity, and Buddhism"], James W. Heisig, Bulletin of the Nanzan Institute for Religion & Culture, 1999, v23, p85, see esp. note 18, which cites the journal called Encounter, v16, n2, 1961, p96. --User:Munge 06:43, 7 May 2005 (UTC) =="especially but not exclusively"== Should "The Zen schools (especially but exclusively Rinzai)" be "The Zen schools (especially but ''not'' exclusively Rinzai)"? Note also that the Rinzai sect places more emphasis on koan practice, while the Soto school places more emphasis on shikantaza - it's a lot more than just whether you face the wall or not 8-) May be good to add a section on Sanbo Kyodan as this is the dominant school in the West and it is expanding. Philip Kapleau and his lineage are part of this school. See http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVLPages/ZenPages/ZenSchools.html for the schools and http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-Zen.html should definitely be linked. :: Thanks. -- User: greenfyre :Yes, it should definitely be "(especially but ''not'' exclusively Rinzai). I agree that it would be a good addition to have some material on Sanbo Kyodan -- I know a few things about this so I would be happy to contribute or edit. - User:Nat Krause 16:32, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::It's true they had influence esp in N. America and Australia. But as far as I can tell, no teacher outside Japan is actually a member of Sanbo Kyodan! Contrary to common belief, Kapleau was not authorized as a teacher in that line. See for example note 139 on page http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVLPages/ZenPages/HaradaYasutani-refs.html. For the reasons why Robert Aitken found it necessary to end his affiliation with Sanbo Kyodan, seehttp://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/456.pdf page 450. ::Also, another Rinzai-Soto hybrid lineage, namely that of Maezumi, appears to be another potent force in enabling koan practice in N. America. See for example www.mro.org, especially http://www.mro.org/zmm/dharmateachings/dharmateach(daido).html.user:munge 22 August 2004 :::A few comments: I think that Sanbo Kyodan does have some teachers outside of Japan. Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle was one before his death. There's also a Mario Kannon Zen Center in Texas that I think is SBKD affiliated. An interesting question would be, does Sanbo Kyodan have any teachers outside of Japan who are not also Roman Catholics? That, I don't know. :::Phillip Kapleau certainly was authorized to teach by Sanbo Kyodan, but he was not formally given dharma transmission. SBKD and related groups make a very clear distinction. :::When I get around to writing about it, I will certainly make sure to distinguish between Sanbo Kyodan's influence in the west and its organiztional presence, and you are wise to suggest that others do the same. :::Taizan Maezumi was, as you say, also an influential zen teacher in the West. You might also be aware that he, too, was sanctioned by Yasutani Haku'un (as well as by regular Rinzai and Soto teachers), so he is also part of Sanbo Kyodan's influence if not its organization. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 06:13, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::::Yes, Nat, you sure are right. On further investigation, Sanbo Kyodan indeed exists in the West, notably in Germany, and indeed, in US, Canada, and Philipines. Several centers are identified on page http://homepage3.nifty.com/sanbo-zen/master_e.html. Also, after I posted, I remembered that Maezumi received authorization from, among others, Yasutani of SBKD, but I think Maezumi basically started his own line. As for Kapleau, I suppose I shouldn't be so hasty. ::::I would like to say that, while I haven't taken a poll, my impression and personal experience is that Shunryu Suzuki's followers and their heirs are far more numerous than any other Zen school in the US; I do hope to understand better exactly what their attitude toward koans is/was; I can say that several of them have at least some understanding of koans. Meanwhile, the influence of D.T. Suzuki hasn't died down yet; though apparently not an official Rinzai teacher, he certainly brought ideas about koan practice to a wide audience. Anecdotally, the Rinzai temple at Chozen Ji in Hawaii also may have had some interesting affects; martial arts teachers who've studied there may be assigning koans to some of their students. The universes of Zen and koan practice in the US do not emerge from one school only. But as things happened, it did turn out that my experience has been from teachers who splintered away one or two generations from Sanbo Kyodan. --user:munge 27 August 2004 :::Hmmm, yes, I didn't mean to imply that I agreed with the comment at the beginning of this thread that Sanbo Kyodan is "dominant". I think that the group's influence arises more from the books written by Aitken and Kapleau than from the preponderance of actual affiliated zen groups, although there are more than a few of each. As for the Suzuki people being far more numerous, that seems like the impression you would get from them, at least that's the impression I got reading ''Shoes Outside the Door'', which portrayed them (maybe unfairly, I don't know) as almost obsessed with their central role in American Zen. If I had to guess, I would imagine that Suzuki's descendents are comfortably the largest Zen line in the US, but well less than half of the total practitioners. There are an awful lot of those Maezumi people out there, too, when you consider that his students included Bernard Glassman, John Daido Loori, and Charlotte Joko Beck. Plus a large number of Kwan Um School centers, orthodox Soto temples, etc., etc. I'm not even sure how to figure in the influence of Thich Nhat Hanh. :::Incidentally, I visited the Chozen-ji affiliate in Chicago one time, which was housed in an aikido academy. It was interesting (I have no criticisms, only went there once). Their founder, Omori Sogen, was a character, too. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 10:20, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::::In the last week, I've talked in person and separately to two disciples of Shunryu Suzuki, one of whom is fairly prominent. Both confirmed that Suzuki roshi would sometimes assign a koan for meditation to particular students, for the temporary purpose of addressing some point of practice. I'm also aware of someone in that lineage who has done likewise, and another who formerly gave regular koan seminars. ::::I have a hazy report of an aikido teacher in a different city who himself formerly studied w/Sogen's successor at Chozen-ji, and who apparently assigned a koan to an aikido student. And while visiting Japan a couple years back, I also saw a book on aikido which recommended meditation on the (Gaugin-like) questions "where do I come from? What am I? Where am I going?". Various inconclusive results appear when googling koan along with karate, judo, or aikido. (As for Sogen himself, don't even get me started.) --user:munge 3 September 2004 :By popular demand, added some easily-digestible language about the "sound of one hand" on this page, and more on koan. I am bound for hell anyway. --user:munge 2 October 2004 ==Glossary== I just moved all the Zen glossary material to Buddhist terms and concepts. Do they still serve a useful purpose here, or should they be culled?User:Kukkurovaca 05:44, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC) :Just killed the glossary.User:Kukkurovaca 20:20, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Zen and its nationalities== Should the page attempt to cover all Zen, or just give an overview and then point on? Also, should Japanese Zen, specifically, be relocated to a new page? Or should a new overview page be created (something ugly like Dhyana (Buddhist sect))?User:Kukkurovaca 20:20, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Some edits== Okay, I fixed some grammar and whatnot, deleted some weird statements, and added a little structure. I also removed an extensive quotation from the Platform Sutra, which might fare better under that article, and the following:
Branches of Buddhism Taoism Japanese religion
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Zen:
Zen
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Zen-master
Zen-master/archive1
Zen-master/Netoholic
Zen-masturbator
Zen-related_stubs
Zen-stub
Zena
Zena,_New_York
Zena,_OK
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ZENAB_ALHAWRAA
