Zen and Buddhism

Zen is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism which strongly emphasizes the practice of meditation. It emerged as a distinct school in China (as Cha'an) and spread to Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and, in modern times, the rest of the world. The common English name derives from the school's name in Japanese, zen (禅).

History

Traditionally, Zen traces its roots back to Indian Buddhism; it takes its name from the Sanskrit term, dhyāna, which means meditative concentration (zen is short for the rarely-used form zenna). According to traditional accounts, Chinese Zen was established in approximately 500 CE by an Indian monk named Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma is said to have been the twenty-eighth patriarch of Zen and the last Indian successor in a line begun by the Buddha's disciple Mahakaśyapa.

An early Zen text, the Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, describes Bodhidharma travelling by sea, circa 520, to the territory of the Liang Dynasty in southern China. There, in a famous exchange with Emperor Wu, he explained that good deeds done with selfish intention were useless for gaining enlightenment. This argument having met with imperial disapproval, Bodhidharma travelled north to Shaolin Temple near the Song Mountains, where he established himself as a teacher. Martial arts legend also states that kung fu was also taught by Bodhidharma at Shaolin.

Shortly before his death, Bodhidharma appointed his disciple Huike to succeed him, making Huike the first Chinese patriarch and the second patriarch of Zen in China. The transmission then passed to the second, third, and fourth patriarchs, of whom little is known beyond their names. The sixth and last patriarch, Huineng (638-713), was one of the giants of Zen history, and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor. However, the dramatic story of Huineng's life tells that there was a controversy over his claim to the title of patriarch: after being chosen by the Hongren, the fifth patriarch, he had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples. In the middle of the 8th century, monks claiming to be the successors to Huineng, calling themselves the Southern school, cast themselves in opposition to those claiming to succeed Hongren's student Shenxiu (神秀). It was at this point, the debates between these rival factions, that Zen enters the realm of fully documented history. The Southern school eventually became predominant and their rivals died out.

Later, Korean monks studying in China learned what was by then called Ch'an, and which had by then been profoundly influenced by Chinese Taoism and to a lesser degree Confucianism. After the tradition was expanded to Korea, it came to be called Seon there (sometimes misspelled as Soen in the West).

It is important to note, however, that Chan, Seon and Zen continued to develop separately in their home countries, and all maintain separate identities to this day. Although lineage lines in China, Korea, Japan and elsewhere appear to show direct descent from Bodhidharma, changes in belief and practice have inevitably appeared with the profusion of Chan/Seon/Zen.

The Japanese Rinzai Zen philosopher D.T. Suzuki maintained that a Zen satori (awakening) has always been the goal of the training, but that which distinguished the tradition as it developed in China, Korea, and Japan was a way of life radically different from that of Indian Buddhists. In India, the tradition of the mendicant (holy beggar, or bhikku in Pali) prevailed, but in China social circumstances led to the development of a temple and training-center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks. These included food gardening or farming, carpentry, architecture, housekeeping, administration, and the practice of folk medicine. Consequently, the enlightenment sought in Zen had to stand up well to the demands and potential frustrations of everyday life.

List of the Chinese Zen Patriarchs

The following are the six Patriarchs of Zen in China as listed in traditional sources:

Bodhidharma (達摩, Chinese: Damo, Japanese: Daruma だるま) about 440 - about 528

Huike (慧可, Japanese: Daiso Eka) 487 - 593

Sengcan (僧燦, Japanese: Konchi Sosan) ? - 606

Daoxin (道信, Japanese: Dai'i Doshin) 580 - 651

Hongren (弘忍, Japanese: Daiman Konin) 601 - 674

Huineng (慧能, Japanese: Daikan Eno) 638 - 713

Zen in Japan

The schools of Zen that currently exist in Japan are the Soto (曹洞), Rinzai (臨済), and Obaku (黃檗). Of these, Soto is the largest and Obaku the smallest.

The Rinzai school was original founded in China by Linji Yiyuan, who is known as Rinzai Gigen in Japanese; it was introduced to Japan in 1191 by Myōan Eisai. Soto is the Japanese branch of another Chinese school, Caodong; it was brought to Japan in the early 13th century by Dogen, who had studied under Eisai. Obaku was introduced in the 17th century by Ingen, a Chinese monk.

Some contemporary Japanese Zen teachers, such as Daiun Harada and Shunryu Suzuki, have criticized Japanese Zen as being a formalized system of empty rituals in which very few Zen practitioners ever actually attain realization. They assert that almost all Japanese temples have become family businesses handed down from father to son, and the Zen priest's function has largely been reduced to officiating at funerals.

The Japanese Zen establishment--including the Soto sect, the major branches of Rinzai, and several renowned teachers-- has been criticized for its involvement in Japanese militarism and nationalism during World War II and the preceding period. A notable work on this subject was Zen at War (1998) by Brian Victoria, an American-born Soto priest.

Zen and Buddhism

Zen is a branch of Buddhism and as such is based on and deeply rooted in the Buddha's teachings. It is also very much the child of China and has some teaching derived from Confucianism and Taoism. The Zen branch calls itself the Buddha Heart School and traces its lineage back to the Buddha, with the Flower Sermon being the first transmission