Zen

For other uses, see Zen (disambiguation).

Zen
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	禪
Simplified Chinese	禅
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Chán Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Sim4 Middle Chinese Middle Chinese Dzyen
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese	Thiền
Korean name
Hangul	선
Hanja	禪
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Seon
Japanese name
Kanji	禅
Transcriptions Romanization Zen

Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the 6th century as Chán. From China, Zen spread south to Vietnam, to Korea and east to Japan.

The word Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪 Dzyen (Modern Mandarin: Chán), which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "absorption" or "meditative state".

Zen emphasizes the attainment of enlightenment and the personal expression of direct insight in the Buddhist teachings. As such, it de-emphasizes mere knowledge of sutras and doctrine and favors direct understanding through zazen and interaction with an accomplished teacher.

The teachings of Zen include various sources of Mahāyāna thought, especially Yogācāra, the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras and Huayan. The Prajñāpāramitā literature and, to a lesser extent, Madhyamaka have also been influential.

Chinese Chán

Main article: Chinese Chán

See also: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

Periodisation

The history of Chán in China can be divided in several periods. Zen as we know it today is the result of a long history, with many changes and contingent factors. Each period had different types of Zen, some of which remained influential, while others vanished.

Ferguson distinguishes three periods from the fifth century into the thirteenth century:

1. The Legendary period, from Bodhidharma in the late fifth century to the end An Lushan Rebellion around 765 CE, in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. Little written information is left from this period. It's the time of the Six Patriarchs, including Bodhidharma and Huineng, and the legendary "split" between the Northern and the Southern School of Chán.
2. The Classical period, from the end An Lushan Rebellion around 765 CE to the beginning of the Song Dynasty around 950 CE. This is the time of the great masters of Chán, such as Mazu Daoyi and Linji Yixuan, and the creation of the yü-lü genre, the recordings of the sayings and teachings of these great masters
3. The Literary period, from around 950 to 1250, which spans the era of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). In this time the gongan-collections were compiled, collections of sayings and deeds by the famous masters, appended with poetry and commentary. This genre reflects the influence of literati on the development of Chán. This period idealized the previous period as the "golden age" of Chán, producing the literature in which the supposed spontaneity of the celebrated masters was portrayed.

Although McRae has reservations about the division of Chán-history in phases or periods, he nevertheless distinguishes four phases in the history of Chán:

1. Proto-Chán (ca. 500-600). In this phase, Chán developed in multiple locations in northern China. It was based on the practice of dhyana, and is connected to the figures of Bodhiharma and Huike. Its principal text is the Two Entrances and Four Practices, attributed to Bodhidharma.
2. Early Chán (ca. 600-900). In this phase Chán took its first clear contours. Prime figures are the fifth patriarch Daman Hongren (601–674), his dharma-heir Yuquan Shenxiu (606?-706), the sixth patriarch Huineng (638–713), antagonist of the quintessential Platform Sutra, and Shenhui (670-762), whose propaganda elevated Huineng to the status of sixth patriarch. Prime factions are the Northern School, Southern School and Oxhead School.
3. Middle Chán (ca. 750-1000). In this phase developed the well-known Chán of the iconoclastic zen-masters. Prime figures are Mazu Daoyi (709–788), Shitou Xiqian (710-790), Linji Yixuan (d.867), and Xuefeng Yicun (822-908). Prime factions are the Hongzhou school and the Hubei faction An important text is the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952), which gives a great amount of "encounter-stories", and the well-known genealogy of the Chán-school.
4. Song-Dynasty Chán (ca. 950-1300). In this phase Chán took its definitive shape, including the picture of the "golden age" of the Chán of the Tang-Dynasty, and the use of koans for individual study and meditation. Prime figures are Dahui Zonggao (1089–1163), who introduced the Hua Tou practice, and Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157), who emphasized Shikantaza. Prime factions are the Linji school and the Caodong school. The classic koan-collections, such as the Blue Cliff Record were assembled in this period, which reflect the influence of the "literati" on the development of Chán. In this phase Chán is transported to Japan, and exerts a great influence on Korean Seon via Jinul.

Neither Ferguson nor McRae give a periodisation for Chinese Chán following the Song-dynasty, though McRae mentions "at least a postclassical phase or perhaps multiple phases".

Origins and Taoist influences

When Buddhism came to China from India, it was initially adapted to the Chinese culture and understanding. Buddhism was exposed to Confucianist and Taoist influences. Goddard quotes D.T. Suzuki, calling Chán a "natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist conditions." Buddhism was first identified to be "a barbarian variant of Taoism":

Judging from the reception by the Han of the Hinayana works and from the early commentaries, it appears that Buddhism was being perceived and digested through the medium of religious Daoism (Taoism). Buddha was seen as a foreign immortal who had achieved some form of Daoist nondeath. The Buddhists’ mindfulness of the breath was regarded as an extension of Daoist breathing exercises.

Taoist terminology was used to express Buddhist doctrines in the oldest translations of Buddhist texts, a practice termed ko-i, "matching the concepts", while the emerging Chinese Buddhism had to compete with Taoism and Confucianism.

The first Buddhist recruits in China were Taoists. Against this background, especially the Taoist concept of naturalness seemed to have been inherited by the early Chán disciples: they equated—to some extent—the ineffable Tao and Buddha-nature, and thus, rather than feeling bound to the abstract "wisdom of the sūtras", emphasized Buddha-nature to be found in "everyday" human life, just as the Tao.

In addition to Taoist ideas, also Neo-Taoist concepts were taken over in Chinese Buddhism. Concepts such as "T’i -yung" (Essence and Function) and "Li-shih" (Noumenon and Phenomenon) were first taken over by Hua-yen Buddhism, which consequently influenced Chán deeply. On the other hand, Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being.

Legendary or Proto-Chán - Six Patriarchs

Main article: Bodhidharma

Bodhidharma. Woodcut print by Yoshitoshi (Japanese), 1887.

Traditionally the origin of Chán in China is credited to the Indian monk Bodhidharma. The story of his life, and of the Six Patriarchs, was constructed during the Tang Dynasty to lend credibility to the growing Chán-school.

Bodhidharma is recorded as having come into China from India during the time of Southern and Northern Dynasties to teach a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words". Only scarce historical information is available about him, but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century. By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chán in China was developed. The short text Two Entrances and Four Acts, written by T'an-lín (曇林; 506–574), contains teachings which are attributed to Bodhidharma. The text is known from the Dunhuang-manuscripts.

The actual origins of Chán may lie in ascetic practitioners of Buddhism, who found refuge in forests and mountains. Huike, "a dhuta (extreme ascetic) who schooled others", figures in the stories about Bodhidharma. Huike is regarded as the second Chán patriarch, appointed by Bodhidharma to succeed him. One of Huike's students, Sengcan, to whom is ascribed the Xinxin Ming, is regarded as the third patriarch.

Early Chán and Classical Chán - Tang dynasty (618–907)

Early Chán

The link between Huike and Sengcan, and the fourth patriarch Daoxin (道信 580–651), "is far from clear and remains tenuous". With Daoxin and his successor, the fifth patriarch Hongren (弘忍 601–674), there emerged a new style of teaching. A large group of students gathered at a permanent residence, and extreme ascetism became outdated. The period of Daoxin and Hongren came to be called the East Mountain Teaching, due to the location of the residence of Hongren at Huamgmei. Hui-neng, a minor student of Hongren, came to be regarded as the Sixth Patriarch, due to the influence of his student Shenhui.

The term "East Mountain Teaching" was used by Shenxiu (神秀 606?-706), the most important successor to Hongren. In 701 he was invited to the Imperial Court by Empress Wu, who paid him imperial reverence. This gave his school the support and the legitimation of the imperial court.

But the Chán-tradition depicts another student of Hongren, Huineng (惠能; 638–713), as the sixth and last patriarch, due to the influence of Shenhui, a successor to Huineng. The dramatic story of Huineng's life, as narrated in the Platform Sutra, tells that there was a contest for the transmission of the title of patriarch. After being chosen by Hongren, the fifth patriarch, Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples.

Historic research reveals that this story was created around the middle of the 8th century, beginning in 731 by Shenhui, a successor to Huineng, to win influence at the Imperial Court. He claimed Huineng to be the successor of Hongren's, instead of the then publicly recognized successor Shenxiu. Shenxiu's Northern School was denigrated as "gradual", in opposition to the self-acclaimed "sudden" approach of Shenhui's Southern School. Shenhui's story was so influential that all surviving schools regard Huineng as their ancestor.

Classical Chán

The An Lushan Rebellion (755-763) led to a loss of control by the Tang-dynasty, and changed the Chan scene again. Metropolitan Chan began to lose its status, while "other schools were arising in out-lying areas controlled by warlords. These are the forerunners of the Chan we know today."

The most important of these schools is the Hongzhou school (洪州宗) of Mazu, to which also belong Shitou, Baizhang, Huangbo and Linji. This school became the archetypal expression of Zen, with its emphasis on the personal expression of insight, and its rejection of positive statements of this insight. Shitou is regarded as the Patriarch of Caodong (Jp. Sōtō), while Linji is regarded as the founder of Rinzai-Zen.

During the Song Dynasty, when Chán was favoured by the imperial court and became the largest Buddhist school in China, the period of the Tang Dynasty came to be regarded as the "golden age" of Chan. This proliferation is described in a famous saying:

Look at the territory of the house of Tang —
The whole of it is the realm of the Chán school.

During 845-846 Emperor Wuzong persecuted the Buddhist schools in China. This persecution was devastating for metropolitan Chan, but the Chan school of Ma-tsu and his likes survived, and took a leading role in the Chan of the later Tang.

This surviving rural Chan developed into the Five Houses of Chán (Ch. 五家) of Zen, or five "schools". These were not originally regarded as "schools" or "sects", but historically they have come to be understood that way. Most Zen lineages throughout Asia and the rest of the world originally grew from or were heavily influenced by the original five houses of Zen.

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907–960/979)

After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, China was without effective central control during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. China was divided into several autonomous regions. Support for Buddhism was limited to a few areas. The Hua-yen and T'ient-tai schools suffered from the changing circumstances, since they had depended on imperial support. The collapse of T'ang society also deprived the aristocratic classes of wealth and influence, which meant a further drawback for Buddhism. Shenxiu's Northern School and Henshui's Southern School didn't survive the changing circumstances. Nevertheless, chán emerged as the dominant stream within Chinese Buddhism, but with various schools developing various emphases in their teachings, due to the regional orientation of the period. The Fayan school, named after Fa-yen Wen-i (885-958) became the dominant school in the southern kingdoms of Nan-T'ang (Jiangxi, Chiang-hsi) and Wuyue (Che-chiang).

Literary Chán - Song dynasty (960–1297)

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period was followed by the Song Dynasty, which established a strong central government. During the Song Dynasty, Chán (禪) was used by the government to strengthen its control over the country, and Chán grew to become the largest sect in Chinese Buddhism. An ideal picture of the Chán of the Tang period was produced, which served the legacy of this newly acquired status. With the establishment of the Wu-shan (Gozan) system during the Southern Sung, the Chinese bureaucratic system entered into Zen temples throughout the country, and a highly organized system of temple rank and administration developed.