ZENAB_ALHAWRAA
Zenaga
Zenaga_language
Zenaida_asiatica
Zenaida_graysoni
Zenaida_macroura
Zenapax
Zenata
Zenati
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Zenati_languages
Zena_Grey
Zencefil
Zend
Zend-Avesta
Zenda
Zenda,_Kansas
Zenda,_KS
ZENDELBACH
ZENDELBACH
Zendmast_Radio_Kootwijk
Zendmast_Roermond
Zendmast_Ruiselede
Zendmast_Wieringermeer
Zendo
Zendo
Zendonut
Zendonut
Zendo_(game)
Zendstation_Amsterdam
Zendstation_Loon_op_Zand
Zendstation_Maastricht
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Zendstation_Smilde
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Zendstation_Zwollerkerspel
Zend_Avesta
Zend_Engine
Zend_Engine
Zend_engine
Zend_engine
Zend_language
Zend_Performance_Suite
Zend_Technologies
Zeneca
Zener_Card
Zener_card
Zener_card
Zener_Cards
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Zener_Diode
Zener_diode
Zener_diode
Zengakuren
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Zengi
Zengid
Zengid_Dynasty
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Zengui
Zengzhao
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Zenny
Zeno
Zeno's_arrow
Zeno's_arrow_paradox
Zeno's_paradox
Zeno's_paradox
Zeno's_paradoxes
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Zeno-Watch_Basel
Zenoah
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Zénobe_Gramme
Zenobi
Zenobia
Zenobia
Zenobia
Zenobius
Zenocles
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Zenogantner
Zenohockey
Zenohockey
Zenon
Zenon:_Girl_of_the_21st._Century
Zenon:_Girl_of_the_21st._Century
Zenon:_Girl_of_the_21st_Century
Zenon:_Girl_of_the_21st_Century
Zenon:_The_Sequel
Zenon:_Z3
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Zenon_Cardinal_Grocholewski
Zenon_Company
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Zenón_Noriega_Agüero
Zenon_of_Citium
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Zenophobia
Zenorbital
Zenosparadox
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Zenos_H._Gurley,_Sr.
Zenos_paradoxes
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Zenouska_Mowatt
Zenox
Zeno_(crater)
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Zeno_(programming_language)
Zeno_Brothers
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Zeno_of_Sidon
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Zeno_the_Isaurian
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Zenslut
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Zenslut's_favorite_lyrics
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Zenslut's_manifesto
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Zen
[[Image:BodhidharmaYoshitoshi1887.jpg|thumb|250px|Bodhidharma, woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, 1887.]] Zen is the Japanese name of a well known branch of Mahayana Buddhism, practiced originally in China as Chan, and subsequently in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Zen emphasizes the role of meditation (zazen) in pursuing Enlightenment (Buddhism). Zen can be considered a religion, a philosophy, or simply a practice depending on one's perspective. Besides this, it has been described as a way of life, work, and an art form. ''Zen'' is the common name for this branch of Buddhism in Japanese language as well as in English language, however Zen is an international phenomenon, with centers in many countries around the world. __TOC__ ==Spread of Zen== Traditionally, Zen traces its roots back to Indian Buddhism, where it was known by "dhyana" (ध्यान), a Sanskrit term for meditation. This name was transliterated into Chinese language as ''Chán'' (禪 / simplified 禅); "Chán" was later borrowed into Korean language as ''Seon'', Vietnamese language as ''Thien'' and into Japanese as "Zen." According to traditional accounts, Zen was founded in China by a Central Asian or Indian Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma (Daruma in Japanese). He was the 28th in the line of transmission from the Buddha's disciple Kasyapa. He traveled from Conjeeveram, near Madras (now Chennai), India, to Guangdong (Canton), China in 520 CE, where he met the Liang-dynasty (502-557) emperor Wudi and had a famous exchange declaring that good deeds done with selfish intention were useless (conferred no merit) for gaining enlightenment. He then went to a monastery near Luoyang in eastern China and, according to legend, spent nine years meditating before a cliff wall before accepting any disciples. As a legendary culture hero Bodhidharma has also been linked to the Shaolin Temple and the subsequent spread of East Asian martial arts in the oral traditions of schools like Kung Fu and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, as well as in much popular wuxia fiction. Later, Korean monks studying in China learned what was by then called Chan, and which had by then been influenced somewhat by Chinese Taoism. After the tradition was expanded to Korea, it came to be called Seon there (sometimes misspelled as Soen in the West). Korean monks then brought it to Japan around the 7th century, where it came to be called Zen. {| border=1 width=300 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 align=right style="margin:0 0 1em 1em;" |- ! colspan=2 align=center bgcolor=#FFCCCC | Zen |- ! colspan=2 align=center | Sanskrit Name |- | Sanskrit | ध्यान dhyana |- ! colspan=2 align=center | Chinese Name |- | width=150 | Hanyu Pinyin | width=150 | Chan |- | width=150 | Wade-Giles | width=150 | Ch'an2 |- | width=150 | Cantonese languageJyutping | width=150 | sim4 |- | Traditional Chinese character | 禪 |- | Simplified Chinese character | 禅 |- ! colspan=2 align=center | Korean language Name |- | width=150 | Revised Romanization of Korean | width=150 | Seon |- | width=150 | McCune-Reischauer | width=150 | Sŏn |- | Hangul | 선 |- | width="150" | Hanja | width="150" | 禪 |- ! colspan=2 align=center | Japanese language Name |- | Romaji | Zen |- | Kanji | 禅 |- ! colspan=2 align=center | Vietnamese language Name |- | Vietnamese_alphabet | Thien |- |} 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 scholar D.T. Suzuki maintained that a Zen ''satori'' (awakening) was 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. ==Zen in Japan== The following Zen traditions still exist in Japan: Rinzai, Soto, and Obaku School. Originally formulated by the eponymous Chinese master Linji (Rinzai in Japanese), the Rinzai school was introduced to Japan in 1191 by Eisai. Dogen, who studied under Eisai, would later carry the Caodong, or "Soto" Zen school to Japan from China. 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 with very few Zen practitioners ever actually ''attaining'' 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. Some Japanese Zen sects and teachers have also been criticized for their involvement in Japanese militarism and nationalism especially during World War II. In particular an American Soto Zen priest Brian Victoria has exposed a number of instances where Buddhist teachings were used to justify acts of killing. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0834804050/103-9814091-3292632?v=glance] Zen is also associated with Japanese tea ceremony. ==Zen and Buddhism== Zen is considered by some as not necessarily a Buddhist religion as a number of non-Buddhists, particularly Christians, have been formally acknowledged as Zen masters. Zen is often described as a ''way of life'' not dependent on one's particular culture. At the same time, the institutions that support Zen practice have historically all been Buddhist and uphold the fundamental teachings of Gautama Buddha. Even today there are very few non-Buddhist Zen teachers and fewer organizations to support non-Buddhist practice. So, for all practical purposes Zen is Zen Buddhism. Though Zen meditation practice does derive from the Buddha's original Eightfold Path teaching, where dhyana is one element of the eightfold way, Zen has been occasionally criticized byTheravada Buddhists for not adequately emphasizing the other elements of the Eightfold Path and for not emphasizing study of the traditional Tripitaka or for being ignorant of, or unconcerned with, Buddhist philosophy in general. In practice, however, most Zen teachers, monks and centers have good relationships with those of other Buddhist schools and often cooperate with them. ==Zen teachings and practices== 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 the mind. Zen, however, is no mere quietistic doctrine: the Chinese Chan master Baizhang (720-814 CE), (Japanese language: ''Hyakujo''), left behind a famous