Darek Radziszewski
Transformation Of
Zen Buddhism
Darek Radziszewski
Transformation Of
Zen Buddhism
By most accounts, Buddhism started with Shakyamuni Buddha, who is recognized as the first teacher. According to what is known about him,Buddha was born in 563 BC as Siddharta Gautama, a Shakya prince and heir to a small kingdom in the north of India, at the foothills of the Himalayan foothills. Sometime in his late twenties, Buddha renounced his former life and assumed a life of poverty, dressing in rags and setting out to discover fundamental truths. Initially, he endured many self inflicted hardships, including self-denial and penance by constant mediation and further self-denial. At times, he would become so weak that he would not be able to mediate any longer. However, he still refused food. After, the years of hardship, Buddha resolved to find the answer to life and suffering, and to share the path with others. This was the first step to modern day Zen Buddhism, which throughout the centuries has evolved into a religion of a focus on “a path for self-discovery and enlightenment.” (Maitai Zendo, “What is Zen”).
When the teachings of Buddha came to China, those teaching were known under the name Ch’an. According to the internal story, the Ch’an tradition began when the Buddha, who was supposed to be giving a lecture to an assemblage of various bodhisattvas and other Indian deities, simply twirled a flower in silence. Among all those assembled, Kashyapa alone smiled, signaling his intuitive apprehension of this wordless doctrine. This began a line of direct mind-to-mind transmission of some doctrine incommensurate with language. The transmission went through 28 "teacher-student generations"until Bodhidharma came to China to establish the Chinese branch of the Ch’an tradition.
Boddhidarma was the first patriarch of the Chan sect of meditation, more widely known by its Japanese name, Zen. Although Boddhidharma was his Indian name, while in Japan they called him Bodai Daruma or simply Daruma. He founded the Ch’an sect by taking ideas from India. The connection of those two ideas has happened between 527 and 536, in Shaolin Monastery. Those years has left us two books in a manuscript collection called "Yi Ging Ching." or "Muscle/Tendon Changing Classic." and "Shii Soei Ching." or "Bone Marrow Washing Classic." These books described the practices of what today is known as chi kung or qi qong. Boddhidarma was also the creator of what we know today as tai chi chuan, integrating the kalaprayat Indian martial art and the Chinese exercises of the five animals with some tantric approaches. Bodhidharma was born fifteen centuries ago; he was a son of the south India’s king. In the Kingdom of Pallavas, he had an opportunity to become a king but he decided to take a different path. As it had been written: “he was not ready to waste his time in mundane affairs, in trivia.” (Huai-Chin). His whole concern was to know his self-nature, because according to Buddhist beliefs about samsara. Samara which simply means the cycle of birth, death and rebirth that ends only when one attains the “awakening” insight of a Buddha. Without knowing it you have to accept death as the end. All true seekers in fact, have been fighting against death.
Bodhidharma renounced the kingdom saying to his father: “If you cannot save me from death, then please don't prevent me. Let me go in search of something that is beyond death.” His father thought for a moment and he responded: "I will not prevent you, because I cannot prevent your death. You go on your search with all my blessings. It is sad for me but that is my problem; it is my attachment. I was hoping for you to be the successor, to be the emperor of the great Pallavas empire, but you have chosen something higher than that. I am your father so how can I prevent you? And you have put in such a simple way a question which I had never expected. You say, `If you can prevent my death then I will not leave the palace, but if you cannot prevent my death, then please don't prevent me either.’" (Platt).His father’s understanding allowed Bodhidharma toleave Pallavas Empire and go to search for truth. Not only did he receive support from his father, but also he got help from a certain woman who frightened Gautama Buddha. Leaving the family house, fortune and “easy” life, Budharama shows that he is not like a common person. He knows inside of himself that there is something bigger than life on earth.
Bodhidharma has used some of the Gautama Buddha teachings, but in some instances he shows higher flights than Gautama Buddha himself. For example, Gautama Buddha was afraid to initiate a woman into his commune of sannyasins, but Bodhidharma got initiated by a woman who was enlightened. Her name was Pragyatara and she was the one who told Bodhidharma to go to China, responding to an invitation made by Chinese Emperor Liang Wu Di that requested the Indian Sangha, where one the examples of that was monastic community which lead to find an enlightened and what lead to transmit Buddhism to China. Buddhism had reached China six hundred years before Bodhidharma. Buddha's message graduallycaught hold of all of the Chinese people. His teaching said that he denies that there is anything inner. Everything is outer and we should refine it, polish it, culture it, make it as beautiful as possible. Nobody can live without a soul, and once you start thinking that there is no soul, your life starts losing all meaning. The soul is your very integrating concept; without it you are cut away from existence and eternal and internal life. The idea is that there is nothing that exists in isolation from anything else, but rather the entire cosmos is characterized by “dependent co-arising,” where pretty much all things arise together, but the implication is that nothing possesses a separate svabhava, “own-being.” Which there is to say that there is no eternal soul behind our existence, since it is attachment to such a falsely conceived soul that keeps us stuck in samsara. This awareness of “anatman,”otherwise called no-self, leads to a state of nirvana in which the cycle of rebirth is brought to an end.
