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What is Zen Buddhism · Abide Meditation App

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  Speaker 1: If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.
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  Speaker 1: Wait YouTube, before you demonetize me. This is not a
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  Speaker 1: call to violence. I'm literally quoting a famous Buddhist monk Lnji.
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  Speaker 1: The idea he's getting at is that when embarking on
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  Speaker 1: the path to awakening, people may find themselves drawn to
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  Speaker 1: charismatic teachers who have walked the path before them, hoping
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  Speaker 1: that these teachers will hold the key to enlightenment. We
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  Speaker 1: might become attached to certain teachings, believing that if we
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  Speaker 1: understand them intellectually, we'll finally get it. But when we progress,
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  Speaker 1: we realize that true wisdom doesn't come from outside ourselves.
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  Speaker 1: The capacity for awakening is within us, our very own
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  Speaker 1: Buddha nature. Master Lynja would argue that clinging to external
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  Speaker 1: sources can obscure this truth, and so killing the Buddha
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  Speaker 1: means letting go of attachments, even attachments to our most
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  Speaker 1: dear teachings and teachers, our most dear conceptions and preconceptions.
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  Speaker 1: And when you think you finally got it, that's precisely
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  Speaker 1: when you should stop and engage in critical self reflection. So,
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  Speaker 1: in a sense, when we kill the Buddha, we become
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  Speaker 1: the Buddha ourselves, not in some grandiose or ego driven way,
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  Speaker 1: but in a humble recognition of one's inherent capacity for awakenness.
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  Speaker 1: This is a fundamental teaching of Zen Buddhism. Now, Zen
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  Speaker 1: has made its way into our everyday vocabulary, but a
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  Speaker 1: lot of us don't really get what it means. It
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  Speaker 1: often evokes exotic and mystical stereotypes, the wise old sage
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  Speaker 1: living off the mountains, or we think of it as
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  Speaker 1: just meaning super chill, like I'm feeling so zen right now.
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  Speaker 1: But what is Zen Buddhism really? At its core? Zen
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  Speaker 1: is a lineage within Mahayana Buddhism and a path of meditation,
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  Speaker 1: a way of directly experiencing the truth about oneself and
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  Speaker 1: the world around us that stretches back to the mind
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  Speaker 1: of the Buddha himself. Zen teaches to embrace one's true
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  Speaker 1: Buddha nature and that a path deliberation can be found
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  Speaker 1: within each person, not in the heavens, not in temples,
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  Speaker 1: and not in sacred scriptures. According to legend, Zen traces
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  Speaker 1: its roots back to the Buddha and one of his
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  Speaker 1: most famous sermons, the Flower Sermon, well calling it a
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  Speaker 1: sermon might be a bit of a stretch, and Chinese
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  Speaker 1: is called nien huaweihio holding up a flower and smiling subtly.
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  Speaker 1: Guess what happens well, spoiler alert, The Buddha assembles his disciples,
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  Speaker 1: holds up a flower and smiles subtly. The other disciples
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  Speaker 1: are confused what's going on here? Only the great Monk
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  Speaker 1: Mahakashiappa understands and smiles back, recognizing the profound meaning of
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  Speaker 1: this silent sermon. With this wordless exchange, the Buddha is
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  Speaker 1: said to have transmitted the essence of his teachings, the
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  Speaker 1: first to receive what's called ishin chwanshin or mind to
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  Speaker 1: mind transmission. Thus, the Buddha planted the seed in the
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  Speaker 1: mind of the one who goes down in Zen tradition
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  Speaker 1: as the first Zen patriarch. Now that's the legendary origin story.
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  Speaker 1: For the somewhat more historical origin story, let's fast forward
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  Speaker 1: to China in the five hundred CE, when a lineage
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  Speaker 1: of Mahaana Buddhism started to merge, called Chan Buddhism. Chan
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  Speaker 1: went on to flourish across East Asia, becoming known as
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  Speaker 1: Son in Korea. Teen and Vietnam and Zen in Japan.
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  Speaker 1: Technically these all refer to the same lineage of practice,
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  Speaker 1: but Zen is the most popular word and thus is
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  Speaker 1: used most often in intro textbooks and intro YouTube video titles.