saying which had been the guiding principle of his life, "A day without work is a day of no eating." When Baizhang was thought to be too old to work in the garden, his devotees hid his gardening tools. In response to this, the master then refused to eat, saying "No working, no living." These teachings are in turn deeply rooted in the Buddhist textual tradition, drawing primarily on Mahayana sutras composed in India and China, particularly the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Lankavatara Sutra, and the ''Samantamukha Parivarta'', a chapter of the Lotus Sutra. The body of Zen doctrine also includes the recorded teachings of masters in the various Zen traditions. The heavy influence of the Lankavatara Sutra, in particluar, has led to the formation of the "mind only" concept of Zen, in which consciousness itself is recognized as the only true reality. Zen is not primarily an intellectual philosophy nor a solitary pursuit. Zen centers emphasize meticulous daily practice, and hold monthly intensive 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 pointed out, moreover, that Zen is a ''way of life'' and not solely a state of consciousness. D.T. Suzuki wrote that the aspects of this life were: a life of humility; a life of labor; a life of service; a life of prayer and gratitude; and a life of meditation. ===Zazen=== Zen meditation is called zazen. Zazen translates approximately to "sitting meditation", although it can be applied to practice in any posture. During zazen, practitioners usually assume a lotus position, half-lotus, Burmese posture, or seiza sitting position. A round cushion (zafu) placed on a padded mat (zabuton) is used to sit on, or a chair may be used. Rinzai practitioners typically sit facing the center of the room, while Soto practitioners sit facing a wall. Awareness is directed towards complete cognizance of one's posture and breathing. In this way, practitioners seek to transcend thought and be directly aware of the universe. In Soto, shikantaza meditation ("just-sitting") that is, a meditation with no objects, anchors, "seeds," or content, is the primary form of practice. Considerable textual, philosophical, and phenomenological justification of this practice can be found in Dogen's Shobogenzo. The daily time spent in zazen varies, Dogen recommends even 5 minutes daily for householders is beneficial. The key being daily regularity, as Zen teaches that the ego will naturally resist, and the discipline of regularity is essential. Practicing Zen monks may spend 4-6 periods of zazen 30-40 minutes each during a normal day. During the monthly retreat sesshins of 1, 3, 5, or 7 day duration, they may spend 9-12 periods of scheduled group zazen, and occasionally more individual zazen late at night. The zazen periods are usually interleaved with brief periods of walking meditation to relieve the legs. Dogen's teacher Rujing was said to spend less than 4 hours in actual sleep each night, spending the balance in zazen (see ''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. ===The teacher=== Because the Zen tradition emphasizes direct communication over scriptural study, the role of the Zen teacher is crucial. 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. In some cases, especially in modern western Zen movements, a person not ordained may be able to fulfill some or all of these roles. A central part of all Zen sects is the notion of "Dharma transmission," the claim of a line of authority that goes back to the Buddha. Originally this derived from the description of Zen attributed to Bodhidharma: :''A special transmission outside the scriptures; :No dependence upon words and letters; :Direct pointing to the soul of man: :Seeing into one's own nature and attainment of Buddhahood.'' [http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/awakening101/welter.html] [http://www.mro.org/zmm/dharmateachings/talks/teisho18.htm] Since at least the Middle Ages, Dharma Transmission has become a normative aspect of all Zen sects. Every Zen teacher stands within one lineage or another. Some sects, including all Japanese lines possess formal lineage charts that are drawn up for the ceremonial practice of transmission, which document the lineage back to Shakyamuni Buddha. Honorific titles associated with teachers typically include, in Chinese: ''Fashi'' (法師) or ''Chanshi'' (禪師); in Korean, ''Sunim'' or ''Seon Sa''; in Japanese: Osho (priest) ''Roshi'' (old master) or ''Sensei'' (teacher); and in Vietnamese, ''Thich'' adopted in place of a surname. Note that many of these titles are common among Buddhist priests of all schools present in the specific cultural context. Some titles, such as the Japanese sensei are also used beyond the Buddhist schools. The 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 can be called a Zen master. The term is less common in reference to modern teachers, because they are generally reluctant to proclaim themselves "masters." At the same time these teachers willingly acknowledge their lineage connections, naming who authorized them as teachers. This is important as there are a number of people in the west, some leading relatively large centers, who claim to be Zen teachers but who will not say where they trained or who authorized them to teach. This is a radical departure from normative Zen where "lineage" is considered crucial. As such it is reasonable to assume such people are not what they claim to be. People seeking a teacher should be aware that there are a surprisingly large number of such self-declared masters. Some schools such as the Kwan Um publish lists of their teachers. The American Zen Teachers Association is in the process of providing lists of their members at the Association's website. When posted, while not a complete record of legitimately authorized Zen teachers in North America, it will be an enormous help to those attempting to find people who at least have formal authorization in some traditional lineage. Of course even formal authorization should not be considered "enough." The moral lapses of any number of contemporary Zen teachers should be a warning in this regard. As the relationship between a teacher and a student requires complete intimacy and a profound trust on the part of the student, any one seriously considering studying with a Zen teacher should read widely about the prospective teacher, ask people who've studied Zen for some years, do web searches, and perhaps most importantly look closely at the teacher's students. Much can be discovered in such simple acts. ===Koan practice=== [[Image:Wu (negative).png|130px|left|thumb|Chinese character for "nothing." Chinese language: ''wú'' (Japanese language: ''mu'').]] The Zen schools (especially but not exclusively Rinzai) are associated with koan (Japanese; Chinese: gongan; Korean: gong'an). The term originally referred to legal cases in Tang Dynasty China. In some sense, a koan embodies a realized principle, or law of reality. Koans often appear paradoxical or linguistically meaningless. 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. Through assimilation of a Koan it is possible to 'jump-start' an altered mindset that then facilitates enlightenment. An example of a Zen koan is: "Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?" It is sometimes said that after diligent practice, the practitioner and the koan become one. Though most Zen groups aim for a "sudden" enlightenment, this usually comes only after a great deal of preparation. For examples of 'successful' koan practice resulting in enlightenment experiences, see the anecdotes of Rinzai koan practice recounted in the first book in English to engage Zen as a practice, 'The Three Pillars of Zen' by Philip Kapleau. For examples of years of futile and fruitless koan practice see the book 'After Zen' by Janwillem van de Wetering. The most important book on the subject in English is probably Isshu Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki's 'Zen Dust,' sadly long out of print. Fortunately the text, while lacking the extensive footnotes, continues to be available as 'The Zen Koan: It's History and Use in Rinzai Zen.' Probably the best relatively brief survey of koan study is the introduction to Victor Sogen Hori's 'Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice" which can be found on the web. Also of importance, although marred by the ideological perspectives of several of its authors, is the anthology edited by Steven Heine and Dale Wright, 'The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism.' Zen