The Linji school became the dominant school within Chán, due to support from literati and the court. Before the Song Dynasty, the Linji-school is rather obscure, and very little is known about its early history. The first mention of Linji is in the Zutang ji, compiled in 952, 86 years after Linji's death. But the Zutang ji pictures the Xuefeng Yicun lineage as heir to the legacy of Mazu and the Hongzhou-school. According to Welter, the real founder of the Linji-school was Shoushan (or Baoying) Shengnian (首山省念)(926-993), a fourth generation dharma-heir of Linji. The Tiansheng Guangdeng lu (天聖廣燈錄), "Tiansheng Era Expanded Lamp Record", compiled by the official Li Zunxu (李遵勗)(988-1038) confirms the status of Shoushan Shengnian, but also pictures Linji as a major Chan patriarch and heir to the Mazu, displacing the prominence of the Fayan-lineage. It also established the slogan of "a special transmission outside the teaching", supporting the Linji-school claim of "Chan as separate from and superior to all other Buddhist teachings".

During the 12th century, a clear difference between the Linji and the Caodong schools emerged. The two schools were competing for support of the literati, who became more powerful when the Song-government started to limit her influence on society. Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157) of the Caodong-school emphasized silent illumination or shikantaza as a means for solitary practice, which could be undertaken by lay-followers. Dahui Zonggao ((1089–1163) introduced k'an-hua practice, "observing the word-head", as a means of solitary practice.

During the Song, both schools were exported to Japan, were they eventually became two clearly distinguished schools or "sects".

Post-Classical Chán

This was different from China, where the Buddhist schools tended to coalesce into a syncretic Chinese Buddhist school.

Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368)

The Yuan Dynasty was the empire established by Kublai Khan, the leader of Mongolian Borjigin clan, after Mongol conquered the Jin and the Southern Song Dynasty in China. Chán-teachings started to be mixed with Pure Land teachings, as in the teachings of Zhongfeng Mingben (1263-1323).

Ming dynasty (1368-1644)

Chán Buddhism enjoyed something of a revival in the Ming Dynasty with teachers such as Hanshan Deqing (憨山德清), who wrote and taught extensively on both Chán and Pure Land Buddhism; Miyun Yuanwu (密雲圓悟), who came to be seen posthumously as the first patriarch of the Ōbaku Zen school; as well as Yunqi Zhuhong (雲棲祩宏) and Ouyi Zhixu (蕅益智旭).

Chán was taught alongside Pure Land Buddhism in many Chinese Buddhist monasteries. In time much of the distinction between them was lost, and many masters taught both Chán and Pure Land.

With the downfall of the Ming Dynasty several Chinese Chán-masters fled to Japan, founding the Ōbaku school.

Qing Dynasty (1644-1912)

The Qing Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Qing or Great Qing, was the last imperial dynasty of China.

In the beginning of the Qing Dynasty Chán was "reinvented", by the "revival of beating and shouting practices" by Miyun Yuanwu (1566–1642), and the publication of the Wudeng yantong ("The strict transmission of the five Chan schools") by Feiyin Tongrong’s (1593–1662), a dharma heir of Miyun Yuanwu. The book placed self-proclaimed Chan monks without proper Dharma transmission in the category of "lineage unknown" (sifa weixiang), thereby excluding several prominent Caodong-monks.

Modern times

Shuixin Chán Temple in Anhai Town, Fujian

After further centuries of decline during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), Chán was revived again in the early 20th century by Hsu Yun (虛雲) (1840-1959), a well-known figure of 20th century Chinese Buddhism. Many Chán teachers today trace their lineage back to Hsu Yun, including Sheng-yen (聖嚴) and Hsuan Hua (宣化), who have propagated Chán in the West where it has grown steadily through the 20th and 21st century.

Chán was repressed in China during the 1960s in the Cultural Revolution, but subsequently had been re-asserting itself on the mainland, and has a significant following in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as among Overseas Chinese.

Spread of Chán Buddhism in Asia

Thiền in Vietnam

See also: Vietnamese Thiền and Buddhism in Vietnam

Thiền monks performing a service in Huế.

Thiền Buddhism (禪宗 Thiền Tông) is the Vietnamese name for the school of Zen Buddhism. Thiền is ultimately derived from the Chinese Chán Zōng (禪宗).

According to traditional accounts of Vietnam, in 580, an Indian monk named Vinitaruci (Vietnamese: Tì-ni-đa-lưu-chi) traveled to Vietnam after completing his studies with Sengcan, the third patriarch of Chinese Chán. This, then, would be the first appearance of Vietnamese Thiền Buddhism. The sect that Vinitaruci and his lone Vietnamese disciple founded would become known as the oldest branch of Thiền. After a period of obscurity, the Vinitaruci School became one of the most influential Buddhist groups in Vietnam by the 10th century, particularly so under the patriarch Vạn-Hạnh (died 1018).

Other early Vietnamese Zen schools included the Vô Ngôn Thông, which was associated with the teaching of Mazu, and the Thảo Đường, which incorporated nianfo chanting techniques; both were founded by Chinese monks. A new school was founded by one of Vietnam's religious kings; this was the Trúc Lâm school, which evinced a deep influence from Confucian and Taoist philosophy. Nevertheless, Trúc Lâm's prestige waned over the following centuries as Confucianism became dominant in the royal court. In the 17th century, a group of Chinese monks led by Nguyên Thiều established a vigorous new school, the Lâm Tế, which is the Vietnamese pronunciation of Linji. A more domesticated offshoot of Lâm Tế, the Liễu Quán school, was founded in the 18th century and has since been the predominant branch of Vietnamese Thiền.

Zen master Thích Thanh Từ is credited for renovating Thien Trúc Lâm in Việt Nam. He is one of the most prominent and influential figures of Viet Nam zen masters currently alive. He was a disciple of Master Thích Thiện Hoa.

The most famous practitioner of syncretized Thiền Buddhism in the West is Thích Nhất Hạnh who has authored dozens of books and founded Dharma center Plum Village in France together with his colleague Chan Khong, Bhikkhuni and Zen Master.

Seon in Korea

See also: Korean Seon and Buddhism in Korea

Seon monk in Seoul, South Korea

Seon was gradually transmitted into Korea during the late Silla period (7th through 9th centuries) as Korean monks of predominantly Hwaeom (華嚴) and Consciousness-only (唯識) background began to travel to China to learn the newly developing tradition. During his lifetime, Mazu had begun to attract students from Korea; by tradition, the first Korean to study Seon was named Peomnang (法朗). Mazu's successors had numerous Korean students, some of whom returned to Korea and established the nine mountain (九山) schools. This was the beginning of Chán in Korea which is called Seon.

Seon received its most significant impetus and consolidation from the Goryeo monk Jinul (知訥) (1158–1210), who established a reform movement and introduced kōan practice to Korea. Jinul established the Songgwangsa (松廣寺) as a new center of pure practice. It was during the time of Jinul the Jogye Order, a primarily Seon sect, became the predominant form of Korean Buddhism, a status it still holds. Toward the end of the Goryeo and during the Joseon period the Jogye Order would first be combined with the scholarly 教 schools, and then be relegated to lesser influence in ruling class circles by Confucian influenced polity, even as it retained strength outside the cities, among the rural populations and ascetic monks in mountain refuges.

Nevertheless, there would be a series of important Seon teachers during the next several centuries, such as Hyegeun (慧勤), Taego (太古), Gihwa (己和) and Hyujeong (休靜), who continued to develop the basic mold of Korean meditational Buddhism established by Jinul. Seon continues to be practiced in Korea today at a number of major monastic centers, as well as being taught at Dongguk University, which has a major of studies in this religion. Taego Bou (1301–1382) studied in China with Linji teacher and returned to unite the Nine Mountain Schools. In modern Korea, by far the largest Buddhist denomination is the Jogye Order, which is essentially a Zen sect; the name Jogye is the Korean equivalent of Caoxi (曹溪), another name for Huineng.

Seon is known for its stress on meditation, monasticism, and asceticism. Many Korean monks have few personal possessions and sometimes cut off all relations with the outside world. Several are near mendicants traveling from temple to temple practicing meditation. The hermit-recluse life is prevalent among monks to whom meditation practice is considered of paramount importance.

Currently, Korean Buddhism is in a state of slow transition. While the reigning theory behind Korean Buddhism was based on Jinul's "sudden enlightenment, gradual cultivation", the modern Korean Seon master, Seongcheol's revival of Hui Neng's "sudden enlightenment, sudden cultivation" has had a strong impact on Korean Buddhism. Although there is resistance to change within the ranks of the Jogye order, with the last three Supreme Patriarchs' stance that is in accordance with Seongcheol, there has been a gradual change in the atmosphere of Korean Buddhism.

Zen in Japan

See also: Buddhism in Japan and Japanese Zen

Sojiji Temple, of the Soto Zen school, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Japan

Kamakura (1185-1333)

Zen was not introduced as a separate school until the 12th century, when Myōan Eisai traveled to China and returned to establish a Linji lineage, which eventually perished. Decades later, Nanpo Shōmyō (南浦紹明) (1235–1308) also studied Linji teachings in China before founding the Japanese Otokan lineage, the most influential and only surviving lineage of Rinzai in Japan. In 1215, Dōgen, a younger contemporary of Eisai's, journeyed to China himself, where he became a disciple of the Caodong master Tiantong Rujing. After his return, Dōgen established the Sōtō school, the Japanese branch of Caodong. The Soto-school was further expanded by Keizan:

Soto priests say that if Dogen is the father of Japanese Soto Zen, Keizan Jokin (1268-1325) is its mother.

Keizan's Soji-ji temple was a rival to Dogen's Eihei-ji. Others say that Dōgen gave "high religious ideals" while Keizan ensured Sōtō's survival.

Muromachi (or Ashikaga) (1336-1573)

During the Muromachi period the Rinzai school was the most successful of the schools, since it was favoured by the Shogun. Rinzai was organized in the Gozan system. This system was extended throughout Japan, effectively giving control to the central government, which administered this system. The Rinka monasteries, primarily found outside the cities in rural areas, had a greater degree of independence. The O-to-kan lineage, that centered on Daitoku-ji, also had a greater degree of freedom. A well-known teacher from Daytoku-ji was Ikkyū. Another Rinka lineage was the Hotto lineage, of which Bassui Tokushō is the best-known teacher.

Soto too spread out over Japan. Gasan adopted the Five Ranks of Tung-shan as a fit vehicle to explain the Mahayana teachings.

Azuchi-Momoyama (1573-1600) and Edo (or Tokugawa) (1600-1868)

After a period of war Japan was re-united in the Azuchi–Momoyama period. This decreased the power of Buddhism, which had become a strong political and military force in Japan and was seen as a threat by the ruling clan. Neo-Confucianism gained influence at the expense of Buddhism, which came under strict state control. Japan closed the gates to the rest of the world. New doctrines and methods were not to be introduced, nor were new temples and schools. The only exception was the Ōbaku lineage, which was introduced in the 17th century during the Edo period by Ingen, a Chinese monk.

Well-known Zen masters from this period are Bankei Yōtaku (盤珪永琢?, 1622–1693), Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉?, 1644 – November 28, 1694) and Hakuin Ekaku (白隠 慧鶴?, 1686–1768), who revived the Rinzai school.

Meiji Restoration (1868-1912) and Imperial expansionism

During the Meiji period (1868–1912) Japan abandoned its feudal system and opened up to Western modernism. Shinto became the state religion, and Buddhism was coerced to adapt to the new regime. Rinzai and Soto Zen chose to adapt, with embarrassing consequences when Japanese nationalism was endorsed by the Zen institutions. War endeavours against Russia, China and finally during the Pacific War were supported by the Zen establishment.

Within the Buddhist establishment the Western world was seen as a threat, but also as a challenge to stand up to. Parties within the Zen establishment sought to modernize Zen in accord with Western insights, while simultaneously maintaining a Japanese identity.

