Zen Buddhism - An Introduction
"Zen" is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Ch'an,
which means "meditation." Zen
Buddhism is a highly refined form of Mahayana
Buddhism, which emphasizes the aim of enlightenment.
Zen, or Ch'an, is a Chinese synthesis and adaptation of two schools of Mahayana
that had their origins in India: The Madhyamika school, which emphasizes
that all forms and thought are essentially empty in nature and utilizes
the way of negation and intuitive thought; and the Yoga Cara school, which
emphasizes that consciousness alone is real, and utilizes meditation as
the principal discipline.
As early as the fifth century A.D. the Indian teacher Kumarajiva and
the meditation master Buddhabhadra were preparing the way for. In fact
one of Kumarajiva's disciples, Tao-sheng, is accredited by some as the
actual founder of Zen. By tradition, Zen has its origin in the esoteric
teachings of the Buddha, when the Buddha stood on Vulture Peak holding
a lotus and remained silent before his disciples. Through the silence,
the disciple Mahakasyapa achieved nirvana, or enlightenment, and from
him the "lamp of enlightenment" was passed on to the twenty-eighth
patriarch, Bodhidharma, who carried the "lamp" to China and
founded the Ch'an (Zen) tradition.
Little is known about the patriarchs and about the evolution of Zen from Bodhidharma
until the T'ang dynasty (618-906). During the T'ang dynasty, a revolutionary
form of Ch'an (Zen) was developing that rejected sutra study, ritual,
and the veneration of images, and preached the methods of "sudden
enlightenment."
Ch'an forms of Buddhism were introduced to Japan from Korea in A.D. 552, and
flourished under the patronage of Prince Shotoku (d. 621). It was during
the Kamakura period (1185-1333) that Zen was established in Japan, primarily
through the efforts of two Japanese monks, Eisai and Dogen. Eisai (d.
1215) traveled to China and trained with Lin-Chi (Rinzai) masters, and
brought the sect to Japan in 1191. The sect was readily accepted by the
Shoguns and Samurai of Japan.
Dogen (d. 1253) is credited with the founding of the Soto sect in Japan,
and with establishing the first Zen temple in Japan in 1236. The Rinzai
and Soto sects are the most influential forms of Buddhism in Japan today,
with approximately 2.5 million and 7 million adherents, respectively.
Zen Buddhism has also impacted the West; with Zen Master Soyen Shaku's
appearance at the World Parliament of Religions at the Chicago World's
Fair of 1893, and decades of work by Dr. D. T. Suzuki (d. 1970), Zen practice
has steadily grown, particularly in California and Hawaii.
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