teachers advise that the problem posed by a koan is to be taken quite seriously, and to be approached quite literally as a matter of life and death. There is a sharp distinction between right and wrong ways of answering a koan — though there may be many "right answers", practitioners are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the koan and of Zen with their whole being. The Zen student's mastery of a given koan is presented to the teacher in a private session (called in various Japanese schools dokusan, daisan or sanzen). The answer to a koan is more dependent on "how" it is answered. Or, to put it somewhat differently, the answer is a function not merely of a reply, but of a whole modification of the student's experience; he or she must ''live'' the answer to the koan rather than merely offering a correct statement. It is misleading to suggest there is a single correct answer for any given koan, though there are "correct" and "incorrect" answers, and, indeed, students in a cheating mindset would often compile books of accepted answers to koans to help prepare for the interview. These collections are of great value to modern scholarship on the subject. Following the tradition of "living koans," a number of western Zen teachers supplement the traditional koan curriculum using various western sources, such as apparently paradoxical sayings from the Bible. ==Radical teachings== Some of the traditional zen fables describe Zen masters using controversial methods of 'teaching', which modern zen enthusiasts may have a tendency to interpret too literally. For example, though Zen and Buddhism deeply respect life and teach non-violence, the founder of the Zen Rinzai school, Linji said: "If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet a Patriarch, kill the Patriarch." A contemporary Zen Master, Seung Sahn, has echoed this teaching in saying that in this life we must all 'kill' three things: first we must kill parents; second we must kill Buddha; and last, we must kill the zen teacher (e.g. Seung Sahn). Of course, ''kill'' here is not literally killing. What is meant is to kill one's devotion to teachers or other external objects. Rather than see concepts outside of themselves, zen practitioners must integrate these objects with their concepts of ''self''. When visiting Zen centers, people who began with the stories featuring apparent iconoclastic encounters are often surprised by the conservative and ritualistic nature of the practice. Since, most zen centers in the west, like their counterparts in the east, emphasize regular meditation on both a daily basis and in monthly retreat as well as a discpline based in practice schedules and everyday household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and gardening as the path of enlightenment. ==Zen and Western culture== Since the 1930s in the United Kingdom, and at least since the Beatnik movement of the 1950s in the United States, the West has had a growing interest in Zen. 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 Rene Daumal translated D.T. Suzuki as well as Buddhist sanskrit texts. Eugen Herrigel's book ''Zen and the Art of Archery'' (ISBN 0375705090), described his training in the Japanese Zen martial art of Kyudo [http://www.tokokyudojo.org/info/], which inspired many early Zen practitioners. The British-American philosopher Alan Watts had a personal interest in the Zen school of Buddhism and wrote and lectured extensively on it. He was interested in it as a vehicle for a mystical transformation of consciousness, and also in the historical example of a non-Western, non-Christianity 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 lifestyle experimentation by a small group of mainly west-coast American youths. Besides the narrator, the main character in this novel was Gary Snyder, thinly veiled as "Japhy Ryder" by his friend Kerouac. The story was based on actual events that occurred when Snyder pursued formal Zen studies in Japanese monasteries between 1956 and 1968. Many youths in the Beat generation and among the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s misunderstood the goals and methods of Zen. While the scholar D.T. Suzuki may have brought attention to concepts in Zen such as humility, labor, service, prayer, gratitude, and meditation, the "hip" subculture often focused on states of consciousness in themselves. Japanese Zen master Zenkei Shibayama commented: "It may be true that the effect which such scientifically prepared hallucinogens as LSD produce may have some superficial resemblance to some aspects of Zen experience.... When the effect of the drug is gone, the psychological experience one may have had is also weakened and dispersed, and does not endure as a living fact." The book ''Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'', by Robert M. Pirsig, was a 1974 bestseller, but is not specifically about Zen per se, but 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.[http://www.psybertron.org/timeline.html] Pirsig explains in the book that, despite its title, the book "should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice." Many modern students have made the mistake of thinking that since much of Zen sounds like nonsense, especially in translation and out of context, any clever nonsense is also Zen. This is not the case — see ''koan'' — although the Church of the SubGenius and especially Discordianism have been influenced by this idea. More "mainstream" forms of Zen, led by teachers who trained in East Asia or were trained by such teachers have begun to take root in the west. In North America the largest "lineages" are derived from the Japanese Soto school, followed in number by the Korean derived Kwan Um School of Zen. There are also a number of Japanese derived Rinzai centers and a few centers based in Chinese Chan. The Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has developed the Order of Interbeing as an independent school that combines some aspects of Zen together with other disciplines. There is now an American Zen Teachers Association, which gathers the majority of Zen teachers in North America and sponsors an annual conference. Soto lineage teachers in North America have also recently formed a Soto Zen Buddhist Association where they are exploring the possibilities of a "western Soto." ==See also== * Hakuin Ekaku * Huangbo Xiyun * karesansui * Ryokan * Tathagatagarbha doctrine ==External links== *Open Directory Project: [http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Buddhism/Lineages/Zen/Centers/ Zen Centers] *[http://zenfilter.com Zen Filter] *[http://www.acmuller.net/ddb Digital Dictionary of Buddhism] *[http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-Zen.html Zen Buddhism WWW Virtual Library] *[http://www.zendo.org American Zen Centers] *[http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/index.htm#north Zen texts] *[http://www.centrebouddhisteparis.org/En_Anglais/Sangharakshita_en_anglais/Sudden_Enlightenment/sudden_enlightenment.html Nietzsche, Zen and Sudden Enlightenment] Branches of Buddhism Japanese religion Japanese terms Zen vi:Thiền tông
Zen
include www.cuke.com and Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki also - dokusan is the Soto term while sanzen the Rinzai ==Dogen and Soto stuff== [moving this comment from zen for future use] There are some errors in text. Dogen was not founder of Soto school, he is the first soto-school ancestor in Japan. Also Rinzai-school was founded by master Rinzai who lived in China. Some generations after Bodhidharma chan divided into 5 major chan shools in China. Only Soto and Rinzai survived into this day. Zazen is japanese name for sitting meditation (za = to sit). This can include following practises: counting the breath, following breath, koan practize and shikantaza. Shikantaza is this just_sitting practize, pure awareness of this moment. ==Dhyana/Channa== ''channa'' was removed since ''dhyana'' was mentioned. Anyone know why ''channa'' was mentioned as the root for ''Zen''? User:Usedbook 19:18 May 7, 2003 (UTC) :I think Channa was a Chinese transliteration of Sanskrit word for meditation, shortened to Chan to refer to the training centers, and then modified to Zen on introduction to Japan. user:munge 22 August 2004 ::that sounds familiar. there's a book by thomas hoover called ''zen culture'' that tells the story (or a version of it) in a really sweetly clear way. i'm pretty sure he goes into the Chan to Zen thing there. ---- ==Recc