Present time (after 1945)

Interest in Zen grew in the West after World War II. Westerners such as Philip Kapleau and the Dutchman Janwillem van de Wetering went to Japan to study Zen. Japanese teachers came to the West to share Zen practice and philosophy.

Contemporary Zen organisations

There are three traditional schools of Zen in contemporary Japan are the Sōtō (曹洞), Rinzai (臨済), and Ōbaku (黃檗). Of these, Sōtō is the largest, Rinzai is middle, and Ōbaku the smallest. These are further divided into subschools by head temple, with 2 head temples for Sōtō (Sōji-ji and Eihei-ji, with Sōji-ji having a much larger network), 14 head temples for Rinzai, and 1 head temple (Manpuku-ji) for Ōbaku, for a total of 17 head temples. The Rinzai head temples, which are most numerous, have substantial overlap with the traditional Five Mountain System, and include Myoshin-ji, Nanzen-ji, Tenryū-ji, Daitoku-ji, and Tofuku-ji, among others.

Besides these traditional organizations, there are modern Zen organisations which have especially attracted Western lay followers, namely the Sanbo Kyodan and the FAS Society.

Zen in the Western world

See also: Buddhism in the West and Zen in the USA

Although it is difficult to trace when the West first became aware of Zen as a distinct form of Buddhism, the visit of Soyen Shaku, a Japanese Zen monk, to Chicago during the World Parliament of Religions in 1893 is often pointed to as an event that enhanced its profile in the Western world. It was during the late 1950s and the early 1960s that the number of Westerners, other than the descendants of Asian immigrants, pursuing a serious interest in Zen began to reach a significant level. Especially Japanese Zen has gained popularity in the West. The various books on Zen by Reginald Horace Blyth, and Alan Watts published between 1950 and 1975, contributed to this growing interest in Zen in the West, as did the interest from beat poets such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder.

Western Zen lineages

Over the last fifty years mainstream forms of Zen, led by teachers who trained in East Asia and their successors, have begun to take root in the West.

Derived from Japan

See also: Japanese Zen

Rochester Zen Center

In North America, the Zen lineages derived from the Sanbo Kyodan school are the most numerous. The Sanbo Kyodan is a Japan-based reformist Zen group, founded in 1954 by Yasutani Hakuun, which has had a significant influence on Zen in the West. The most widespread are the lineages founded by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi and the White Plum Asanga. Maezumi's successors include Susan Myoyu Andersen, John Daido Loori, Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, Nicolee Jikyo McMahon, Joan Hogetsu Hoeberichts, and Charlotte Joko Beck.

The San Francisco Zen Center, for Sōtō practice, was established by Shunryu Suzuki. In 1967 it established the first Zen Monastery in America, called Tassajara, in the mountains near Big Sur. This Sōtō-center was followed by other official centers, such as the Sanshin Zen Community (Sanshinji) located in Bloomington, Indiana, established by Shohaku Okumura, and several Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota centers in the lineage of Dainin Katagiri.

There are also a number of Rinzai Zen centers in the West. In North America, some of the more prominent include Rinzai-ji founded by Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi in California, Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji established by Eido Shimano Roshi and Soen Nakagawa Roshi in New York, Chozen-ji founded by Omori Sogen Roshi in Hawaii, Daiyuzenji founded by Dogen Hosokawa Roshi (a student of Omori Sogen Roshi) in Chicago, Illinois, and Chobo-Ji founded by Genki Takabayshi Roshi in Seattle, Washington. In Europe there is Egely Monastery established by a Dharma Heir of Eido Shimano, Denko Mortensen.

Derived from China

See also: Chinese Chán

Hsuan Hua was the first Chinese master to teach Westerners in North America. He taught Chán and other traditions of Chinese Buddhism in San Francisco during the early 1960s. He went on to found the City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a monastery and retreat center located on a 237 acre (959,000 m²) property near Ukiah, California.

Another Chinese Chán teacher with a Western following is Sheng-yen, a master trained in both the Caodong and Linji schools. He first visited the United States in 1978 under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Association of the United States, and subsequently founded the CMC Chán Meditation Center in Queens, New York and the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in Pine Bush, New York.

The Fo Guang Shan organization, which has branches worldwide, also belongs to the Chán school; its founder, the Venerable Master Hsing Yun is a lineage holder in the Linji (Rinzai) tradition.

Derived from Korea

The Kwan Um School of Zen, one of the largest Zen schools in the West, teaches a form of Seon Buddhism. Soeng Hyang Soen Sa Nim (b. 1948), birth name Barbara Trexler (later Barbara Rhodes), is Guiding Dharma Teacher of the international Kwan Um School of Zen and a successor of the late Seung Sahn Soen Sa Nim.

Derived from Vietnam

Two notable Vietnamese Zen teachers have been influential in Western countries: Thich Thien-An and Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Thien-An came to America in 1966 as a visiting professor at UCLA and taught traditional Thien meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh was a monk in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, during which he was a peace activist. In response to these activities, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 by Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1966, he left Vietnam in exile and now resides at Plum Village, a monastery in France. He has written more than one hundred books about Buddhism, which have made him one of the very few most prominent Buddhist authors among the general readership in the West. In his books and talks, Thich Nhat Hanh emphasizes mindfulness (sati) as the most important practice in daily life.

Pan-lineage organizations

In the United States, two pan-lineage organizations have formed in the last few years. The oldest is the American Zen Teachers Association which sponsors an annual conference. North American Soto teachers in North America, led by several of the heirs of Taizan Maezumi and Shunryu Suzuki, have also formed the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.

Doctrinal background

Main article: Doctrinal background of Zen

Though Zen-narrative states that it is a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words", Zen does have a rich doctrinal background. Most essential are "the most fundamental teaching [...] that we are already originally enlightened", and the Bodhisattva ideal, which supplements insight with Karuṇā, compassion with all sentient beings.

Polarities

See also: Chinese Chán

The teaching of "Original enlightenment" in classical Chinese Chán is expressed by a set of polarities: Buddha-nature - sunyata, absolute-relative, sudden and gradual enlightenment.

Buddha-nature and sunyata

See also: Buddha nature and Sunyata

When Buddhism was introduced in China it was understood in terms of its own culture. Various sects struggled to attain an understanding of the Indian texts. The Tathāgatagarbha Sutras and the idea of the Buddha-nature were endorsed, because of the perceived similarities with the Tao. Sunyata was understood as pointing to an underlying essence, just as the Buddha-nature. It took Chinese Buddhism several centuries to understand that sunyata does not refer to a substance or essence underneath or behind the world of appearances. This realisation was discernable in the course that Chán took.

Absolute-relative

See also: Essence-Function, Dharmakaya, and Tathatā/Dharmatā

The Prajnaparamita Sutras and Madhyamaka emphasized the non-duality of form and emptiness: form is emptiness, emptiness is form, as the Heart Sutra says. The idea that the ultimate reality is present in the daily world of relative reality fitted into the Chinese culture which emphasized the mundane world and society. But this does not tell how the absolute is present in the relative world. This question is answered in such schemata as the Five Ranks of Tozan and the Oxherding Pictures.

Sudden and gradual enlightenment

See also: Subitism and Sudden and gradual enlightenment

In Zen Buddhism two main views on the way to enlightenment are discernible, namely sudden and gradual enlightenment.

Early Chán recognized the "transcendence of the body and mind", followed by "non-defilement [of] knowledge and perception", meaning sudden insight into the true nature followed by gradual purification of intentions.

In the 8th-century the Ch'an-history was effectively re-fashioned by Shenhui, who created a dichotomy between the so-called "Northern School", led by Yuquan Shenxiu, propagating "gradual teachings", and his own line of teaching, which he called the "Southern school", propagating "sudden awakening". According to the sudden enlightenment propagated by Shenhui insight into true nature is sudden; there-after there can be no misunderstanding anymore about this true nature.

Once the dichotomy between sudden and gradual was in place, it defined its own logic and rhetorics, which are also recognizable in the distinction between Caodong (Soto) and Lin-ji (Rinzai) chán. But it also lead to a "sometimes bitter and always prolix sectarian controversy between later Chán and Hua-yen exegetes".

In the Platform Sutra the dichotomy between sudden and gradual is reconciled. Guifeng Zongmi, fifth-generation successor to Shenhui, also softened the edge between sudden and gradual. In his analysis, sudden awakening points to seeing into one's true nature, but is to be followed by a gradual cultivation to attain Buddhahood. The need of cultivation after attaining insight is still recognized by the contemporary Rinzai-school and the Sanbo Kyodan.

The Bodhisattva ideal

Main article: Bodhisattva

An important, though easily overlooked aspect of Zen is the bodhisattva ideal. It supplements kensho and insight into the absolute with Karuṇā, compassion with all sentient beings. This ideal is reflected in the Bodhisattva vow and the Bodhisattva Precepts or jukai.

Part of this Bodhisattva-ideal are the pāramitās, which are also being mentioned in the Diamond Sutra:

• Dāna (generosity, giving of oneself),
• Śīla (virtue, morality, proper conduct),
• Kṣānti (patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance),
• Vīrya (energy, diligence, vigour, effort),
• Dhyāna (meditation, tranquility), and
• Prajñā (wisdom, insight).

The Bodhisattva-ideal is a central theme in the prajnaparamita-sutras.

Dogen mentions the Bodhisattva-ideal throughout his works.

Hakuin saw "deep compassion and commitment to help all sentient beings everywhere" as an indispensable part of the Buddhist path to awakening. Hakuin emphasized the need op "post-satori training", purifying the mind of karmic tendencies and

[W]hipping forward the wheel of the Four Universal Vows, pledging yourself to benefit and save all sentient beings while striving every minute of your life to practice the great Dharma giving.

The insight in the need of arousing bodhicitta formed Hakuin's final awakening:

Wasn't a shaven head and monk's robe the Mind of Enlightenment? Wasn't reciting sutras, mantras, and dharanis the Mind of Enlightenment? [...] [At] my forty-first year, [...] I at long last penetrated into the heart of this great matter. Suddenly, unexpectedly, I saw it — it was as clear as if it were right there in the hollow of my hand. What is the Mind of Enlightenment? It is, I realized, a matter of doing good — benefiting others by giving them the gift of the Dharma teaching.

Buddhas and bodhisattvas such as Amitābha, Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, and Kṣitigarbha are venerated alongside Gautama Buddha.

Zen scripture

Main article: Zen and Sutras

The role of scripture in Zen

Contrary to the popular image, literature does play a role in the Zen-training. Unsui, Zen-monks, "are expected to become familiar with the classics of the Zen canon". A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Zen masters clearly reveals that they were well versed in numerous Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras.

Nevertheless Zen is often pictured as anti-intellectual. This picture of Zen emerged during the Song Dynasty (960–1297), when Chán became the dominant form of Buddhism in China, and gained great popularity among the educated and literary classes of Chinese society. The use of koans, which are highly stylized literary texts, reflects this popularity among the higher classes.

In the tenth century, during the turmoil of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, regionally oriented schools with differing views on the Chán-identity developed. One view was that of chiao-wai pieh-ch'uan, "a special transmission outside the teaching". The opposing view was chiao-ch'an i-chih, "the harmony between Chán and the teaching". The view of the harmony between Chán and the teachings was dominant in the lineage of Fa-ten Wen-i (885-958), and prevailed in the Southern Kingdoms in the tenth century, and was at first also favored at he Song court. There-after the Linji school and the notion of a "special transmission outside the teachings" became dominant.