As we already know Ch’an is a Chinese pronunciation for whatis commonly known as Zen Buddhism. This word, Chan, originally came from the Sanskrit term "dhyana" meaning ‘meditation’. Ch’an is a school that does not "believe in" meditation, yet emphasizes and practices meditation. Chan, is a system founded on direct mind-to-mind transmission, is not tied to “words and letters,” which attempt to provide a fixed conception of a reality that is ultimately beyond our regular mode of conception and hence it does not emphasize belief in any particular doctrines. People exercise meditation pondering the claim that meditation cannot lead to enlightenment. Ch’an comes to understand meditation in a Daoist sense, which is an attitude of the "total absorption" than can accompany any normal living activity. Sitting meditation is among the normal activities, but Ch’an gives us no particular reason to do that in preference to innumerable others. Enlightenment can be achieved through a number of these activities. In China there were several Buddhist schools but the dominant ones tended to be those which stressed a natural and practical approach to religious life and downplayed the metaphysical doubt and idealism. The mystical attitude toward religiosity dominated both ritual and doctrinal features. All these schools nominally accepted a collection of Buddhist scriptures that were called sutras. The most important sutras in Chinese Buddhism included the Prajnaparamitra, the Lotus and the Diamond Sutras. There are also other wonderful and quite famous components of Buddhism.
Buddhism's "paradox of desires" draws attention. Its logic explains the move to the Boddhisattva ideal of Mahayana Buddhism. According to the four-noble truths, desire leads to suffering and overcoming desire is the way to achieve Nirvana. Suppose an individual and a seeker of Nirvana comes quite near the enilightment, then he overcomes his desire. There are different desires that a student can overcome, some of them are: wealth, status, food, drink, and finally his desire to breathe and live. But even then one is not ready to enter Nirvana. One still has one desire left, the desire to enter Nirvana; he can only achieve it through losing this desire. Ch’an Buddhism can be viewed as pushing the implicit logic of Buddhism to reject the original goal of Buddhism, which is the quest for Nirvana. Ch’an is Buddhist skepticism. The gradual development of this perspective, however, is a complex one and is made even more challenging by a pedagogical practice among Chan masters in China.
China went through five generations still emphasizing orthodox meditation and the search for enlightenment. When the 5th patriarch announced a competition for who would be the 6th one, everyone assumed that Shen Xiu (acknowledged as the most brilliant student) would win the competition and become the next patriarch. But Hui Neng, an illiterate peasant from Guangdong province, proved to have spontaneous and immediate insight and received the coveted transmission. This story is contained in the famous Platform Sutra of the 6th Patriarch.
Not only that teaching and history of this particular Buddhism religion has survived by the sutras and also stories that were told from generation to generation, there is also a story about Hui-neng's famous disciple Huai-rang. Hui-neng lived from 677 until 744. The story has been told as follows: "Ma-zu lived in the Quan-fa Monastery on the Southern Peak. There he occupied a solitary hut in which all alone he practiced meditation (Ch’an) paying no attention to those who came to visit him [. . .] One day (Huai-rang) kept grinding a brick in front of the hut, but Ma-zu still paid no attention. This having continued for a long time, (Ma-zu) finally asked: 'What are you doing?' The Teacher (Huai-rang) replied that he was grinding to make a mirror. 'How can a mirror be made by grinding bricks? Asked Ma-zu. Replied the Teacher: 'If a mirror cannot be made by grinding bricks, how can a Buddha be made by practicing meditation.” (Ropp) This is another one of the historical and educational materials that survived and still is used in lives of individuals who practice Ch’an.
There are a lot of different principles and practices of Zen. Shogenji Temple located in Central Japan is one of many Zen temples were monks go through the training in order to become Zen priests. “Rohatsu Ozesshin” is a “test,” it’s a particularly intense period of Zen practice in which monks meditate almost continually for two weeks. After twelve-month preparation, this time of meditation determines how well they have prepared for their most significant task. This meditation takes a lot of time and devotion. It is quite difficult to become Zen priest; it is also complicated to be accepted and receive training at any of the Zen temples.