reading== In the list of recommended reading, "Zen in the Art of Archery" appears. If the list was more than 5 or 6 entries long, I might not have a problem with that book being there, but I can name ten books, easily, which are more pertinent to Zen. It is an interesting book, but personally I think Herrigel (sp?) was full of s--- and the book has very little to do with Zen per se. I just hate to see someone actually use that list to learn more about Zen and end up reading that book. User:Jordan Langelier : OK, I went and deleted "Zen in the Art" and added "Into. to Zen". If someone wants to go ahead and put "Zen in the Art" back I don't have a big problem with that and will let it be without question. User:Jordan Langelier ::Don't put Herringel back in the list. Why? See http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/586.pdf. When it was published, the West was hungry for anything that gave the flavor. That stuff is very dubious compared to what we have available in English today. ::Update: I see where someone restored mention of Herrigel, this time simply as a book that inspired Western interest in Zen. I guess that's fine, but I might add something to the article at some point that, as documented in the above-mentioned article ("The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery", Yamada Shoji, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 2001, v28, n1-2, p1-30), his archery teacher was not trained in Zen and did not necessarily endorse Zen. And the irony of Herrigel's influence on Western Zen practitioners may be even worse than that; serious allegations arose that on return to Germany, he joined the National Socialists and remained loyal to them to the end. See op. cit. p28 note 14 (did Yamada follow up with a further article on that?). See also [http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/Bulletin_and_Shoho/pdf/23-Heisig.pdf "Jung, Christianity, and Buddhism"], James W. Heisig, Bulletin of the Nanzan Institute for Religion & Culture, 1999, v23, p85, see esp. note 18, which cites the journal called Encounter, v16, n2, 1961, p96. --User:Munge 06:43, 7 May 2005 (UTC) =="especially but not exclusively"== Should "The Zen schools (especially but exclusively Rinzai)" be "The Zen schools (especially but ''not'' exclusively Rinzai)"? Note also that the Rinzai sect places more emphasis on koan practice, while the Soto school places more emphasis on shikantaza - it's a lot more than just whether you face the wall or not 8-) May be good to add a section on Sanbo Kyodan as this is the dominant school in the West and it is expanding. Philip Kapleau and his lineage are part of this school. See http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVLPages/ZenPages/ZenSchools.html for the schools and http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-Zen.html should definitely be linked. :: Thanks. -- User: greenfyre :Yes, it should definitely be "(especially but ''not'' exclusively Rinzai). I agree that it would be a good addition to have some material on Sanbo Kyodan -- I know a few things about this so I would be happy to contribute or edit. - User:Nat Krause 16:32, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::It's true they had influence esp in N. America and Australia. But as far as I can tell, no teacher outside Japan is actually a member of Sanbo Kyodan! Contrary to common belief, Kapleau was not authorized as a teacher in that line. See for example note 139 on page http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVLPages/ZenPages/HaradaYasutani-refs.html. For the reasons why Robert Aitken found it necessary to end his affiliation with Sanbo Kyodan, seehttp://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/456.pdf page 450. ::Also, another Rinzai-Soto hybrid lineage, namely that of Maezumi, appears to be another potent force in enabling koan practice in N. America. See for example www.mro.org, especially http://www.mro.org/zmm/dharmateachings/dharmateach(daido).html.user:munge 22 August 2004 :::A few comments: I think that Sanbo Kyodan does have some teachers outside of Japan. Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle was one before his death. There's also a Mario Kannon Zen Center in Texas that I think is SBKD affiliated. An interesting question would be, does Sanbo Kyodan have any teachers outside of Japan who are not also Roman Catholics? That, I don't know. :::Phillip Kapleau certainly was authorized to teach by Sanbo Kyodan, but he was not formally given dharma transmission. SBKD and related groups make a very clear distinction. :::When I get around to writing about it, I will certainly make sure to distinguish between Sanbo Kyodan's influence in the west and its organiztional presence, and you are wise to suggest that others do the same. :::Taizan Maezumi was, as you say, also an influential zen teacher in the West. You might also be aware that he, too, was sanctioned by Yasutani Haku'un (as well as by regular Rinzai and Soto teachers), so he is also part of Sanbo Kyodan's influence if not its organization. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 06:13, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::::Yes, Nat, you sure are right. On further investigation, Sanbo Kyodan indeed exists in the West, notably in Germany, and indeed, in US, Canada, and Philipines. Several centers are identified on page http://homepage3.nifty.com/sanbo-zen/master_e.html. Also, after I posted, I remembered that Maezumi received authorization from, among others, Yasutani of SBKD, but I think Maezumi basically started his own line. As for Kapleau, I suppose I shouldn't be so hasty. ::::I would like to say that, while I haven't taken a poll, my impression and personal experience is that Shunryu Suzuki's followers and their heirs are far more numerous than any other Zen school in the US; I do hope to understand better exactly what their attitude toward koans is/was; I can say that several of them have at least some understanding of koans. Meanwhile, the influence of D.T. Suzuki hasn't died down yet; though apparently not an official Rinzai teacher, he certainly brought ideas about koan practice to a wide audience. Anecdotally, the Rinzai temple at Chozen Ji in Hawaii also may have had some interesting affects; martial arts teachers who've studied there may be assigning koans to some of their students. The universes of Zen and koan practice in the US do not emerge from one school only. But as things happened, it did turn out that my experience has been from teachers who splintered away one or two generations from Sanbo Kyodan. --user:munge 27 August 2004 :::Hmmm, yes, I didn't mean to imply that I agreed with the comment at the beginning of this thread that Sanbo Kyodan is "dominant". I think that the group's influence arises more from the books written by Aitken and Kapleau than from the preponderance of actual affiliated zen groups, although there are more than a few of each. As for the Suzuki people being far more numerous, that seems like the impression you would get from them, at least that's the impression I got reading ''Shoes Outside the Door'', which portrayed them (maybe unfairly, I don't know) as almost obsessed with their central role in American Zen. If I had to guess, I would imagine that Suzuki's descendents are comfortably the largest Zen line in the US, but well less than half of the total practitioners. There are an awful lot of those Maezumi people out there, too, when you consider that his students included Bernard Glassman, John Daido Loori, and Charlotte Joko Beck. Plus a large number of Kwan Um School centers, orthodox Soto temples, etc., etc. I'm not even sure how to figure in the influence of Thich Nhat Hanh. :::Incidentally, I visited the Chozen-ji affiliate in Chicago one time, which was housed in an aikido academy. It was interesting (I have no criticisms, only went there once). Their founder, Omori Sogen, was a character, too. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 10:20, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::::In the last week, I've talked in person and separately to two disciples of Shunryu Suzuki, one of whom is fairly prominent. Both confirmed that Suzuki roshi would sometimes assign a koan for meditation to particular students, for the temporary purpose of addressing some point of practice. I'm also aware of someone in that lineage who has done likewise, and another who formerly gave regular koan seminars. ::::I have a hazy report of an aikido teacher in a different city who himself formerly studied w/Sogen's successor at Chozen-ji, and who apparently assigned a koan to an aikido student. And while visiting Japan a couple years back, I also saw a book on aikido which recommended meditation on the (Gaugin-like) questions "where do I come from? What am I? Where am I going?". Various inconclusive results appear when googling koan along with karate, judo, or aikido. (As for Sogen himself, don't even get me started.) --user:munge 3 September 2004 :By popular demand, added some easily-digestible language about the "sound of one hand" on this page, and more on koan. I am bound for hell anyway. --user:munge 2 October 2004 ==Glossary== I just moved all the Zen glossary material to Buddhist terms and concepts. Do they still serve a useful purpose here, or should they be culled?User:Kukkurovaca 05:44, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC) :Just killed the glossary.User:Kukkurovaca 20:20, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Zen and its nationalities== Should the page attempt to cover all Zen, or just give an overview and then point on? Also, should Japanese Zen, specifically, be relocated to a new page? Or should a new overview page be created (something ugly like Dhyana (Buddhist sect))?User:Kukkurovaca 20:20, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Some edits== Okay, I fixed some grammar and whatnot, deleted some weird statements, and added a little structure. I also removed an extensive quotation from the Platform Sutra, which might fare better under that article, and the following:
From this point of view, Zen is, instead of a religion, rather an undefinable origin, beyond all words and concepts, which can only be experienced on an individual level. In Zen, Prajna, i.e., direct intuitive wisdom, is to Buddhism what Gnosis is to Hellenism and Christianity. All religions originated from more concrete expressions of Prajna, and as such Zen is not bound to any materialist view of religion at all, even not Buddhism. Zen is then the fundamental perfection of awareness in relation to everything existing, and is known by all the great saints and sages of all times. Zazen is then, both a method to bring people to liberation and an expression and realization of the perfection already present in every person.User:Kukkurovaca 20:51, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC) Oh, and for the record, I'm fully in favor of someone scrapping this entire article and writing a new one.User:Kukkurovaca :Scrapping and rewriting would be a good idea, we just have to enlist someone to do it. I really don't want to myself, although I would be happy to edit and copyedit. I do think that the "Zen" article should cover Zen/Dhyana School in various countries. The word "Zen" is used very commonly by Koreans (I'm thinking of the Kwan Um School of Zen and Samu Sunim's Zen Buddhist Temples), I think Vietnamese, and of course Japanese when talking in English. Sometimes even by Chinese (Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun), although they seem to prefer Chán. Whereas nobody ever says Dhyana School that I've heard. In might be a good idea to have a separate "Japanese Zen" article. On the Chinese wiki, they have an article on "Chán" and a separate one for "Chinese Chán". - User:Nat Krause 04:07, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Zen-Taoism thingie== What are the proofs that Zen Buddhism incorporates Taoist thoughts? User_Talk: Mandel - May 15, 2004 :It's pretty commonly accepted that Buddhism became influenced by Taoism as it reached China, Japan and Korea. A text that addresses the similarities well is ''Mystics and Zen Masters'' by Thomas Merton. User:Thirdreel 21:18, 15 May 2004 (UTC) ::The problem with including the Taoism connection here isn't that Buddhism isn't Taoism-influenced, which should be undisputed, it's whether Zen is especially so.User:Kukkurovaca|User talk:Kukkurovaca 22:49, May 15, 2004 (UTC) :::Perhaps I wasn't being entirely clear here. Zen Buddhism is specifically linked to Japan, China, and Korea. It is a form of Buddhism that is closer to Taoism than the Buddhist sects who vectored in different directions--Sri Lanka, Tibet, Nepal, or India. Compared to Theravada and Vajrayana, Zen is especially influenced by Taoism. I'm not sure how the Taoist influence plays out in the Japanese and Chinese sects other than Zen. I don't have my Merton on me right now, but I'll look for it soon and see what he has to say. User:Thirdreel 01:11, 16 May 2004 (UTC) ::::There's no direct Taoist influence (at an early period, anyway) on any Buddhist schools that are not either Chinese themselves or descended from Chinese schools. However, the Taoist-Buddhist interchange affected all those schools; it was inevitable, as they were competing for the same audience, really, in the Chinese philosophical landscape...results varied widely. You get stuff like identifications of Lao-Tzu and Buddha, at the extreme, to more nuanced and subtle cross-incorporations of ideas and practices. And this process began the instant Buddhism set foot in China, well before the foundation of a clear Chan/Zen school or schools.User:Kukkurovaca|User talk:Kukkurovaca 00:32, May 17, 2004 (UTC) :But Zen Buddhism being close to Taoism may not necessarily mean that one influenced the other. Theoretically, it's possible that they contain similarities but reach them independently, as Newton and Leibniz did in calculus. Or that China and Japan find it easier to accept Zen Buddhism precisely because they were exposed to similar thoughts in Taoism? User_Talk:Mandel 19:23, 16 May 2004 (UTC) ::I suppose that might theoretically be the case, but pretty much all sources I heard of tell me otherwise. The comparison with calculus isn't really very adequate - mathematics is an abstract matter, while religious tradictions are very much cultural phenomena. They do and must influence each other, mainly by way of their teachers. For Buddhism it is a matter of course that it should adapt to local culture and beliefs. Even some Pali Canon Suttas make that very clear indeed - take for instance [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/digha/dn31.html Digha Nikaya 31, the Sigalovada Sutta], which makes a point to adopt the language and customs of the layperson who receives the teaching. :I suppose as a ''cultural phenomenon'', you could say Taoism and Buddhism influenced each other. But what I mean is Zen as a religio-philosophical belief system. It's strange different people hear different things, that's why I feel it's important to have some proof. The similarity between the two is very easy to draw; yet what I would like is some concrete evidence that some Zen teachings is derived from or influenced by Taoist thoughts, and is so passed down. :Supposing if it's true, then it should be easy to say ''where exactly'' Zen Buddhism incorporates Taoist thoughts. User:Mandel 22:32, 16 May 2004 (UTC) ::For one thing, both teachings have a tendency of catching one unaware, and an almost humoristic outlook at practice - without ever letting go of the appreciaton of proper attitude and behavior, mind you. What in your opinion would be the difference between a cultural phenomenom and a religious-philosophical system, btw? I don't think it can honestly be said that there is one that is not arbitrary, at least as long as we are talking about Taoism and Buddhism. User:Luis Dantas 00:15, 17 May 2004 (UTC) Looking at the text again, I can see why this is becoming an issue of debate. Since Taoism is mentioned in the first sentence, a new reader might be led to believe that there's a simple equation, Zen = Buddhism + Taoism, which is of course oversimplifying it. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to remove the mention of Taoism from the first paragraph, and make a section later in the article which discusses Zen and Tao in a little more detail. I should also mention that "creeping Taoism" can be an accusation. So I really advice to avoid starting a polemic right from the start of the article by presenting a POV as a fact. User:FWBOarticle 15:53, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC) Buddhism and Taoism have inflenced each other in east Asia for 2,000 years now. In the Neo-Confucian school you may add Confucian thought to the mix. They treat similar issues, after all. In China, at least, the I Ching and especially Zhuangzi are quite popular reading with many Chan practitioners. As well, in pre-revolutionary days Taoist monks were welcome to stay in most Buddhist monasteries and vice versa. User:Fire Star 05:30, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC) ==TANGOZEN??