The famous saying "do not establish words and letters", attributed in this period to Bodhidharma,

...was taken not as a denial of the recorded words of the Buddha or the doctrinal elaborations by learned monks, but as a warning to those who had become confused about the relationship between Buddhist teaching as a guide to the truth and mistook it for the truth itself.

The Chán of the Tang Dynasty, especially that of Mazu and Linji with its emphasis on "shock techniques", in retrospect was seen as a golden age of Chán. This picture has gained great popularity in the west in the 20th century, especially due to the influence of D.T. Suzuki, and further popularized by Hakuun Yasutani and the Sanbo Kyodan. This picture has been challenged, and comlemented, since the 1970s by modern scientific research on Zen.

The importance given to Zen's non-reliance on written words is often misunderstood as an opposition to the study of Buddhist texts. However, Zen is deeply rooted in the teachings and doctrines of Mahāyāna Buddhism, and gradually developed its own literature:

Although there is a great deal of rhetoric about Zen understanding beyond books and texts, right from their first year [Rinzai] Zen monks are studying a text called the Zenrin kushū (Zenphrase collection) as part of their kōan practice. In the advanced stages of kōan practice (which most monks do not experience because they leave at less advanced stages), monks spend a great deal of time researching Zen and other texts in order to compose essays in Japanese and poetry in classical Chinese which they write in brush and submit for approval to the rōshi.

What the Zen tradition emphasizes is that enlightenment of the Buddha came not through conceptualization, but rather through direct insight:

Despite its teaching of “no dependence upon words and letters,” Chan did not reject the scriptures of the Buddhist canon, but simply warned of the futility of relying on them for the attainment of emancipating insight. The sacred texts — and much more so the huge exegetical apparatus that had grown up around them in the older scholastic schools — were regarded as no more than signposts pointing the way to liberation. Valuable though they were as guides, they needed to be transcended in order for one to awaken to the true intent of Śākyamuni’s teachings.

But direct insight has to be supported by study and understanding (hori of the Buddhist teachings and texts.. Intellectual understanding without practice is called yako-zen, wild fox Zen", but "one who has only experience without intellectual understanding is a zen temma', "Zen devil"".

Grounding Chán in scripture

The early Buddhist schools in China were each based on a specific sutra. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, by the time of the Fifth Patriarch Hongren (601–674), the Zen school became established as a separate school of Buddhism. It had to develop a doctrinal tradition of its own to ascertain its position, and to ground its teachings in a specific sutra. Various sutra's were used for this, even before the time of Hongren: the Śrīmālādevī Sūtra (Huike), Awakening of Faith (Daoxin), the Lankavatara Sutra (East Mountain School), the Diamond Sutra (Shenhui), the Platform Sutra. Subsequently, the Zen tradition produced a rich corpus of written literature which has become a part of its practice and teaching.

Other influential sutras are the Vimalakirti Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, the Shurangama Sutra, and the Mahaparinirvana Sutra.

The growing Chán tradition also faced the challenge to put its teachings into words, to bolster its identity and to applicate it in formal teaching settings, without losing the central insight into the "suchness" of reality. One solution to this was the shift of emphasis from the recorded sayings of the historical Buddha, to the sayings of living Buddhas, namely the Chán masters. In time, these sayings, from the so-called "encounter-dialogues" between masters and students, but also from sermons, became codified and formed the basis of typical Zen-genres, namely the "yü-lü" (recorded sayings) and the classic koan-collections. These too became formalised, and as such became a subject of disputes on the right way to teach Zen and the avoidance of dependence on words.

Zen literature

The Zen-tradition developed a rich textual tradition, based on the interpretation of the Buddhist teachings and the recorded sayings of Zen-masters.

Chinese texts

Hui-neng's Platform Sutra

Main article: Platform Sutra

Among the earliest of the specifically Zen texts, dating back to at least the 8th century, is the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch, attributed to Huineng. It was constructed over a longer period of time, and contains different layers of writing. It is...

...a wonderful melange of early Chan teachings, a virtual respitory of the entire tradition up to the second half of the eighth century. At the heart of the sermon is the same understanding of the Buddha-nature that we have seen in texts attributed to Bodhidharma and Hingren, including the idea that the fundamental Buddha-nature is only made invisble to ordinary humans by their illusions".

It contains the well-known story of the contest for the succession of Hongren. According to the text, Huineng won this contest, but had to flee the monastery to avoid the rage of the supporters of Henxui. The story is not a factual account, but an 8th-century construction, probably by the so-called Oxhead School.

The Platform Sūtra cites and explains a wide range of Buddhist scriptures: the Diamond Sūtra, the Lotus Sūtra (Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra), the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana-sutra, and the Mahaparinirvana Sutra.

Transmission of the Lamp

See also: Zen lineage charts

The Chán-tradition developed from the established tradition of "Canonical Buddhism", which "remained normative for all later Chinese Buddhism". It was established by the end of the sixth century, as a result of the Chinese developing understanding of Buddhism in the previous centuries. One of the inventions of this Canonical Buddhism were transmission lists, called "Transmission of the Lamp", a literary device to establish a lineage. Both T'ien Tai and Chán took over this literary device, to lend authority to those developing traditions, and guarantee it's authencity:

Chan texts present the school as Buddhism itself, or as the central teaching of Buddhism, which has been transmitted from the seven Buddhas of the past to the twenty-eight patriarchs, and all the generations of Chinese and Japanese Chan and Zen masters that follow.

Another literary device for establishing those traditions was given by the Kao-seng-chuan (Biographies of Eminent Monks), compiles around 530. The Chán-tradition developed its own corpus in this genre, with works as Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952) and the Jingde Records of the Transmission of the Lamp (published 1004). McRae considers Dumoulin's A History of Zen to be a modern example of this genre, disguised as scientific history.

Chán transmission records, teng-lu, were essential in shaping the identity of Chán. The Records of the Transmission of the Lamp (Ching-te ch'uan-teng lu), compiled by Tao-yün and published in 1004, introduced several of the key elements of the Chán-tradition. Another key text is the "Record of the Extensive Transmission [of the Lamp] compiled during the T'ien-sheng era" (T'ien-sheng kuang-teng lu), compiled by Li Tsun-hsü and published in 1036, which clearly introduced the idea of "a special transmission outside the teaching". Until the T'ien-sheng kuang-teng lu, Chán was viewed as a teaching in harmony with the Buddhist scriptural tradition. In the tenth century, during the turmoil of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, regionally oriented schools with differing views on the Chán-identity developed. One view was that of chiao-wai pieh-ch'uan, "a special transmission outside the teaching". The opposing view was chiao-ch'an i-chih, "the harmony between Chán and the teaching". The view of the harmony between Chán and the teachings was dominant in the lineage of Fa-ten Wen-i (885-958), and prevailed in the Southern Kingdoms in the tenth century.

The original preface to the Ching-te ch'uan-teng lu by Tao-yüan reflects this Fa-yen position of harmony with the teachings. It was replaced by an introduction by Yang I, which emphasised "a special practice outside the teaching":

According to Tao-yüan, "[Bodhidharma] did not make a dsiplay of verbal expressions [pu-shih yü-yen], and did not establish words and letters [pu-li wen-tzu]." According to Yang I, [Bodhidharma taught]: do not establish words and letters [pu-li wen-tzu], directly point to the source of mind [ch'ih-chih shin-yüan]; do not engage in gradual methods [pu-chien chieh-ti], attain Buddhahood immediately [ching-teng fo-ti].

The differences go back to the interpretation of the Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices, a text attributed to Bodhidharma. In this text, the "entrance by principle" (li-ju) is characterized in two ways:

Entrance by principle is said to "awaken one to the truth [wu-tsung] in accordance with [scriptural] teaching [chi-chiao]." Later, after realizing true nature [chen-hsing], one is said to "reside fixedly, without wavering, never again to be swayed by written teachings [wen-chiao]."

The first statement can be seen as a support of the harmony between the teachings and Chán. The second statement can be seen as a support of a "special transmission outside the teachings".

Recorded Sayings and Encounter Dialogue

From the "question-and-answer format that had been developed as a means of conveying Buddhist teachings" developed the "yü-lü" genre, the recorded sayings of the masters, and the encounter dialogues. The best-known example is the "Lin-ji yü-lü". These recorded sayings are not verbatim recordings of the sayings of the masters, but well-edited texts, written down up to 160 years after the supposed sayings and meetings.

Linji yulu

See also: Linji school

The Linji yulu ("Zhenzhou Linji Huizhao Chansi yulu") is the seminal text of the Linji and Rinzai school. It contains the recorded sayings attributed to Linji Yixuan (d. 866). It was published in 1120, but developed in a period stretching from 952 to 1120. The first mention of Linji is in the Zutang ji (祖堂集 "Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall), compiled in 952, 86 years after Linji's death. The Jingde Chuangdeng lu (景德傳燈錄 "Jingde Records of the Transmission of the Lamp"), compiled in 1004 by Daoyuan, gives brief biographical information on Lijni, followed by Linji's interactions with Hunagbo, to strenghten the claim of Linji's descendancy form Hunagbo and the Mazu-lineage. The Tiansheng Guangdeng lu (天聖廣燈錄), "Tiansheng Era Expanded Lamp Record", compiled by the official Li Zunxu (李遵勗)(988-1038) confirms the status of Shoushan Shengnian, but also pictures Linji as a major Chan patriarch and heir to the Hongzhou school of Mazu Daoyi, displacing the prominence of the Fayan-lineage. It also established the slogan of "a special transmission outside the teaching", supporting the Linji-school claim of "Chan as separate from and superior to all other Buddhist teachings". The Sijia yulu, ("Discourse Records of the Four Masters"), compiled 1066-1069 by Huanglong Huinan (1002-1069), contains the discourse records of Mazu Daoyi (709–788), Baizhang Huaihai (720–814), Huangbo Xiyun (d.850) and Linji, the major patriarchs of the Tang Dynasty according to the Linji faction. In this text, Linji is explicitly placed in line with these teachers of the Hongzhou school school. The Zhenzhou Linji Huizhao Chansi yulu ("The record of Linji"), compiled by Yuanjue Zongan in 1120, is the classic version of the record of Linji. Yuanjue Zongan belonged to the Yunmen-faction, and also re-issued the Yunmen yulu, the "Discourse Records of Yunmen". The separate publication of Linji's records signals the newly acquired status of Linji as one of Chán's major patriarchs.

Koan-collections

Main article: Koan

The "encounter dialogue"-genre developed into various collections of kōans, which form itself another extensive literary corpus.

Koan practice developed from a literary practice, styling snippets of encounter-dialogue into well-edited stories. It arose in interaction with "educated literati". There were dangers involved in such a literary approach, such as fixing specific meanings to the cases. Dahui Zonggao is even said to have burned the woodblocks of the Blue Cliff Record, for the hindrance it had become to study of Chán by his students.

The two best known koan-collections (in the west) are the "Gateless Gate" and the "Blue Cliff Record". The Gateless Gate (Chinese: 無門關 Wumenguan; Japanese: Mumonkan) is a collection of 48 kōans and commentaries published in 1228 by Chinese monk Wumen (無門) (1183–1260). The title may be more accurately rendered as Gateless Barrier or Gateless Checkpoint). The Blue Cliff Record (Chinese: 碧巖錄 Bìyán Lù; Japanese: Hekiganroku) is a collection of 100 kōans compiled in 1125 by Yuanwu Keqin (圜悟克勤 1063–1135).

