Zen (school)

Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that is centered on the goal of achieving inner peace and spiritual enlightenment through meditation. Although primarily practiced in East Asia, Zen has adherents around the world, including in the United States. Most scholars view Zen, which was first founded in China during the Tang dynasty, as a blending of Indian Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese Taoism. Essentially, Zen is a stripped-down form of Buddhism that largely eschews scripture and ritual in favor of an intense focus on meditation aimed at attaining a direct understanding of the meaning of life. To do this, Zen Buddhists believe it is necessary to escape the cloud of ignorance by moving beyond the boundaries of conventional thought through meditation and experiencing the world as it truly is. It is estimated that there are more than nine million Zen Buddhists in Japan and a growing number of adherents in North America and Europe.

Background

Because the historical roots of Zen are intertwined with legend, the details of its genesis are somewhat uncertain. Traditionally, it is believed that Zen was introduced in China as Ch'an by the Indian sage Bodhidharma sometime in the sixth century while he was teaching at the Shaolin Monastery. Although it is unclear whether Bodhidharma was a real person, he is widely regarded as the first patriarch of Zen. From the time it began to emerge as a unique school of Buddhism, Zen combined elements of traditional Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese philosophical Taoism. The relationship between Zen and Taoism is so close, in fact, that both religions share some of the same philosophers and texts.

Zen's development continued over time as Bodhidharma was succeeded by subsequent patriarchs. One of the most important stages in this development came during the time of the sixth patriarch, Huineng, in the seventh and eighth centuries. Under Huineng, Zen moved away from its Indian roots and became significantly more Chinese in nature. Huineng's tenure also saw the emergence of the five separate schools of Zen Buddhism, including the Rinzai and Soto schools. Moreover, Huineng's ascendance as patriarch marked the beginning of what has come to be known as the Golden Age of Zen—a name that reflects the fact that it was during this period that Zen first began to truly flourish. The Golden Age of Zen continued until the ninth-century persecution of Buddhism in China. Although Chinese Zen itself ultimately survived this persecution, it never again reached the heights it achieved during the Golden Age.

As Zen grew more popular in China, it also spread to other cultures. Zen was probably first transmitted into Vietnam in the seventh century. It also spread into Korea around the same time. In Japan, Zen was popularized by teachers like Eihei Dogen in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Zen eventually became popular in the West after World War II (1939–1945). Japanese scholar Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki was among those who played a critical role in bringing Zen to North America and Europe in the twentieth century.

Overview

Zen is less a religion or spiritual theory than it is a practical experience. The essence of Zen, taken directly from the teachings of Bodhidharma, is the goal of achieving full enlightenment through meditation. The adherents of Zen believe that everyone has an inherent Buddha-nature, which means that all people are naturally enlightened beings. According to Zen teaching, however, human beings' full potential for enlightenment is clouded by ignorance. Overcoming this ignorance means breaking through the boundaries of conventional thought through meditation until one reaches a special breakthrough called satori. When one achieves satori, the true nature of reality and human existence is revealed.

Each Zen school subscribes to different methods for reaching satori and full enlightenment. Of these, the practices followed by the major schools of Rinzai and Soto are the most prominent. The Rinzai school's approach to achieving enlightenment favors the use of koans, which are paradoxical puzzles or questions that practitioners use in their effort to overcome the conventional boundaries of ignorance-inducing logic. While concentrating on their koans, Rinzai practitioners are often shouted at or even slapped by their masters. This sort of aggressive encouragement is meant to instill a heightened sense of anxiety in the practitioner so as to help provoke the sudden realization of truth that is the hallmark of satori.

The Soto school's approach to achieving enlightenment is more relaxed by comparison. Soto Zen typically does not involve koans or any psychological prodding. Instead, it focuses on the importance of zazen, or sitting meditation. Zazen is a simple practice that involves little more than sitting upright in good posture and being mindful of breathing in the belly until achieving the sense of being present. During zazen, the practitioner is encouraged to clear their mind of all thoughts, but to stop short of making any direct effort to achieve enlightenment.

Zen is unique from—and yet compatible with—most other forms of spirituality. Unlike formal religions, Zen is largely unconcerned with scripture or rituals. Instead, Zen focuses almost entirely on the pursuit of enlightenment and the methods it proscribes for achieving it. These methods, regardless of their individual differences, are all aimed at helping people pull their minds out of the everyday mental loop so that they can escape the ignorance that prevents them from realizing full enlightenment and realize their own Buddha-nature. In addition to meditation, Zen practitioners seek to achieve enlightenment through their way of life and their mental effort to find the truth without relying on philosophical thought or intellectual analysis.

Given its practical nature, it is difficult to explain the true meaning of Zen. There are, however, some key examples of Zen thinking that illustrate its concepts. Zen is more concerned with what actually is than with ordinary human perceptions of what is. Similarly, Zen is also more concerned with seeing things as they are than with interpreting their meaning. Essentially, Zen is meant to be a way for people to free themselves from the captivity of words and the bonds of logic. Zen can be seen as a philosophy or religion, but it is not necessarily considered to be either. Most importantly, at the core of Zen is meditation to achieve self-discovery.

In the late twentieth century, Japanese Zen scholars and priests began practicing a form of Zen called Critical Buddhism. This adaptation attempted to limit the materialism, discrimination, and other modern social constructs with negative connotations that had become associated with Zen beliefs. Though this school of thought was no longer popular by the early twenty-first century, it serves as an example of the adaptation efforts to make Zen philosophy applicable in twenty-first-century society.

Bibliography

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Han, Byung-Chul. The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism. Polity Press, 2022.

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