== Okay, there's something deeply wrong with that.User:Kukkurovaca|User talk:Kukkurovaca : Very wrong. It's a plug. I say delete it.User:Goethean 18:00, 28 May 2004 (UTC) ==Irrelevant link== I really don't think this recently added link ([http://www2.gol.com/users/doubtboy|Sit Down and Shut Up!]) is really relevant. It has a couple things about Zen buddism on the page, but mostly it just seems to be someones almost-blog. I'm removing it, but if anyone disagrees and wants to put it back then here is the link for you to copy and paste. [http://www2.gol.com/users/doubtboy|Sit Down and Shut Up!] User:Russco 15:30, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC) :Well, I like the page, and it is almost all about Zen. On the other hand, itis just one guy's opinion. Back on the first hand, what isn't? Something written by committee? I'm thinking about it. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 15:44, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC) == New Age category == I've removed the "New Age" categorization, as Zen is not at all "new age"; it's a pretty old phenomenon.User:Kukkurovaca|User talk:Kukkurovaca 02:06, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC) == Kensho == Private sessions with a teacher are not kensho, as the article claims. Kensho is a sudden experience of awakening, of seeing into ones true nature. Private interviews with a teacher are called dokusan. :Good heavens, yes. In the future, please feel free to Wikipedia:Be bold and fix stuff like this yourself. Thanks for the heads-up. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 23:13, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC) ==Zen Buddhism vs. Ordinary Zen== Is anyone clear on the distinction that the article currently makes between "Zen Buddhism" and "Ordinary Zen"? What are the examples of "ordinary Zen" that we are referring to? I actually have a vague idea myself, but would like to clarify it considerably. Phillip Kapleau alludes to the possibility of contrasting "Zen" and "Zen Buddhism" in one of his books. In ''Three Pillars'' he also memorably quotes Yasutani in describing ''bompu zen'', literally "ordinary" zen, which is basically the practice only for its physical and mental health benefits. However, I don't think these are the same ideas as each other, and I'm not sure what the best way, if any, to present them in an encyclopedic format is. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 03:17, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC) * I've heard of people distinguishing Zen and Zen Buddhism, but I think it's a fine point. Philip Toshio Sudo makes this distinction--he says that you can follow Zen as a way of life, so being a "Zen Christian" or a "Zen Muslim" or a "Zen Buddhist" is all the same thing. It's possibly worth a mention, but I don't think it belongs in the first paragraph. User:Thirdreel 15:01, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC) *added link to darkzen.org, which nicely debunks Bonpu Zen as anti-intellectual denial and group dynamics. Goes back to Bodhidarma to do so, has the Lankavatara Sutra on his side. Let your heart decide. *zen -- practice, Buddhism -- (i'm not sure)..? Private interviews with a teacher are called dokusan. - "dokusan" is Soto term. "sanzen" is the Rinzai term. == WWII == Some years ago a westerner asked attention for the role of Zen and its masters during the second world war. Zen being part of the bushido (with Shinto, Taoism and Confucianism) contributed to the war/warrior spirit of the Japanese. Do you think this should be part of the article? :It would be a good addition, if done well. I keep meaning to write an article on Brian Victoria's ''Zen at War''. == Clarification please == The Radical Zen section could use some clarification and/or elaboration. As it is now, there's only a couple of sentences that do not answer 'how' or 'why', and the very little 'what' and 'who' given has a lot to be desired in terms of explaining what the hell is going on to the reader who comes to this article to learn or gain information. --User:66.120.158.19 09:48, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Shuffling things about == The picture of Bodhidarma, while nice, is more suited at Bodhidarma. It adds little to the Zen article itself, and frankly, that needs the space for the topic and link boxes. I noticed we have a Template:Buddhism2 template, and I took the liberty of using that at the bottom instead of the right-hand Template:Buddhism (too many stuff ends up at the right as it is). In doing so, I've lost the links to Chinese Buddhism and Korean Buddhism (these were "hidden" as country links), but since these are not specifically about Zen, I don't think that's a big loss. I would agree the structure can still be better elucidated and the box on the right can probably be made clearer still (all these transliteration systems are obscuring the "good" links Chan, Seon and Dhyana), but I still think this is a step in the right direction. User:82.92.119.11 19:14, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC) :I don't really agree with all of these changes. It's pretty standard for Wikipedia articles to lead with a picture in the upper right. It doesn't need to add anything other than being a picture. Why should the names box be privileged? Frankly, it's an eyesore. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 14:51, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==Small Substantive Change== From "especially" to originally in the first paragraph as Zen was originated from China through Korea to Japan. ==Bodhidharma Iranian ???? == AFAIK Bodhidharma is Indian, either this is a typo or a controversial theory? I changed 'Iranian' to 'Indian' : There seems to be stronger evidence that he was in fact Iranian. According to Yang Hsüan-chih, the China historian who personally met Bodhidharma in Lo Yang, Bodhidharma was a Persian Central Asian. His exact words are "po-szu kuo hu-jen", where ''hu'' relates to Central Asia and especially to people of Iranian descent. I suggest reading ''The Bodhidharma Anthology'' by Jeffrey R. Broughton, a translation of the ''Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices'', composed by Bodhidharma and his students. 01:28, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::That doesn't seem like very strong evidence at all. One Chinese writer made one reference to a monk with the name Bodhidharma who he, the Chinese guy, thought was Persian. On the other hand, everybody else who writes about him (without citing evidence) says he was Indian. Neither claim is anywhere near well-documented, but the latter is much more commonly accepted. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 14:51, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==Further reading section== Yesterday, I excised the article's Further reading section. It has been suggested that I should discuss this on the talk page. I could be wrong, but I don't think Wikipedia articles usually have a section like that. Certainly, I'm all for having a list of sources. But there is no particular indication that any of those particular books were sources; they appear to just be recommended reading. That being the case, I really don't know what the criteria are by which we would recommend anything. Today, an anonymous user added a "recommended translations" section, which is even worse. If the consensus is that we want a Further reading section, I won't remove it again, but we should clear about why we are including which books. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 07:04, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==Zen and Buddhism== The current text of this section is not very good: :Zen is not necessarily a Buddhist religion. Rather, it is a way of living. Nevertheless all Zen schools stress the admiration of the historical Buddha as their principle inspiration. :Though Zen meditation practice does derive from the Buddha's original Eightfold Path teaching, where dhyana is one element of the eightfold way, Zen has been occasionally criticized by other Buddhists for not adequately emphasizing the other elements of the Eightfold Path and for not emphasizing study of the traditional Buddhist canon or for being ignorant of or unconcerned with Buddhist philosophy in general. :Such claims are often overpublicized. In practice, most Zen teachers, monks and centers have good relationships with those of other Buddhist schools and often cooperate with them. Much of those claims is probably due to the personal, sometimes paradoxal and often disconcerting methods of transmission that Zen uses. The first sentence goes to the difficulty of defining Zen. Some people, such as a previous editor, would say that Zen ''is'' necessarily a Buddhist religion. Some would make a distinction between Zen and Zen Buddhism. Some people say that Zen is a way of living; some people would say that Buddhism is a way of living, and Zen is a Buddhist way of living. Some people (such as Yasutani as quoted in ''Three Pillars'') use Zen to refer to any dhyana-related practice, and therefore Zen is present in Hinduism, Taoism, Transcendental Meditation, and many other somesuch. Somebody once said that Zen is everyday thought, meaning that it is not necessarily anything. I have no idea how to present these perspectives in the article. It would be good to have some specific documentation of the criticisms that have been made of Zen. I'm sure it has been criticized (I've heard that Soka Gakkai people sometimes really lay into it in private), but it's good to know exactly when and by whom. I already took out some criticisms that seemed kind of questionable and had no cite. The response to criticism that was added sounds defensive and is likewise undocumented. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 05:16, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==Church of the SubGenius== The article claims that ''the Church of the SubGenius and especially Discordianism have been influenced by this idea'' (the idea that ''any clever nonsense is also Zen''). I'm curious if there evidence of this? The claim about Discordianism may have some basis, but the Church_of_the_SubGenius article makes no reference to Zen. --User:Ds13 23:35, 2005 Apr 5 (UTC) == Bourgeois == "In practice, most zen centers in the west are very conservative, bourgeois, and mundane, emphasizing the practice schedules, and everyday household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and gardening as the path of enlightenment. Very rarely is anything like the radical iconoclasm of the traditional Zen fables encountered." Whilst I, personally, don't doubt the veracity of this statement - it certainly seems too POV for an encyclopaedia article. == Pirsig == The book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig, deals with the notion of "quality" from the point of view of the main character. OK, but: The book is largely based on the author's experience with archery instruction. This is about the book "Zen in the art of archery", by E Herrigel. That's also the one that is misrepresenting zen (see older version). So, the message, if any at all, should be, in my opinion: * read Pirsig, but it's not explicitly about zen * read Herrigel, it's about zen (and archery) but it's controversial. User:Pweemeeuw 14:41, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Koan Practice == The discussion of koan practice in this article is mis-leading on several points, but the phrase, "There is no single correct answer for any given koan, though there may be a set of correct and a set of incorrect answers" is itself incorrect. Of the 1,700 classical koans, some have a "wide gate" through which a range of answers may pass; but others have a extremely "narrow gate" and only one very specific answer will suffice. :According to whom? - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 04:03, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::Yeah, according to whom? Actually, there are several recent anonymous contributions that I would agree with. And I would welcome a discussion of how this is handled in various traditions, in Korea, in Hakuun Zen, in the Sanbo Kyodan and its offshoots...But...I think the word "answers" is misleading, causing non-practicing readers to think it's a kind of puzzle to solve. I think you can't go wrong calling them "responses". ::BTW, the section on koans inaccurately mentions "the first book in English to engage Zen as a practice, 'The Three Pillars of Zen' by Philip Kapleau". Obviously, D.T. Suzuki preceeded Kapleau. [http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-JOCP/jc26894.htm This bibliography] lists DT's First Series essays as being published in 1927; I think maybe it is the Second Series (1933) that focuses heavily on koans. I don't know who was first. Maybe Nukariya's [http://terebess.hu/english/samurai.html ''Religion of the Samurai''], 1913? Could it have been Lafcadio Hearn in the late 1800s/early 1900s? ::Also, the article claims that authors of ''The Zen Koan'' are biased...exactly how? And in what sense are any of the other authors mentioned not biased? ::Also BTW, there aren't "1700 classical koans". According to ''Zen Dust'' page 153, "The round figure 1700 was arrived at in early days by attributing one koan to each of the 1701 Zen masters whose names appear...in the Chinge-te ch'uan-teng lu....but as a matter of fact actual biographies are given for only about 960 masters. The remaining 700-odd masters are mentioned by name only" in the Jingde record. See more about that on page 352, if you can find a copy. --User:Munge 06:10, 6 May 2005 (UTC) == Guangzhou/Guangdong == Not being a China-native poster nor an expert on Chinese geography, I can't act with authority in this matter, but shouldn't Guangzhou be listed as Guangdong, seeing as -zhou is the city and -dong is the province? --User:Hidoshi 10:25, Jun 11, 2005 (UTC) :But, are you certain that it is the province that's meant, rather than the city? - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 03:22, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC) :: Hm, from what I can dig up in my own books and online through Google, there seems to be a little confusion over the matter. Maybe it'd be wise to list it as both instead of just one? User:Hidoshi 18:53, Jun 12, 2005 (UTC) :::Might as well change it to Guangdong in the meantime, since Guangzhou is in Guangdong. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 05:21, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) :::: Thanks. User:Hidoshi 21:27, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC) == Western Culture == I feel like this is not NPOV but am not yet sure what to suggest: Many youths in the Beat generation and among the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s misunderstood the goals and methods of Zen. While the scholar D.T. Suzuki may have brought attention to concepts in Zen such as humility, labor, service, prayer, gratitude, and meditation, the 'hip' subculture often focused on states of consciousness in themselves. Japanese Zen master Zenkei Shibayama commented: 'It may be true that the effect which such scientifically prepared drugs as LSD produce may have some superficial resemblance to some aspects of Zen experience.... When the effect of the drug is gone, the psychological experience one may have had is also weakened and dispersed, and does not endure as a living fact.' There are also many Zen masters who referred to LSD as the "elevator" to enlightenment while zazen was the "stairs". Many did not see these experiences as superficial at all. I'll try to dig some of this stuff up, but in the meantime, I just wanted to call this out for discussion. Many of these so-called "hippies" also realized that the magic of existence and consciousness - altered or not - was Zen as much as anything else is. :You really think there's ''many''? I doubt that. - User:Nat KrauseUser_Talk:Nat Krause 05:21, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) :: Same. I've talked to many Zen practitioners in my short lifetime thus far about the use of drugs, and most are in opposition, largely because while it can be a way to open you up to new experiences, LSD and other intoxicants are 1) Against the Vinaya, and 2) A counterfeit replacement for genuine realisation by your own efforts. There may be a few here and there who agree with the use of LSD and other substances, but I wouldn't say "many" at all. User:Hidoshi 21:27, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)
Zen
Branches of Buddhism Taoism Japanese religion
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Z
ZA | ZB | ZC | ZD | ZE | ZF | ZG | ZH | ZI | ZJ | ZK | ZL | ZM | ZN | ZO | ZP | ZR | ZS | ZT | ZU | ZW | ZX | ZY |Words begining with Zen:
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