Japanese texts

The Japanese Zen-tradition also developed a corpus of its own. During the Tokugawa-period Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō became the authoritative text of the Soto-school. In the Rinzai-school, the koan-curricula were systematized by dharma-heirs of Hakuin, who himself produced an extended corpus of written texts.

Dogen's Shōbōgenzō

During the Tokugawa-period the Soto-school started to place a growing emphasis on textual authority. In 1615 the bakufu declared that "Eheiji's standards (kakun) must be the rule for all Soto monks". In time this came to mean all the writings of Dogen, which thereby became the normative source for the doctrines and organisation of the Soto-school.

A key factor in this growing emphasis on Dogen was Manzan's appeal to change the rules for dharma transmission, based on arguments derived from the Shōbōgenzō. Another reformation was implemented by Gento Sokuchu (1729–1807), who tried to purify the Soto-school of the use of koans. Gento Sokuchu implanted new regulations, based on Dogen's regulations.

This growing status of Dogen as textual authority also posed a problem for the Soto-school:

The Soto hierarchy, no doubt afraid of what other radical reformers might find in Dogen's Shobo Genzo, a work open to a variety of interpretations, immediately took steps to restrict access to this traditional symbol of sectarian authority. Acting at the request of the Soto prelates, in 1722 the government prohibited the copying or publication of any part of Shobo Genzo.

During the Meiji Restoration, the memory of Dōgen was used to ensure Eihei-ji's central place in the Soto-organisation, and "to cement closer ties with lay people". In 1899 the first lay ordination ceremony was organized in Eihei-ji. Eihei-ji also promoted the study of Dōgen's works, especuially the Shōbōgenzō, which changed the view of Dōgen in Soto's history.

Zenshū Shiburoku

The Zenshū Shiburoku, The Four Texts of the Zen Sect, is a collection of four essential Zen texts which are being used in Japan as introductory texts in the education of novice Zen monks. The collection consists of the Jūgyūzu (Ten Oxherding Pictures), the Shinjinmei (Faith in mind), attributed to the third Chinese Chán-patriarch Sengcan, the Shōdōka (Song of Enlightenment), attributed to Yongjia Xuanjue, and the Zazengi (The Principles of Zazen), written by Dogen.

Zen teachings

To point out 'essential Zen-teachings' is almost impossible, given the variety of schools, the extended history of 1500 years, and the emphasis on suchness, reality just-as-it-is, which has to be expressed in daily life, not in words. But common to most schools and teachings is this emphasis on suchness, the Bodhisattva-ideal, and the priority of zazen.

Pointing at the moon

Zen teachings can be likened to "the finger pointing at the moon". Zen teachings point to the moon, awakening, "a realization of the unimpended interpenetration of the dharmadhatu". But the Zen-tradition also warns against taking its teachings, the pointing finger, to be this insight itself:

Wujin Chang, a nun, asked the Sixth Zen patriarch, Hui Neng, for help in understanding the Mahanirvana Sutra. The master answered that he could not read, but if the nun would read it aloud for him, he would do his best to help her.

The nun then asked, "If you can't even read the words, how can you understand the truth behind them?"

"Truth and words are unrelated. Truth can be compared to the moon," answered Hui Neng, pointing to the moon with his finger, "And words can be compared to a finger. I can use my finger to point out the moon, but my finger is not the moon, and you don't need my finger in order to be able to see the moon".

This warning against confusing the finger and the moon resembles the Diamond-sutra:

[E]very disciple who is seeking Anuttara-samyak sambhodi should discard, not only conceptions of one's own selfhood, other selves, living beings and a Universal Selfhood, but should discard, also, all ideas about such conceptions and all ideas about the non-existence of such conceptions.
While the Tathagata, in his teaching, constantly makes use of conceptions and ideas about them, disciples should keep in mind the unreality of all such conceptions and ideas.

Varieties in Zen-teaching

The various traditions lay various emphases in their teachings and practices:

There are two different ways of understanding and actually practicing Zen. These two different ways are termed in Chinese pen chueh and shih-chueh respectively. The term pen chueh refers to the belief that one’s mind is from the beginning of time fully enlightened, while shih-chueh refers to the belief that at some point in time we pass from imprisonment in ignorance and delusion to a true vision of Zen realization: “Our enlightenment is timeless, yet our realization of it occurs in time.” According to this belief experiencing a moment of awakening in this life is of central importance.

Rinzai

The Rinzai-tradition emphasises kensho, insight into one's true nature:

Hakuin prefers the term "seeing into one's nature", which for him means ultimate reality. The Buddha nature and the cosmic Buddha body, wisdom (prajna), and emptiness (sunyata), the original countenance one had before one was born, and other expressions from the rich palette of Mahayana terms were all familiar to him from his continued study of the sutras and Zen literature.

This is followed by so-called post-satori practice, further practice to attain Buddhahood:

zen is not something that you stop when you have understood and discard when you have realized. The more you understand, the more you study. the more you realize, the more you take up.

This gradual cultivation is described by contemporary Chan Master Sheng Yen as follows:

Ch'an expressions refer to enlightenment as "seeing your self-nature". But even this is not enough. After seeing your self-nature, you need to deepen your experience even further and bring it into maturation. You should have enlightenment experience again and again and support them with continuous practice. Even though Ch'an says that at the time of enlightenment, your outlook is the same as of the Buddha, you are not yet a full Buddha.

Other Zen-teachers have also expressed sudden insight followed by gradual cultivation. Chinul, a 12th-century Korean Seon master, followed Zongmi, and also emphasized that insight into our true nature is sudden, but is to be followed by practice to ripen the insight and attain full Buddhahood. This is also the standpoint of the contemporary Sanbo Kyodan, according to whom kensho is at the start of the path to full enlightenment.

To attain this primary insight and to deepen it, zazen and kōan-study is deemed essential. This trajectory of initial insight followed by a gradual deepening and ripening is expressed by linji in his Three mysterious Gates, and the Four Ways of Knowing of Hakuin. Another example of depiction of stages on the path are the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures which detail the steps on the Path.

Soto

This gradual cultivation is also recognized by the Caodong-teacher Tozan, who described the Five ranks of enlightenment.

Dogen, the founder of Soto in Japan, emphasised that practice and awakening cannot be separated. By practicing shikantaza, attainment and Buddhahood are already being expressed:

Fundamental to Dogen's Buddha-Way is the conviction that every act as a disciple of the Buddha and the ultimate testimony (of enlightenment) are one and inseparable.

For Dogen, zazen, or shikantaza, is the essence of Buddhist practice:

Properly seated meditation is the core of what has been passed down from the Buddha to his disciples, from one master to another down through the generations, without interruption and without modifications.

The Sōtō-school has de-emphasized kōans since Gentō Sokuchū (circa 1800), and instead emphasized shikantaza.

Western understanding

In the west, Zen-teachings have tended to become part of a modern version of the Perennial philosophy, "the idea of a common set of truths held by all peoples in all times and places". The writings of D.T. Suzuki have been instrumental in this understanding, but Suzuki in his turn was influenced by western esoteric traditions. This interpretation emphasizes "spiritual progress", experience and the direct cognition of a "divine, ineffable reality, transcendent yet pervading everything and to which the individual mind is directly connected or even identical". This understanding differs from Japanese Zen, which is basically a monastic training in which communal aspects and daily life are emphasized.

Zen practice

Zen meditation

See also: Dhyāna in Buddhism

Central to Zen-practice is dhyana or meditation. The Zen tradition holds that in meditation practice, notions of doctrine and teachings necessitate the creation of various notions and appearances (Skt. saṃjñā; Ch. 相, xiāng) that obscure the transcendent wisdom of each being's Buddha-nature. This process of rediscovery goes under various terms such as "introspection", "a backward step", "turning-about" or "turning the eye inward".

Zazen

Venerable Hsuan Hua meditating in the Lotus Position. Hong Kong, 1953.

Main article: Zazen

Sitting meditation is called zazen (Jp.: 坐禅, lit. "seated meditation"), and in Chinese it is called zuòchán (坐禅), both simply meaning "sitting dhyāna". During this sitting meditation, practitioners usually assume a position such as the lotus position, half-lotus, Burmese, or seiza postures, using the dhyāna mudrā. To regulate the mind, awareness is directed towards counting or watching the breath or put in the energy center below the navel (see also anapanasati). Often, a square or round cushion placed on a padded mat is used to sit on; in some other cases, a chair may be used.

Shikantaza

Main article: Shikantaza

In the Soto school of Zen, meditation with no objects, anchors, or content, is the primary form of practice. The meditator strives to be aware of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference. Considerable textual, philosophical, and phenomenological justification of this practice can be found throughout Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō, as for example in the "Principles of Zazen" and the "Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen".

Sesshin

Main article: Sesshin

Zen traditions include periods of intensive group meditation in a monastery. While the daily routine in the monastery may require monks to meditate for several hours each day, during this intensive period they devote themselves almost exclusively to the practice of sitting meditation. The numerous 30–50 minute long meditation periods are interleaved with short rest breaks, meals, and sometimes, short periods of work should be performed with the same mindfulness; nightly sleep is kept to a minimum: 7 hours or less. In modern Buddhist practice in Japan, Taiwan, and the West, lay students often attend these intensive practice sessions, which are typically 1, 3, 5, or 7 days in length. These are held at many Zen centers, especially in commemoration of the Buddha's attainment of Anuttarā Samyaksaṃbodhi. One distinctive aspect of Zen meditation in groups is the use of a flat wooden slat used to keep meditators focused and awake.

Kōan practice

Main article: Kōan

Chinese character for "nothing", Chinese: wú (Japanese: mu). It figures in the famous Zhaozhou's dog kōan

At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, practice with the kōan method became popular, whereas others practiced "silent illumination." This became the source of some differences in practice between the Linji and Caodong traditions.

A kōan, literally "public case", is a story or dialogue, describing an interaction between a Zen master and a student. These anecdotes give a demonstration of the master's insight. Koans emphasize the non-conceptional insight that the Buddhist teachings are pointing to. Koans can be used to provoke the "great doubt", and test a student's progress in Zen practice.

Responding to a kōan requires a student to let go of conceptual thinking and of the logical way we order the world, so that insight into sunyata arises naturally and spontaneously in the mind. But this does not mean that words are useless, as is demonstrated already by the mere fact that koans are words:

[T]he way to Satori is not through dependence upon words, even if they be words of the Buddha or past Masters; however, one should not reject words, for, imperfect as they are, they are the only means we have of attaining enlightenment. They should use the words and ideas contained in the koans to reach satori, but they should never confuse the two. Conceptualizations, words, logic and reason are means whereby one attains enlightenment, but they must not be equated [w]ith enlightenment.

Kōans and their study developed in China within the context of the open questions and answers of teaching sessions conducted by the Chinese Zen masters. The recorded encounter dialogues, and the koan collections which derived from this genre, mark a shift from solitary practice to interaction between master and student:

The essence of enlightenment came to be identified with the interaction between masters and students. Whatever insight dhyana might bring, its verification was always interpersonal. In effect, enlightenment came to be understood not so much as an insight, but as a way of acting in the world with other people

This mutual enquiry of the meaning of the encounters of masters and students of the past gave students a role model:

One looked at the enlightened activities of one's lineal forebears in order to understand one's own identity [...] taking the role of the participants and engaging in their dialogues instead

Today, the Zen student's mastery of a given kōan is presented to the teacher in a private interview (referred to in Japanese as dokusan (独参), daisan (代参), or sanzen (参禅)). Zen teachers advise that the problem posed by a kōan is to be taken quite seriously, and to be approached as literally a matter of life and death. While there is no unique answer to a kōan, practitioners are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the kōan and of Zen through their responses. The teacher may approve or disapprove of the answer and guide the student in the right direction. There are also various commentaries on kōans, written by experienced teachers, that can serve as a guide. These commentaries are also of great value to modern scholarship on the subject. Kōan-inquiry may be practiced during sitting meditation (zazen), walking meditation (kinhin), and throughout all the activities of daily life. Kōan practice is particularly emphasized by the Japanese Rinzai school, but it also occurs in other schools or branches of Zen depending on the teaching line.

