Zen
Zen Buddhism is a mixture of Indian Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism. It began in China, spread to Korea and Japan, and became very popular in the West from the mid 20th century.
The essence of Zen is attempting to understand the meaning of life directly, without being misled by logical thought, or language.
Zen techniques are compatible with other faiths and are often used, for example, by Christians seeking a mystical understanding of their faith.
Read about various methods of practising Zen
Zen often seems paradoxical - it requires an intense discipline which, when practised properly, results in total spontaneity and ultimate freedom. This natural spontaneity should not be confused with impulsiveness.
"Zen" - the word
"Zen" is the way the Chinese word "Ch'an" is pronounced in Japan. "Ch'an" is the Chinese pronunciation of the Sanskrit word "Dhyana", which means (more or less) meditation.
Zen - the essence and the difficulty
Christmas Humphreys, one of the leading poineers in the history of Buddhism in Britain, wrote that "Zen is a subject extremely easy to misunderstand." He was right.
Zen is something a person does. It's not a concept that can be described in words.
Despite that, we'll use words on this site to help you get some idea of what Zen is about. But always remember, Zen does not depend on words - you have to experience it in order to "understand" it.
Enlightenment is inside
The essence of Zen Buddhism is that all human beings are Buddha, and that all they have to do is to discover that truth for themselves.
All beings by nature are Buddhas, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddhas.
Hakuin Ekaku
You who are reading this now are Buddha. Just find out the truth of your own true nature...
Zen sends us looking inside us for enlightenment. There's no need to search outside ourselves for the answers; we can find the answers in the same place that we found the questions.
Human beings can't learn this truth by philosophising or rational thought, nor by studying scriptures, taking part in worship rites and rituals or many of the other things that people think religious people do.
The first step is to control our minds through meditation and other techniques that involve mind and body; to give up logical thinking and avoid getting trapped in a spider's web of words.
History
Zen Buddhism was brought to China by the Indian monk Bodhidharma in the 6th century CE. It was called Ch'an in China.
Zen's golden age began with the Sixth Patriarch, Hui-neng (638-713), and ended with the persecution of Buddhism in China in the middle of the 9th century CE.
Most of those we think of today as the great Zen masters came from this period.
Zen Buddhism survived the persecution though it was never the same again in China.
Zen spread to Korea in the 7th century CE and to Japan in the 12th century CE.
Zen Buddhism was popularised in the West by the Japanese scholar Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870 - 1966); although it was found in the West before that.
Zen in its own words
"A special transmission outside the scriptures Without reliance on words or letters Directly pointing to the heart of humanity Seeing into one's own nature. "
Clues to the meaning of Zen
Because Zen is so hard to explain we're going to offer you a series of paragraphs that may help you get an idea of it:
* The essence of Zen Buddhism is achieving enlightenment by seeing one's original mind (or original nature) directly; without the intervention of the intellect.
* Zen is big on intuitive understanding, on just "getting it", and not so hot on philosophising.
* Zen is concerned with what actually is rather than what we think or feel about what is.
* Zen is concerned with things as they are, without trying to interpret them.
* Zen points to something before thinking, before all your ideas.
* The key to Buddhahood in Zen is simply self-knowledge.
* To be a human being is to be a Buddha. Buddha nature is just another name for human nature – true human nature.
* Zen is simply to be completely alive.
* Zen is short for Zen Buddhism. It is sometimes called a religion and sometimes called a philosophy. Choose whichever term you prefer; it simply doesn't matter.
* Zen is not a philosophy or a religion.
* Zen tries to free the mind from the slavery of words and the constriction of logic.
* Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.
* Zen is meditation.
Zen in practice
Warning
If you're a westerner you may find it hard to shake off the intellectual and dualist ways of thinking that dominate western culture: these can make it difficult for westerners to come to Zen.
Learning Zen
Zen Buddhists pay less attention to scripture as a means of learning than they do to various methods of practising Zen. The most common way of teaching is for enlightenment to be communicated direct from master to pupil.
Zen practices are aimed at taking the rational and intellectual mind out of the mental loop, so that the student can become more aware and realise their own Buddha-nature. Sometimes even (mild) physical violence is used to stop the student intellectualising or getting stuck in some other way.
Students of Zen aim to achieve enlightenment by the way they live, and by mental actions that approach the truth without philosophical thought or intellectual endeavour.
Some schools of Zen work to achieve sudden moments of enlightenment, while others prefer a gradual process.
Ways to truth
Japanese Zen uses forms of practice in particular:
* Meditation: favoured by the Soto school.
* Meditation with the use of a koan: favoured by the Rinzai school.
* Mindfulness: practiced by all school.
Meditation
Meditation is something that plays a part in virtually all religions, although some of them don't use the word meditation. And meditation is something that can be done with no religious element at all.
Meditation involves both the body and the mind. For Buddhists this is particularly important as they want to avoid what they call "duality", and so their way of meditating must involve the body and the mind as a single entity.
In the most general definition, meditation is a way of taking control of the mind so that it becomes peaceful and focused, and the meditator becomes more aware.
In Zen Buddhism the purpose of meditation is to stop the mind rushing about in an aimless (or even a purposeful) stream of thoughts. People often say that the aim of meditation is "to still the mind".
Zen Buddhism offers a number of methods of meditation to people - methods which have been used for a long time, and which have been shown to work.
Zen Buddhists can meditate on their own or in groups.
Meditating in a group - perhaps at a retreat called a "sesshin" or in a meditation room or "zendo" has the benefit of reminding a person that they are both part of a larger Buddhist community, and part of the larger community of beings of every species.
What is meditation?