The whole acceptance process is really mentally difficult and challenging. When a monk comes to a temple and he wants to be accepted he has to wait on stairs in a bowing position. If he is not admitted he then has two choices (even though that he has been told to leave immediately) to leave or to stay and be persistent. If one would wait long enough then he will be accepted. The purpose of training is to get to the state of bodhi or Enlightenment. The Enlightenment may be only attained by a seeker (individual); it cannot be learned through another person. The Zen training is hard. It is physically and mentally exhausting and strict. One of the ways to obtain the Enlightenment is through “Zazen” meditation. Zazen meditation came from India. Monks sit in a pyramid position where head is the apex and crossed legs are the base. They are also trying to combine body and mind by controlling breathing (longer and deeper), if everything is done correct then, for example; the body will not feel cold even in winter. Also the mind must to be controlled. The random thoughts and ideas got to be put away, the purpose of this meditation is to attain the state of detachment, satori. During Rohatsu Ozesshin one meets the Zen master happens four times a day. He gives them a task to do. Some of the koantasks are questions like: does dog posses a Buddha nature or what is the sound of one hand clapping (Principles and Practices of Zen).
There are several different stories and only one of them is the most interesting and unusual. There was a little boy named Toyo who served the master of Kennin temple, Mokurai also called a Silent Thunder. Toyo saw the older disciples visit the master's room each morning and evening to receive instruction on Zazen or personal guidance in which they were given koans to stop mind-wandering. Toyo wished to do Zazen also. "Wait a while," said Mokurai. "You are too young." But the child insisted, so the teacher finally consented. In the evening, little Toyo went at the proper time to the threshold of Mokurai's Zazen room. He struck the gong to announce his presence, bowed respectfully three times outside the door, and went to sit before the master in respectful silence. "You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together," said Mokurai. "Now show me the sound of one hand." Toyo bowed and went to his room to consider this problem. From his window he could hear the music of the geishas. "Ah, I have it!" he proclaimed. The next evening, when his teacher asked him to illustrate the sound of one hand, Toyo began to play the music of the geishas. "No, no," said Mokurai. "That will never do. That is not the sound of one hand. You've not got it at all." Thinking that such music might interrupt, Toyo moved his abode to a quiet place. He meditated again. "What can be the sound of one hand?" He happened to hear some water dripping. "I have it," imagined Toyo. When he next appeared before his teacher, Toyo imitated the dripping water. "What is that?" asked Moturai. "That is the sound of dripping water, but not the sound of one hand. Try again." In vain, Toyo meditated to hear the sound of one hand. He heard the sighing of the wind. But the sound was rejected. He heard the cry of an owl. This was also refused. The sound of one hand was not the locusts. For more than ten times Toyo visited Mokurai with different sounds. All were wrong. For almost a year he pondered what the sound of one hand might be. At last little Toyo entered true meditation and transcended all sounds. "I could collect no more" he explained later, "so I reached the soundless sound." Toyo had realized the sound of one hand. (Zen Stories).
All the stories and history of such a powerful and wonderful education are present in books, encyclopedias, poems, etc., but in order to truly and fully comprehend its meaning, one need to experience what is the sound of one hand clapping.
All different religions have changed through the course of time. Zen Buddhism is a good example of the changes in religion over time. As it started long, long time ago with “the first teacher.” And went through India, China, Japan and many other places, it is still has the same base core, “a path for self-discovery and enlightenment” through a really deep meditation and devotion.
Works Cited
About Bodhidharma. Deb Platt. 11 April 2003.
Huai-Chin, Nan. Basic Buddhism: Exploring Buddhism and Zen. Great Britain, 1997.
Principles and Practices of Zen. Films for the Humanities, Inc., 1992.
Ropp, Paul S. (editor). Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
(i) David N. Keightley, “Early Civilization in China: Reflections on How It Became Chinese” (pp. 15-54).
(ii) Jack L. Dull, “The Evolution of Government in China” (pp. 55-85).
Shibayama, Zenkei. Zen comments on the Mumonkan. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., 1974.
The Mystical Spirit of the East: Maters and Disciples. Films for the Humanities, Inc., 2001.
Varley, Paul. Japanese Culture. Fourth Edition. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.
Chapter 1-4: The Emergence of Japanese Civilization; The Introduction of Buddhism; The Court at Its Zenith; The Advent of a New Age (pp. 1-90).
Zen Buddhism. Maitai Zendo. 2 April 2003 <
Zen stories. 12 April 2003 <
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