Interaction with a teacher

Another important, though easily overlooked aspect of the Zen-tradition, is the interaction with a Zen-teacher. This importance is reflected in the private interrogations. Even the literary devices and traditions on which this koan-study is based, are regarded inadequate:

Thus, even the kung-an that had been redacted and commented upon by earlier masters were perceived as inadequate. All props are taken away and no texts or hermeneutical methods are left, except for recourse to religious practice under an enlightened master. In this way, the use of scripture, transmission lineages, yu-lu, and kung-an collections is relegated to a secondary level, as hermeneutical variations on the recurring Ch'an challenge to seek enlightenment oneself through a face-to-face encounter with a Ch'an master.

Yet, it is this same accent on interaction which makes Zen-practice, at least in the west, also vulnerable to misunderstanding and exploitation.

Zen chanting and liturgy

See also: Buddhist chant

A practice in many Zen monasteries and centers is a daily liturgy service. Practitioners chant major sutras such as the Heart Sutra, chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra (often called the "Avalokiteshvara Sutra"), the Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness, the Great Compassionate Heart Dharani (Daihishin Dharani), and other minor mantras.

The Butsudan is the altar in a monastery where offerings are made to the images of the Buddha or Bodhisattvas. The same term is also used in Japanese homes for the altar where one prays to and communicates with deceased family members. As such, reciting liturgy in Zen can be seen as a means to connect with the Bodhisattvas of the past. Liturgy is often used during funerals, memorials, and other special events as means to invoke the aid of supernatural powers.

Chanting usually centers on major Bodhisattvas like Avalokiteshvara (see also Guan Yin) and Manjusri. According to Mahayana Buddhism, Bodhisattvas are beings who have taken vows to remain in Samsara to help all beings achieve liberation from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Since the Zen practitioner's aim is to walk the Bodhisattva path, chanting can be used as a means to connect with these beings and realize this ideal within oneself. By repeatedly chanting the Avalokiteshvara sutra (観世音菩薩普門品, Kanzeon Bosatsu Fumonbon) (chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra), for example, one instills the Bodhisattva's ideals into ones mind. The ultimate goal is given in the end of the sutra, which states, "In the morning, be one with Avalokiteshvara; in the evening, be one with Avalokiteshvara". Through the realization of emptiness and the Mahayana notion that all things have Buddha-nature, one understands that there is no difference between the cosmic bodhisattva and oneself. The wisdom and compassion of the Bodhisattva one is chanting to is seen to equal the inner wisdom and compassion of the practitioner. Thus, the duality between subject and object, practitioner and Bodhisattva, chanter and sutra is ended.

Lay services

Though in western Zen the emphasis is on zen-meditation, and the application of Zen-teachings in daily life, Japanese Zen also serves a function in public religion. Funerals play an important role as a point of contact between the monks and the laity. Statistics published by the Sōtō school state that 80 percent of Sōtō laymen visit their temple only for reasons having to do with funerals and death, while only 17 percent visit for spiritual reasons and a mere 3 percent visit a Zen priest at a time of personal trouble or crisis.

Zen organisation and institutions

Main article: Zen organisation and institutions

Religion is not only an individual matter, but "also a collective endeavour". Though individual experience and the iconoclastic picture of Zen are emphasised in the western world, the Zen-tradition is maintained and transferred by a high degree of institutionalisation. In Japan, modernity has led to criticism of the formal system and the commensement of lay-oriented Zen-schools such as the Sanbo Kyodan and the Ningen Zen Kyodan. How to organize the continuity of the Zen-tradition in the west, constraining charismatic authority and the derailment it may bring on the one hand, and maintaining the legitimacy and authority by limiting the number of authorized teachers on the other hand, is a challenge for the developing Zen-communities in the west.

Temple-training

Main article: Zen ranks and hierarchy

Since the East Mountain Teaching, Zen has centered on monastic life. In modern Soto and Rinzai, monasteries serve as training facilities to educate Zen priests, most of whom move on to run their own temple. Japanese laity has been allowed to participate in Zen training only since the Meiji Restoration.

Japanese Soto and Rinzai are organized in a system of head-temples and sub-temples.

Soto

Contemporary Soto-shu has four classes of temples:

1. Honzan (本山), head temples, namely Eihei-ji and Sōji-ji;
2. Kakuchi, teaching monasteries, where at least once a year an ango (ninety-day retreat) takes place;
3. Hōchi, dharma temples;
4. Jun hōchi, ordinary temples.

The two head temples or honzan (本山) of the Sōtō sect are Eihei-ji and Sōji-ji. While Eihei-ji owes its existence to Dōgen, throughout history this head temple has had significantly fewer sub-temple affiliates than the Sōji-ji. During the Tokugawa period, Eiheiji had approximately 1,300 affiliate temples compared to Sōji-ji's 16,200. Furthermore, out of the more than 14,000 temples of the Sōtō sect today, 13,850 of those identify themselves as affiliates of Sōji-ji. Additionally, most of the some 148 temples that are affiliates of Eiheiji today are only minor temples located in Hokkaido— founded during a period of colonization during the Meiji period. Therefore, it is often said that Eiheiji is a head temple only in the sense that it is "head of all Sōtō dharma lineages.

In an advice to western practitioners, Kojun Kishigami Osho, a dharma heir of Kodo Sawaki, writes:

Every year, about 150 novices arrive. About 90 percent of them are sons of temple heads, which leaves only 10 percent who chose this path for themselves. For the autumn session, about 250 monks come together. Essentially what they are learning in these temples is the ability to officiate all kinds of ceremonies and rites practiced by the Soto School – the methods for fulfilling their role. Apart from this aspect, practicing with the idea of developing one’s own spirituality is not prevalent.

Rinzai

The Rinzai-school has 14 main-temples, to which subsidiary temples are attached. The 14 branches of Rinzai, by head temple, are:

• Myōshin-ji (founded in 1342 by Kanzan Egen Zenji)
• Nanzen-ji (founded by Musō Soseki)
• Kenchō-ji
• Tōfuku-ji (founded by Enni Ben'en, 1202–1280)
• Engaku-ji
• Daitoku-ji (founded by Shūhō Myōchō)
• Hōkō-ji
• Eigen-ji
• Tenryū-ji (founded by Musō Soseki)
• Shōkoku-ji
• Kennin-ji
• Kōgaku-ji
• Kokutai-ji

Sometimes a 15th is included:

• Manpuku-ji, properly part of Ōbaku instead

Dharma transmission

See also: Dharma transmission, Zen master, and Zen ranks and hierarchy

In the western understanding, dharma transmission is primarily the affirmation of awakening by a teacher. But is also part of the continuation and maintanance of Zen-institutions.

Function of Dharma Transmission

Esoteric and exoteric transmission

According to Borup the emphasis on 'mind to mind transmission' is a form of esoteric transmission, in which "the tradition and the enlightened mind is transmitted face to face". Metaphorically this can be described as the transmission from a flame from one candle to another candle, or the transmission from one vein to another.

Exoteric transmission requires "direct access to the teaching through a personal discovery of one's self. This type of transmission and identification is symbolized by the discovery of a shining lantern, or a mirror."

This polarity is recognizable in the emphasis that the Zen-tradition puts on maintaining the correct Dharma transmission, while simultaneously stressing seeing into one's nature. Seeing one's nature gives an autonomous confirmation of Zen's ultimate truth, which may conflict with the need to maintain institutions and traditions.

Family structure

According to Bodiford, "Zen is the predominant form of Buddhism because of dharma transmission":

[I]t has ancestors whom it honors. It honors those ancestors by transmitting their legacy to proper descendants, from generation to generation, who will maintain and carry on their family traditions [...] [I]n Zen this process of transmitting a family legacy is given structural form through the ritual of dharma transmission.

Bodiford distinguishes seven dimension which are discernible in both family relationships and in dharma lineages:

1. Ancestral dimension: "Ancestors (so) constitute a fundamental source of power". Performing rituals in honour of the ancestors keeps them in high regard "among the living".
2. Biological dimension: the dharma lineage creates (spiritual) offspring, just as the family creates new life.
3. Linguistic dimension: dharma heirs receive new names, which reflect their tie to the dharma 'family'.
4. Ritual dimension: rituals confirm the family relationships. One's teacher is honored in rituals, as are deceised teachers.
5. Legal dimension: teachers have the obligation to discipline their students, just as students have the obligation to obey their teachers.
6. Institutional and financial dimension: dharma heirs have an obligation to support their home temple, both financially and ritually.
7. Temporal dimension: long-term relationships foster the previous dimensions.

The family-model is easier recognized when East Asian languages are being used, because the same terminology is used to describe both earthly and spiritual family relations.

Contemporary use of Dharma transmission

In Soto, dharma transmission establishes a lifelong relation between teacher and student. To qualify as a Zen priest, further training is required.

In Rinzai, the most common form of transmission is the acknowledgement that one has stayed in the monastery for a certain amount of time, and may later become a temple priest. The common transmission does not include inka shōmei, which is being used for the transmission of the "true lineage" of the masters (shike) of the training halls. Training halls are temples which are authorised for further training after being qualified as a temple priest. There are only about fifty to a hundred of such inka shōmei-bearers in Japan.

Although the formal transmission of the dharma-lineage, from Shakyamuni Buddha to the present day, is preserved in this way, it is also seen as problematical in contemporary Zen.

Self-awakening

Main article: Mushi dokugo

The Zen tradition has always stressed the importance of formal Dharma transmission, but there are indeed well known examples of Mushi dokugo, self-awakening, such as Nōnin, Jinul and Suzuki Shōsan who attained awakening on their own, though all of them were familiair with the Zen-teachings.

Zen Universities

See also: Buddhist universities and colleges

Both Soto and Rinzai have educational institutions, such as Komazawa University and Hanazono University, which stand in strong competition. Several Zen-teachers known in the west have studied there, such as Shohaku Okumura and Keido Fukushima. The Kyoto University was the centre of activities for the Kyoto School, to which belong Keiji Nishitani and Masao Abe.

Organization of Western Zen

Western Zen is mainly a lay-movement, though grounded in formal lineages. Its Japanese background is in mainly lay-oriented new religious movements, especially the Sanbo Kyodan. Though a number of zen-buddhist monasteries exist in the western world, most practice takes place in Zen centers throughout the western world.

Koné sees three issues in the emerging western Zen tradition: sustainability, legitimicay, and authority.

• Sustainability: Zen groups and organizations need income to survive. "Covert centers" offer meditation courses, for which they charge a fee. These groups "often experience a high turnover, with a core of long-time practitioners". "Residential centers" have a limited number of long term residents, with a high commitment, who serve a larger lay community. Income is generated by donations. Publicity is low-key, since a rapid growth would threaten the continuity.
• Legitimacy: Zen groups need legitimacy, which is "social recognition and acceptance". The primary means for this is the "master-disciple relationship" and the "central reference to transmission". Various attitudes toward the tradition are possible: emulating the traditions, adaptation of the tradition, a critical stance toward the tradition, and borrowing from the tradition.
• Authority: two patterns are discernable, namely spiritual achievement and "spiritual friendship", and "spiritual hierarchy". Smaller groups tend toward egalitarity and spiritual friendship, where-as larger groups tend toward more hierarchical organisation.

