The essence of Zen Buddhism is achieving enlightenment by seeing one’s original mind (or original nature) directly; without the intervention of the intellect.

It is a special transmission outside the scriptures without reliance on words or letters – directly pointing to the heart of humanity, and seeing into one’s own nature.

Zen Buddhism: Brief Description

Zen Buddhism is a mixture of Indian Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism. It began in China, spread to Korea and Japan, and became very popular in the West from the mid 20th century.

The essence of Zen is attempting to understand the meaning of life directly, without being misled by logical thought or language.

Zen techniques are compatible with other faiths and are often used, for example, by Christians seeking a mystical understanding of their faith.

Zen often seems paradoxical – it requires an intense discipline which, when practised properly, results in total spontaneity and ultimate freedom. This natural spontaneity should not be confused with impulsiveness.

The Term “Zen”

‘Zen’ is the way the Chinese word Ch’an is pronounced in Japan. ‘Ch’an’ is the Chinese pronunciation of the Sanskrit word Dhyana, which means (more or less) meditation.

The Essence of Zen

Christmas Humphreys, one of the leading pioneers in the history of Buddhism in Britain, wrote that “Zen is a subject extremely easy to misunderstand.”

Zen is something a person does. It’s not a concept that can be described in words. Despite that, words will help you get some idea of what Zen is about. But remember, Zen does not depend on words – it has to be experienced in order to ‘understand’.

Enlightenment Is Inside

The essence of Zen Buddhism is that all human beings are Buddha, and that all they have to do is to discover that truth for themselves.

All beings by nature are Buddhas, as ice by nature is water.
Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddhas.

(Hakuin Ekaku)

Zen sends us looking inside us for enlightenment. There’s no need to search outside ourselves for the answers; we can find the answers in the same place that we found the questions.

Human beings can’t learn this truth by philosophising or rational thought, nor by studying scriptures, taking part in worship rites and rituals or many of the other things that people think religious people do.

The first step is to control our minds through meditation and other techniques that involve mind and body; to give up logical thinking and avoid getting trapped in a spider’s web of words.

History

Zen Buddhism was brought to China by the Indian monk Bodhidharma in the 6th century CE. It was called Ch’an in China.

Zen’s golden age began with the Sixth Patriarch, Hui-neng (638-713), and ended with the persecution of Buddhism in China in the middle of the 9th century CE. Most of those we think of today as the great Zen masters came from this period. Zen Buddhism survived the persecution though it was never the same again in China.

Zen spread to Korea in the 7th century CE and to Japan in the 12th century CE. It was popularised in the West by the Japanese scholar Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966); although it was found in the West before that.

Learning Zen

If you’re a westerner you may find it hard to shake off the intellectual and dualist ways of thinking that dominate western culture: these can make it difficult for westerners to come to Zen.

Zen Buddhists pay less attention to scripture as a means of learning than they do to various methods of practising Zen. The most common way of teaching is for enlightenment to be communicated direct from master to pupil.

Zen practices are aimed at taking the rational and intellectual mind out of the mental loop, so that the student can become more aware and realise their own Buddha-nature. …

Students of Zen aim to achieve enlightenment by the way they live, and by mental actions that approach the truth without philosophical thought or intellectual endeavour.

Some schools of Zen work to achieve sudden moments of enlightenment, while others prefer a gradual process.

Clues to the Meaning of Zen

Because Zen is so hard to explain here are some quotations that may help you get an idea of it:

• The essence of Zen Buddhism is achieving enlightenment by seeing one’s original mind (or original nature) directly; without the intervention of the intellect.
• Zen is big on intuitive understanding, on just ‘getting it’, and not so hot on philosophising.
• Zen is concerned with what actually is rather than what we think or feel about what is.
• Zen is concerned with things as they are, without trying to interpret them.
• Zen points to something before thinking, before all your ideas.
• The key to Buddhahood in Zen is simply self-knowledge.
• To be a human being is to be a Buddha. Buddha nature is just another name for human nature – true human nature.
• Zen is simply to be completely alive.
• Zen is short for Zen Buddhism. It is sometimes called a religion and sometimes called a philosophy. Choose whichever term you prefer; it simply doesn’t matter.
• Zen is not a philosophy or a religion.
• Zen tries to free the mind from the slavery of words and the constriction of logic.
• Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one’s own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.
• Zen is meditation.

Mindfulness

Zen is about living in the present with complete awareness.

Practitioners turn off the automatic pilot that most of us operate from throughout the day – we don’t really notice all the things that are going on around us or within our own minds.

They try to experience each moment directly. They don’t let thoughts, memories, fears or hopes get in the way.

They practice being aware of everything they see, hear, feel, taste, and smell.

Another way of looking at this is to say that a Zen practitioner tries to be completely aware in the activity of any particular moment – to the extent that they are one with what they are doing. So, for example:

• When they eat, they focus totally on the food and on the act of eating.
• When they meditate, they open the mind to the reality of the moment, not allowing thoughts, feelings or sensations to preoccupy them, not even thoughts about enlightenment or Buddhism.
• When they work, they only work.
• When they brush their teeth, that’s all they do – they don’t think about other things at the same time.