Meditation is a mental and physical course of action that a person uses to separate themselves from their thoughts and feelings in order to become fully aware.
Meditation has no supernatural side, nor is the person meditation trying to get into a hypnotic state, or to get in touch with angels or anything like that.
A successful meditator is just simply being; not judging, not thinking, just simply being aware and at peace; living each moment as it comes as fully as possible.
Many different courses of actions can be meditation.
Zazen
The key Zen practice is "zazen". This involves sitting in one of several available positions and meditating so that you become fully in touch with the true nature of reality.
Different schools of Zen do zazen in different ways: Soto meditators face a wall, Rinzai meditators sit in a circle facing each other.
Posture
Meditation is possible in any stable posture that keeps the spine fairly straight. Sitting quietly in a chair is perfectly acceptable.
The Lotus Position
The Lotus Position
The classic posture for Zen meditation is called the Lotus Position. This involves sitting cross-legged with the left foot on top of the right thigh and the right foot on top of the left thigh.
The lotus position is difficult and uncomfortable for beginners, and there are other sitting positions that are a lot easier to achieve, such as the half lotus (in which only one foot is put on top of the opposite thigh) or simply sitting cross-legged or sitting on a cushion with knees bent and lower legs tucked under upper legs.
Methods of meditation
Some classic meditation methods use the meditator's own breathing. They may just sit and concentrate on their breathing… not doing anything to alter the way they breath, not worrying about whether they're doing it right or wrong, not even thinking about breathing; just "following" the breathing and "becoming one" with the breathing.
It's important not to think "I am breathing" - when a person does that they separate themselves from the breathing and start thinking of themselves as separate from what they are doing - the aim is just to be aware of breathing.
This is more difficult than it sounds, so some meditators prefer to count breaths, trying to count up to ten without any distraction at all, and then starting again at one. If they get distracted they notice the distraction and go back to counting.
But there are many methods of meditation - some involve chanting mantras, some involve concentrating on a particular thing (such as a candle flame or a flower). Nor does meditation have to involve keeping still; walking meditation is a popular Zen way of doing it, and repetitive movements using beads or prayer wheels are used in other faiths.
Self-discipline
Meditation teaches self-discipline because it's boring, and because the body gets uncomfortable. The meditator learns to keep going regardless of how bored they are, or how much they want to scratch their nose.
Koans
Koans are questions or statements, often paradoxes, that provoke spiritual understanding. They are often used by masters as a way of teaching pupils, and also to test enlightenment.
Don't think that the koan and its solution are themselves wisdom and truth. They may be, but their particular importance here is their use as tools to help you understand the true nature of yourself and of everything, and to increase your awareness of what is.
A well known koan is "In clapping both hands a sound is heard; what is the sound of one hand?"
Koans can't be solved by study and analytical thought. In order to solve a koan, the pupil must leave behind all thoughts and ideas in order to respond intuitively.
Koans don't have a right answer. Western pupils often find this very frustrating, since most westerners are used to trying to get the right (and only) answer to a problem. For the same reason, the truths of Zen can't be learned just by reading a scripture or getting a solution from a a teacher or a text book.
The best way to work with koans is with a teacher. Without a teacher it can be too easy to fool yourself into thinking that you've solved a koan.
The first collection of koans was made in the 11th century CE. They are a favourite teaching tool of the Rinzai school of Buddhism.
The Sound of One Hand
Here's an example: In the book Zen Flesh, Zen Bones there is the story of the pupil being asked by the master, "You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together. Now show me the sound of one hand."
The pupil goes off to meditate on this matter. He hears some geisha music through his window and thinks that this is the answer. So he returns to his teacher, and on being asked thequestion he plays the geisha music as his answer. No! The teacher sends him away to meditate further.
While contemplating the question again, the pupil hears water dripping from a gutter. Back he goes to the teacher and imitates 'the sound of one hand' as dripping water. No! "That's the sound of dripping water, not the sound of one hand," says the teacher, and sends him away to practise more.
The pupil keeps trying. 'The sound of one hand' is the sighing of the wind. No!
`The sound of one hand' is the hooting of an owl. No!
`The sound of one hand' is the chirping of locusts. No!
At last, after almost a year, he went to his teacher. "What is the sound of one hand?" asked the teacher. But now the pupil was different; he had transcended all sounds and come to the soundless sound, the sound of one hand, and he demonstrated his realisation to the teacher.
Mindfulness
Zen is about living in the present with complete awareness.
Practitioners turn off the automatic pilot that most of us operate from throughout the day -- we don't really notice all the things that are going on around us or within our own minds.
They try to experience each moment directly. They don't let thoughts, memories, fears or hopes get in the way.
They practice being aware of everything they see, hear, feel, taste, and smell.
Another way of looking at this is to say that a Zen practitioner tries to be completely aware in the activity of any particular moment -- to the extent that they are one with what they are doing. So, for example:
* when they eat they focus totally on the food and on the act of eating;
* when they meditate they open the mind to the reality of the moment, not allowing thoughts, feelings or sensations to preoccupy them, not even thoughts about enlightenment or Buddhism;
* when they work, they only work;
* when they brush their teeth, that's all they do -- they don't think about other things at the same time.
Zen practice is to realise that thoughts are a natural faculty of mind and should not be stopped, ignored, or rejected.
Instead, thinking, especially discursive thinking, is to be acknowledged but then put to one side so that the mind is not carried away by worries, anxieties, and endless hopes and fears.
This is liberation from the defilements of the mind, the suffering of the mind, leaving the truth of this vast, unidentifiable moment plain to see.
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18-10-2004, 23:23
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