A recurrent issue has been the reliance on charismatic authority and the resulting teacher scandals. Sandra Bell has analysed the scandals at Vajradhatu and the San Francisco Zen Center and concluded that these kinds of scandals are

... most likely to occur in organisations that are in transition between the pure forms of charismatic authority that brought them into being and more rational, corporate forms of organization".

Robert Sharf also mentions charisma from which institutional power is derived, and the need to balance charismatic authority with institutional authority. Elaborate analyses of these scandals are made by Stuart Lachs, who mentions the uncritical acceptance of religious narratives, such as lineages and dharma transmission, which aid in giving uncritical charismatic powers to teachers and leaders.

The scandals eventually lead to rules of conduct by the American Zen Teachers Association, and the reorganising of Zen Centers, to spread the management of those centers over a wider group of people and diminish the role of charismatic authority. Another affect was the split in various Zen organisations, such as Robert Aitken leaving the Sanbo Kyodan, and Joko Beck leaving the White Plum Sangha.

Zen Narratives

Main article: Zen Narratives

Modern scientific research on the history of Zen discerns three main narratives concerning Zen, its history and its teachings: Traditional Zen Narrative (TZN), Buddhist Modernism (BM), Historical and Cultural Criticism (HCC). An external narrative is Nondualism, which claims Zen to be a token of an universal nondualist essence of religions.

Traditional Zen Narrative (TZN)

The Traditional Zen Narrative developed in phases in China during the Tang Dynasty and the beginning of the Song Dynasty, from the 7th to 11th century. It became dominant during the Song Dynasty, when Chán was the dominant form of Buddhism in China, due to support from the Emperial Court.

Its main phases were the development of the traditional Chan lineage, culminating in the "Transmission of the Lamp"-genre, the encounter dialogue culminating in the kōan collections, and the "climax-paradigm of the Song period, when Chan became the dominant Buddhist school in China.

The Traditional Zen Narrative bases its self-understanding especially on the encounter stories of the well-known teachers of the later Tang-period, such as Mazu Daoyi and Linji Yixuan. This period is seen as the "golden age" of Chan, a "romantic coloring" discarded by McRae:

"...what is being referred to is not some collection of activities and events that actually happened in the 8th through 10th centuries, but instead the retrospective re-creation of those activities and events, the imagined identities of the magical figures of the Tang, within the minds of Song dynasty Chan devotees"[...]"This retrospective quality pervades the Chan tradition. Time and again we find we are dealing, not with what happened at any given point, but with what people thought happened previously.

Buddhist Modernism (BM)

See also: Buddhist modernism

In the 20th century the Traditional Zen Narrative was transformed into a modern narrative, due to the power of the Western colonial forces and the modernisation of Japan, and the popularization in the Western world.

Romanticism and transcendentalism

See also: Perennial philosophy and Transcendentalism

As a consequence of the adaptation of Zen to the modern world, and the cross-cultural fertilization of western transcendentalism and esotery and Japanese Zen,a romantic idea of enlightenment as insight into a timeless, transcendent reality has been popularized.. This is especially due to the influence of D.T. Suzuki, who, though known as a Zen Buddhist, was also influenced by Theosophy. Further popularization was due to the writings of Heinrich Dumoulin. Dumoulin viewed metaphysics as the expression of a transcendent truth, which according to him was expressed by Mahayana Buddhism, but not by the pragmatic analysis of the oldest Buddhism, which emphasizes anatta. This romantic vision fits into Western romantic notions of self-realization and the true self, being regarded as a substantial essence being covered over by social conditioning:

Westerners do have a preconception of what ought to happen in mystical insight and in the attainment of enlightenment. True mystical insight, they will object, is not something that can be imposed from outside by a social system; instead it is a welling up of psychic energy from within, a breakthrough in which the true self erupts through the shell imposed by intellect, self-images, and socialization.

The Traditional Zen Narrative atrracted the interest of Beat poets and writers in the 1950s:

What was particularly attractive about Zen, however, was not the rigorous zazen and koan study that Maezumi and others would be teaching a decade later, but rather the unusual discourse and eccentric behaviors of the masters of the "golden age" of Chinese Chán described in the classic literature of Zen.

Historical and Cultural Criticism (HCC)

See also: Neo-Advaita

Contemporary research on Buddhism has shed new light on the history of Chan and Zen.

Since the 1960s the scientific research on Zen has created another narrative of Zen. The "grand saga" of Zen appears not to be an accurate historical documentation, but a skillfully created narrative, meant to lend authority to the Zen school. The consequences of this critical narrative seem hardly to be recognized in the Western world.

Enlightenment as timeless transcendence

The romantic notion of enlightenment as a timeless insight into a transcendental essence has been thoroughly criticized. According to critics it doesn't contribute to a real insight into Buddhism:

...most of them labour under the old cliché that the goal of Buddhist psychological analysis is to reveal the hidden mysteries in the human mind and thereby facilitate the development of a transcendental state of consciousness beyond the reach of linguistic expression.

Charismatic authority

The introduction of Zen in the West has been accompanied by problems which seem to be connected to this "grand saga". The teacher scandals which have occurred in Western Zen have been explained as being caused by an overreliance on charismatic authority, and a misinterpretation of the meaning of dharma transmission and the position of a roshi.

In Western Zen dharma transmission is highly esteemed. In the Japanese monastery system dharma transmission is a formal notification that someone is fully qualified to take a leading role in this system In the USA and Europe dharma transmission is linked to the unofficial title roshi, older teacher. In the Western world roshis have been given an archetypal status as wise old man, someone who has realized an infallible insight into the true self, and a perfect personality. In daily life this appears to be an idealized view, give the repeated cases of abuse of power, and financial and sexual misbehaviour.

The dependence on charismatic authority and lack of central authority may also lead to fragmentarisation and "new sects spinning off in several directions".

Zen and World War II

Japanese Zen organisations supported Japanese nationalism and its endeavours during the Pacific War. This support has been made widely known in the Western world by Brian Victoria in his groundbreaking study Zen at War, though in Japan this was already more common knowledge. D.T. Suzuki too supported these endeavours. This Japanese nationalism, and the Japanese uniqueness was also a reaction to perceived western imperialism during the 19th century.

Nondualism

Main article: Nondualism

According to Wolfe, Zen is a token of "nonduality":

The teachings of nonduality have begun to come of age in the West, recognized (at last) as the central essence of Zen, Dzochen, Tao, Vedanta, Sufism, and of Christians such as Meister Eckhart. In particular, the recorded teachings of sages (such as Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj) have paved the way for a contemporary generation of illuminating speakers and writers.

This nondual consciousness is seen as a common stratum to different religions. Several definitions or meanings are combined in this approach, which makes it possible to recognize various traditions as having the same essence.