Zen practice is to realise that thoughts are a natural faculty of mind and should not be stopped, ignored, or rejected.

Instead, thinking, especially discursive thinking, is to be acknowledged but then put to one side so that the mind is not carried away by worries, anxieties, and endless hopes and fears.

This is liberation from the defilements of the mind, the suffering of the mind, leaving the truth of this vast, unidentifiable moment plain to see.

Stilling the Mind

In Zen Buddhism the purpose of meditation is to stop the mind rushing about in an aimless (or even a purposeful) stream of thoughts. People often say that the aim of meditation is “to still the mind”.

Zen Buddhists can meditate on their own or in groups.

Meditating in a group – perhaps at a retreat called a sesshin, or in a meditation room or zendo – has the benefit of reminding a person that they are both part of a larger Buddhist community, and part of the larger community of beings of every species.

Zazen

The key Zen practice is zazen. This involves sitting in one of several available positions and meditating so that you become fully in touch with the true nature of reality.

Different schools of Zen do zazen in different ways: Soto meditators face a wall; Rinzai meditators sit in a circle facing each other.

Posture

Meditation is possible in any stable posture that keeps the spine fairly straight. Sitting quietly in a chair is perfectly acceptable.

The classic posture for Zen meditation is called the Lotus Position. This involves sitting cross-legged with the left foot on top of the right thigh and the right foot on top of the left thigh.

The lotus position is difficult and uncomfortable for beginners, and there are other sitting positions that are a lot easier to achieve, such as the half lotus (in which only one foot is put on top of the opposite thigh) – or simply sitting cross-legged, or sitting on a cushion with knees bent and lower legs tucked under upper legs.

Methods of Meditation

Some classic meditation methods use the meditator’s own breathing. They may just sit and concentrate on their breathing – not doing anything to alter the way of the breath, not worrying about whether they’re doing it right or wrong, not even thinking about breathing; just “following” the breathing and “becoming one” with the breathing.

But there are many methods of meditation – some involve chanting mantras, some involve concentrating on a particular thing (such as a candle flame or a flower).

Nor does meditation have to involve keeping still; walking meditation is a popular Zen way of doing it, and repetitive movements using beads or prayer wheels as are used in other faiths.

Self-Discipline

Meditation teaches self-discipline because it’s boring, and because the body gets uncomfortable. The meditator learns to keep going regardless of how bored they are, or how much they want to scratch their nose.

Koan Meditation

Koans are questions or statements, often paradoxes, that provoke spiritual understanding. They are often used by masters as a way of teaching pupils, and also to test enlightenment.

Don’t think that the koan and its solution are themselves wisdom and truth. They may be, but their particular importance here is their use as tools to help you understand the true nature of yourself and of everything, and to increase your awareness of what is.

A well-known koan is: “In clapping both hands a sound is heard; what is the sound of one hand?”

Koans cannot be solved by study and analytical thought. In order to solve a koan, the pupil must leave behind all thoughts and ideas in order to respond intuitively.

Koans don’t have a right answer. Western pupils often find this very frustrating, since most westerners are used to trying to get the right (and only) answer to a problem.

For the same reason, the truths of Zen can’t be learned just by reading a scripture or getting a solution from a teacher or a text book.

The best way to work with koans is with a teacher. Without a teacher it can be too easy to fool yourself into thinking that you’ve solved a koan.

The first collection of koans was made in the 11th century CE. They are a favourite teaching tool of the Rinzai school of Buddhism.

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Source: Based on Zen Buddhist information presented at the following website pages. https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/subdivisions/zen_1.shtml

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Further Overview of Zen

The following overview may also be helpful:

The term Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word chan, an abbreviation of channa, which is a Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit word dhyana (“meditation”).

Zen emphasizes rigorous (1) self-restraint, (2) meditation-practice, (3) insight into the nature of mind (Japanese kensho, “perceiving the true nature”) and (4) nature of things (without arrogance or egotism), and the (5) personal expression of this insight in daily life, especially for the benefit of others.

As such, it de-emphasizes knowledge alone of sutras and doctrine, and favors direct understanding through spiritual practice and interaction with an accomplished teacher or Master.

Zen teaching draws from numerous sources of Mahāyāna thought, especially Yogachara, the Tathagatagarbha sutras, the Lankavatara Sutra, and the Huayan school, with their emphasis on Buddha-nature, totality, and the Bodhisattva-ideal. The Prajnaparamita literature as well as Madhyamaka thought have also been influential in the shaping of the apophatic and sometimes iconoclastic nature of Zen rhetoric.

Furthermore, the Chan School was also influenced by Taoist philosophy, especially Neo-Daoist thought.

Note: Apophatic theology, also known as negative theology, is a form of theological thinking and religious practice which attempts to approach God, the Divine, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God. It forms a pair together with cataphatic theology, which approaches God or the Divine by affirmations or positive statements about what God is.

The apophatic tradition is often, though not always, allied with the approach of mysticism, which aims at the vision of God, the perception of the divine reality beyond the realm of ordinary perception.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen

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