Zen Buddhism

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    The Zen Buddhism from Japan had become in the mid-20th century perhaps the best known of the Buddhists schools in the Western world... "Zen" means "be nothing, think nothing", and "Zazen" "seated meditation"; its adherents claim Zen to be the quintessential essence of Buddhism.

    It was born in China, with the name of "Ch'an", and its founder was Bodhidharma in the fifth century, and it is actually practiced in syncretism with Taoism.

    In the 9th century two Japanese Buddhists developed the 2 schools of Zen:
        1- Eisen originated the "Rinzai", where enlightenment could come as a flash of insight,
        2- Dogen initiated the "Soto", where enlightenment comes gradually... they are practiced in Japan in syncretism with Shintoism.

"Satori":

Enlightenment is called "Satori" in Japan, and "Wu" in China... and it is obtained by means of "koans" and "zazen" with the help of a Master (roshi)... and it may take years, a lifetime!...

A "koan":

Is an "impossible riddle", like "what were the color of your eyes before you were conceived"... and the student have to think on it for weeks or years... until his mind gives up, and thinks nothing, leaving only his "animal mind" without thinking in yesterday or tomorrow, just to live the present... and this is "Satori", which may come in a flash after years of training. They have about 1,500 koans... logic and reason are taboo!.

"Zazen"

Means "seated meditation", in the same way at least for 3 hours daily, until numbness of the body occurs. Because not only reason but the body is also an obstacle to obtain Satori. Hallucinogenic visions and demonic apparitions are common occurrences in Zen meditations... the founder, Bodhidharma, sat in a cave while staring at a wall for 9 years, and lost the use of his legs by atrophy.

The "Roshi":

The "master teacher"... Is also essential: He not only gives the koans and zazen to the student to suppress the mind an body, but also shouts to him, gives him painful blows with a "warning stick", to humiliate him, to destroy completely the student personality... and for this aim the roshi also uses often the "mondos", a series of rapid questions of abstract paradoxes to boggle the meditator's mind..

This is "Zen":

"Be nothing, think nothing"... in China is called "Ch'an", "wall meditation"... all its aim is the "experience of the moment", in its literature, paintings, art... promising to liberate the devotee from all life's miseries...

    Satori must be realized only in direct personal experience... many young Americans have experimented with this rigorous spiritual discipline for years, only to waist and destroy their only life on earth... because after death there is no Heaven nor any reward for all these sacrifices... there is no God in Zen, only a new painful reincarnations, or what is worse, "Nirvana", nothingness after death, the lost of all personality, as a drop of water in the Ocean... don't try it!... it is the stupid Reincarnation at its best!.

    So, Zen Buddhism focuses on a completely different aspect of the Mahayana cosmos, namely, the idea that everyone has a Buddha-nature. Zen rejects all other aspects of Mahayana--the bodhisattvas, the other buddhas, the sacred texts--and teaches its followers to concentrate and meditate on reaching the true understanding of their Buddha-nature.

Zen Buddhism WWW Virtual Library
Zen Buddhism
Zen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zen Buddhist Texts



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