See also

• List of Buddhists
• Outline of Buddhism
• Timeline of Buddhism
• Chinese Chán

Sources

• Abe, Masao (1989), Zen and Western Thought, translated by William R. LeFleur, University of Hawaii Press
• Abe, Masao; Heine, Seteven (1996), Zen and Comparative Studies, University of Hawaii Press
• Aitken, Robert (1994), Foreword to "A Buddhist Bible", Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press
• Anderson, Reb (2000), Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts, Rodmell Press
• Arokiasamy, Arul M. (2005), Zen: Awakening to Your Original Face, Chennai, India: Thiruvanmiyur
• Batchelor, Martine (2004), The Path Of Compassion: The Bodhisattva Precepts, Rowman Altamira
• Bell, Sandra (2002), Scandals in emerging Western Buddhism. In: Westward Dharma: Buddhism beyond Asia. Pages 230-242 (PDF), Berkeley: University of California Press
• Bodiford, William M. (1992), Zen in the Art of Funerals: Ritual Salvation in Japanese Buddhism. In: 'History of Religions' 32, no. 2 (1992): 150
• Bodiford, William M. (1993), Sōtō Zen in Medieval Japan, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 0-8248-1482-7
• Borup, Jørn (2008), Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism: Myōshinji, a Living Religion, Brill
• Brown Holt, Linda (1995), "From India to China: Transformations in Buddhist Philosophy", Qi: The Journal of Traditional Eastern Health & Fitness
• Buswell, Robert E. (1991), The "Short-cut" Approach of K'an-hua Meditation: The Evolution of a Practical Subitism in Chinese Ch'an Buddhism. In: Peter N. Gregory (editor) (1991), Sudden and Gradual. Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
• Buswell, Robert E (1993), Ch'an Hermeneutics: A Korean View. In: Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (ed.)(1993), Buddhist Hermeneutics, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
• Blyth, R. H. (1966), Zen and Zen Classics, Volume 4, Tokyo: Hokuseido Press
• Chappell, David W. (1993), Hermeneutical Phases in Chinese Buddhism. In: Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (ed.)(1993), Buddhist Hermeneutics, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
• Cleary, Thomas (2010), Translator's introduction. The Undying Lamp of Zen. The Testament of Zen Master Torei, Boston & London: Shambhala
• Collins, Randall (2000), The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change, Harvard University Press
• Dumonlin, Heinrich (2000), A History of Zen Buddhism, New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
• Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005-A), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 1: India and China, World Wisdom Books, ISBN 978-0-941532-89-1 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005-B), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 2: Japan, World Wisdom Books, ISBN 978-0-941532-90-7 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Faure, Bernard (2000), Visions of Power. Imaging Medieval Japanese Buddhism, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
• Ferguson, Andy (2000), Zen's Chinese Heritage, Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications, ISBN 0-86171-163-7
• Ford, James Myoun (unknown), A Note On Dharma Transmission And The Institutions Of Zen {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Foulk, T. Griffith (Year unknown), History of the Soto Zen School {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Fowler, Merv (2005), Zen Buddhism: Beliefs and Practices, Sussex Academic Press
• Gimello, Robert M. (1994), Marga and Culture: Learning, Letters, and Liberation in Northern Sung Ch'an. In: Buswell & Gimello (editors)(1994), Paths to Liberation. Pages 475-505, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
• Goddard, Dwight (2007), History of Ch'an Buddhism previous to the times of Hui-neng (Wie-lang). In: A Buddhist Bible, Forgotten Books
• Gregory, Peter N. (1991), Sudden Enlightenment Followed by Gradual Cultivation: Tsung-mi's Analysis of mind. In: Peter N. Gregory (editor)(1991), Sudden and Gradual. Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
• Gregory, Peter N. (1993), What Happened to the "Perfect Teaching"? Another lOok at Hua-yen Buddhist hermeneutics. In: Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (ed.)(1993), Buddhist Hermeneutics, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
• Harvey, Peter (1995), An introduction to Buddhism. Teachings, history and practices, Cambridge University Press
• Haskel, Peter (1984), Bankei Zen. Translations from The Record of Bankei, New York: Grove Weidenfeld
• Heine, Steven (2000). The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511748-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Heine, Steven (2007), "A Critical Survey of Works on Zen since Yampolsky.", Philosophy East & West Volume 57, Number 4 October 2007 577–592
• Heine, Steven (2008), Zen Skin, Zen Marrow
• Hisamatsu, Shin'ichi; Gishin Tokiwa; Christopher Ives (2002), Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition: Hisamatsu's Talks on Linji, University of Hawaii Press
• Hori, Victor Sogen (1994), Teaching and Learning in the Zen Rinzai Monastery. In: Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol.20, No. 1, (Winter, 1994), 5-35 (PDF)
• Hori, Victor Sogen (2000), Koan and Kensho in the Rinzai Zen Curriculum. In: Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (eds)(2000): "The Koan. Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism, Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Hori, Victor Sogen (2005), Introduction. In: Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 2: Japan. World Wisdom Books. ISBN 978-0-941532-90-7. Pagina xiii - xxi (PDF)
• Hu Shih (1953), "Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism in China. Its History and Method", Philosophy East and West, Vol. 3, No. 1 (January, 1953), pp. 3-24
• Huaijin, Nan (1997), Basic Buddhism: Exploring Buddhism and Zen, York Beach: Samuel Weiser
• Isshū, Miura; Sasaki, Ruth F. (1993), The Zen Koan, New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, ISBN 0-15-699981-1
• Jaksch, Mary (2007), The Road to Nowhere. Koans and the Deconstruction of the Zen Saga (PDF)
• Jorgensen, John (1991), "Heinrich Dumoulin's Zen Buddhism: A History", Japanese Journal of Religow Studies 1991 18/4
• Kalupahana, David J. (1992), The Principles of Buddhist Psychology, Delhi: ri Satguru Publications
• Kalupahana, David J. (1994), A history of Buddhist philosophy, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
• Kapleau, Philip (1989), The three pillars of Zen
• Kasulis, Thomas P. (2003), Ch'an Spirituality. In: Buddhist Spirituality. Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World; edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
• Katz, Jerry (2007), One: Essential Writings on Nonduality, Sentient Publications
• Koné, Alioune (2000), Zen In Europe: A Survey of the Territory
• Lachs, Stuart (2002), Richard Baker and the Myth of the Zen Roshi
• Lachs, Stuart (2006), The Zen Master in America: Dressing the Donkey with Bells and Scarves
• Lachs, Stuart (2011), When the Saints Go Marching In: Modern Day Zen Hagiography (PDF)
• Lachs, Stuart (2012), Hua-t’ou : A Method of Zen Meditation (PDF)
• Lai, Whalen (Year unknown), Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey (PDF) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Lai, Whalen (Year unknown B), Ma-Tsu Tao-I And The Unfolding Of Southern Zen {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Lathouwers, Ton (2000), Meer dan een mens kan doen. Zentoespraken, Rotterdam: Asoka
• Liang-Chieh (1986), The Record of Tung-shan, translated by William F. Powell, Kuroda Institute
• Lievens, Bavo (1981), Ma-tsu. De gesprekken, Bussum: Het Wereldvenster
• Loori, John Daido (2006), Sitting with Koans: Essential Writings on Zen Koan Introspection, Wisdom Publications, ISBN 0-86171-369-9
• Low, Albert (2000), Zen and the Sutras, Boston: Turtle Publishing
• Low, Albert (2006), Hakuin on Kensho. The Four Ways of Knowing, Boston & London: Shambhala
• Luk, Charles (translator) (Year unknown), The Surangama Sutra (PDF), Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc. {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Matthiessen, Peter (1987), Nine-headed dragon river: Zen journals, 1969-1985, Shambhala
• McCauley, Charles (2005), Zen and the Art of Wholeness, iUniverse
• McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-518327-6
• McRae, John (1991), Shen-hui and the Teaching of Sudden Enlightenment in Early Ch'an Buddhism. In: Peter N. Gregory (editor)(1991), Sudden and Gradual. Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
• McRae, John (2003), Seeing Through Zen, The University Press Group Ltd {{citation}}: External link in |title= (help)
• McRae, John (2005), Critical introduction by John McRae to the reprint of Dumoulin's A history of Zen (PDF)
• McRae, John (2008), THE PLATFORM SUTRA OF THE SIXTH PATRIARCH. Translated from the Chinese of Zongbao (Taishō Volume 48, Number 2008) by John R. McRae (PDF)
• Meng-Tat Chia, Jack (2011), "A Review of Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China" (PDF), Journal of Buddhist Ethics. Volume 18, 2011
• Mumon, Yamada (2004), The Ten Oxherding Pictures, translated by Victor Sōgen Hori, University of Hawai'i press
• Nadeau, Randall L. (2012), The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions, John Wiley & Sons
• Oh, Kang-nam (2000), "The Taoist Influence on Hua-yen Buddhism: A Case of the Scinicization of Buddhism in China", Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal, No. 13, (2000)
• Pajin, Dusan (1988), On Faith in Mind - Translation and Analysis of the Hsin Hsin Ming. In: Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, Hong Kong 1988, pp. 270-288
• Poceski, Mario (Year unknown), Attitudes Towards Canonicity and Religious Authority in Tang Chan {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Sato, Kemmyō Taira (unknown), D.T. Suzuki and the Question of War (PDF) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Sasaki, Ruth Fuller (2009), The Record of Linji. Translation and commentary by Ruth Fuller Sasaki. Edited by Thomas Yūhō Kirchner (PDF), Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press
• Schlütter, Morten (2008), How Zen became Zen. The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-3508-8
• Sekida, Katuski (1996), Two Zen Classics. Mumonkan, the gateless gate. Hekiganroku, the blue cliff record, New York & Tokyo: Weatherhill
• Sharf, Robert H. (1993), "The Zen of Japanese Nationalism", History of Religions, Vol. 33, No. 1. (Aug., 1993), pp. 1-43.
• Sharf, Robert H. (1995), Whose Zen? Zen Nationalism Revisited (PDF)
• Sharf, Robert H. (1995-B), "Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience" (PDF), NUMEN, vol.42 (1995) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Sharf, Robert H. (1995-C), "Sanbokyodan. Zen and the Way of the New Religions" (PDF), Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1995 22/3-4 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Shimano, Eido T. (1991), Points of Departure: Zen Buddhism With a Rinzai View, Livingston Manor, NY: The Zen Studies Society Press, ISBN 0-09-629460-1 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
• Snelling, John (1987), The Buddhist handbook. A Complete Guide to Buddhist Teaching and Practice, London: Century Paperbacks
• Suzuki, Shunryu (1997), Branching streams flow in the darkness: Zen talks on the Sandokai, University of California Press
• Swanson, Paul L. (1993), The Spirituality of Emptiness in Early chinese Buddhism. In: Buddhist Spirituality. Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, Early Chinese; edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, New York: Crossroad
• Tetsuo, Otani (2003), To Transmit Dogen Zenji's Dharma (PDF)
• Tomoaki, Tsuchida (2003), The Monastic spirituality of Zen Master Dogen. In: Buddhist Spirituality. Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World; edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
• Torei (2010), The Undying Lamp of Zen. The Testament of Zen Master Torei, translated by Thomas Cleary, Boston & London: Shambhala
• Tweed, Thomas A. (2005), "American Occultism and Japanese Buddhism. Albert J. Edmunds, D. T. Suzuki, and Translocative History" (PDF), Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 32/2: 249–281
• Verstappen, Stefan H. (2004), Blind Zen
• Victoria, Brian Daizen (2006), Zen at war (Second Edition ed.), Lanham e.a.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. {{citation}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• Victoria, Brian Daizen (2010), "The "Negative Side" of D. T. Suzuki's Relationship to War" (PDF), The Eastern Buddhist 41/2: 97–138
• Waddell, Norman (2010), Shambhala Publications {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |tile= ignored (|title= suggested) (help)
• Wai-tao (translator) (1994), The Diamond Sutra. In: A Buddhist Bible, Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press {{citation}}: |last= has generic name (help)
• Wayman, Alex and Hideko (1990), The Lion's roar of Queen Srimala, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
• Welter, Albert (Year unknown), The Textual History of the Linji lu (Record of Linji): The Earliest Recorded Fragments {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• The Formation of the Linji lu: An Examination of the Guangdeng lu/Sijia yulu and Linji Huizhao Chanshi yulu. Versions of the Linji lu in Historical Context (PDF), year unknown-B {{citation}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Check date values in: |year= (help); Text "last Welter" ignored (help)
• Welter, Albert (2000), Mahakasyapa's smile. Silent Transmission and the Kung-an (Koan) Tradition. In: Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (eds)(2000): "The Koan. Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism, Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Wolfe, Robert (2009), Living Nonduality: Enlightenment Teachings of Self-Realization, Karina Library
• Wright, Dale S. (2010), Humanizing the Image of a Zen master: Taizan Maezumi Roshi. In: Zen Masters, edited bySteven Heine and Dale S. Wright, Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Yampolski, Philip (1967), The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. Translated with notes by Philip B. Yampolsky, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-08361-0
• Yampolski, Philip (2003-A), Chan. A Historical Sketch. In: Buddhist Spirituality. Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World; edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Yampolski, Philip (2003-B), Zen. A Historical Sketch. In: Buddhist Spirituality. Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World; edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Yanagida, Seizan (2009), Historical Introduction to The Record of Linji. In: The record of Linji, translated by Ruth Fuller Sasakia e.a. Pages 59-115 (PDF), University of Hawaii Press
• Yen, Chan Master Sheng (1996), Dharma Drum: The Life and Heart of Ch'an Practice, Boston & London: Shambhala
• Young, Stuart (2009), Linji Lu and Chinese Orthodoxy. Review of "Albert Welter. The Linji lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy: The Development of Chan's Records of Sayings Literature.

Further reading

Modern classics
Sowing the seed

• D.T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series (1927), Second Series (1933), Third Series (1934)
• R. H. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, 5 volumes (1960–1970; reprints of works from 1942 into 1960's)
• Alan Watts, The Way of Zen (1957)
• Lu K'uan Yu (Charles Luk), Ch'an and Zen Teachings, 3 vols (1960, 1971, 1974), The Transmission of the Mind: Outside the Teaching (1974)

Growing roots

• Paul Reps & Nyogen Senzaki, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (1957)
• Philip Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen (1966)
• Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970)
• Katsuki Sekida, Zen Training: Methods & Philosophy (1975)

Classic historiography

• Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 1: India and China. World Wisdom Books. ISBN 978-0-941532-89-1
• Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 2: Japan. World Wisdom Books. ISBN 978-0-941532-90-7

Critical historiography
Overview

• Heine, Steven (2007), A Critical Survey of Works on Zen since Yampolsky. In: Philosophy East & West Volume 57, Number 4 October 2007 577–592 (PDF)

Formation of Chán in Tang & Song China

• Mcrae, John (2003), Seeing through Zen. Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism. The University Press Group Ltd . ISBN 978-0-520-23798-8
• Welter, Albert (2000), Mahakasyapa's smile. Silent Transmission and the Kung-an (Koan) Tradition. In: Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (eds)(2000): "The Koan. Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism, Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Schlütter, Morten (2008), How Zen became Zen. The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-3508-8

Japan

• Bodiford, William M. (1993), Sōtō Zen in Medieval Japan, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 0-8248-1482-7

Modern times

• Sharf, Robert H. (1995-A), Whose Zen? Zen Nationalism Revisited (PDF) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Borup, Jorn (Year unknown), Zen and the Art of inverting Orientalism: religious studies and genealogical networks {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518327-6

Contemporary practice

• Borup, Jørn (2008), Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism: Myōshinji, a Living Religion, Brill
• Hori, Victor Sogen (1994), Teaching and Learning in the Zen Rinzai Monastery. In: Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol.20, No. 1, (Winter, 1994), 5-35 (PDF)
• Buswell, Robert E. (1993-A), The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea, Princeton University Press {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)

External links

• thezensite
• Zen Buddhism WWW Virtual Library
• Chart of (Asian) Zen schools
• Sweeping Zen: Who's who in Zen
• Glossary of Japanese Zen terms