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  Speaker 1: The word Chan derives from the Sanskrit Diana, sometimes simply
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  Speaker 1: translated as meditation, though it refers to deeper levels of
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  Speaker 1: meditative absorption as well as some of the heavens in
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  Speaker 1: Buddhist cosmology, like if you die in a data state,
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  Speaker 1: you'll be reborn in one of those heavens. And as
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  Speaker 1: we'll see later, meditative practices are central to Zen. Tradition
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  Speaker 1: holds that Chan Buddhism was founded by a semi legendary
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  Speaker 1: Indian monk named Bodh Dharma. He purportedly showed up at
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  Speaker 1: the Shalin Monastery sometime in the late four hundreds and
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  Speaker 1: early five hundred CE. Yeah, I'm talking about that Shalon
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  Speaker 1: monastery later made famous by Kung Fu. He brought along
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  Speaker 1: with him teachings that became the cornerstone of Zen Buddhism,
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  Speaker 1: which revolve around the direct realization of one's own Buddha
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  Speaker 1: nature through meditation. These teachings show up in a short
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  Speaker 1: text called the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices,
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  Speaker 1: traditionally attributed to Body Dharma and dating to the late
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  Speaker 1: five hundred CE. Now scholars call this a proto Chan text,
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  Speaker 1: meaning it doesn't have all of the features of fully
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  Speaker 1: developed Chan Buddhism, but the seeds are clearly there. It
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  Speaker 1: outlines two complementary pathways to awakening, which it calls entrances,
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  Speaker 1: the entrance of principle and the entrance of practice. The
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  Speaker 1: entrance of practice focuses on daily behavior and offers four
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  Speaker 1: steps except all suffering as the fruition of past transgressions
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  Speaker 1: without complaint, acceptance of circumstances to remain unmoved even by
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  Speaker 1: good fortune, be without craving, and practice in accordance with
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  Speaker 1: the dharma to eradicate wrong thoughts without practicing. The entrance
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  Speaker 1: of principle meanwhile, outlines the idea of Buddha nature. One
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  Speaker 1: must have a profound faith in the fact that one
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  Speaker 1: and the same true nature is possessed by all sentient beings,
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  Speaker 1: both ordinary and enlightened, and that this true nature is
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  Speaker 1: only covered up and made imperceptible by false sense impressions.
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  Speaker 1: The treatises central claim that all beings possess an inherent
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  Speaker 1: potential to achieve buddhahood became foundational for later Chan thought.
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  Speaker 1: The Scholojohn mic Ray rites that this text encapsulates the
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  Speaker 1: doctrinal nucleus of much, if not all, later Chan theory
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  Speaker 1: and ideology. Now, Buddha nature was an extremely important concept
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  Speaker 1: in all of Chinese Buddhism, known as fwoshin. Chinese Buddhist
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  Speaker 1: developed the idea of Buddha nature to explain how enlightenment
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  Speaker 1: is even possible if someone has accumulated a ton of
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  Speaker 1: bad karma over potentially countless lifetimes. Basically, according to that idea,
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  Speaker 1: everyone has an inherent potential for awakening, like a seed
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  Speaker 1: waiting to sprout. Buddhists actually likened it to a garba
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  Speaker 1: or a womb or fetus waiting to develop. This potential
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  Speaker 1: exists alongside our karmic baggage, which are both stored in
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  Speaker 1: a storehouse consciousness or a laya vignana. So even though
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  Speaker 1: we make mistakes, the capacity for awakening remains intact. Karmic
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  Speaker 1: seeds that come to fruition. Zen texts often described as
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  Speaker 1: using the metaphor of a mirror. The Chinese master Hoeyenong writes,
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  Speaker 1: the mind is the body tree. The body is the
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  Speaker 1: mirror stand. The mirror is originally clean and pure, where
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  Speaker 1: can dust stain it? In other words, our true nature
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  Speaker 1: is always present and unblemished, perfectly clear, reflecting everything without
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  Speaker 1: distortion or attachment, if only we can learn to see it.
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  Speaker 1: For Chan Buddhists, this idea was central, and they argue
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  Speaker 1: that it's not about getting enlightened, it's about demonstrating the
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  Speaker 1: enlightenment that's already within you. You don't have to go
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  Speaker 1: out and find your Buddha nature. You just have to
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  Speaker 1: stop being ignorant of it, distracted by false impressions, habits
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  Speaker 1: and all that mental noise. So how do we dispel
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  Speaker 1: ignorance of our true Buddha nature? You might think, well,
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  Speaker 1: go read a book, throw yourself into the study of
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  Speaker 1: the greatest Buddhist texts, memorize the doctrines taught by the
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  Speaker 1: greatest Zen masters, Go get your PhD in Zen Buddhism.
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  Speaker 1: Then only then can you dispel your ignorance. But Zen
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  Speaker 1: complicates that idea. Here we turn to another Keyzen teaching.
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  Speaker 1: Zen is a special transmission outside the scriptures, not relying
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  Speaker 1: on words and letters pointing directly to the human mind,
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  Speaker 1: seeing into one's true nature and becoming a Buddha. This
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  Speaker 1: is a saying attributed to Bodi Dharma that became popular
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  Speaker 1: during the Song dynasty in China, and it basically means
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  Speaker 1: that realizing one's true Buddha nature does not rely on
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  Speaker 1: understanding established doctrines or texts. It involves direct personal insight,
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  Speaker 1: which ultimately leads to awakening as a Buddha. This insight
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  Speaker 1: cannot be fully conveyed by words or textual study, and
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  Speaker 1: must be experienced firsthand, typically through zazen or seated meditation,
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  Speaker 1: which we'll get into shortly By de emphasizing texts and doctrines.
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  Speaker 1: Zen Buddhism has often been described as a radical break
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  Speaker 1: from a more intellectual approach to Buddhism, an explicit rejection
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  Speaker 1: of the ultimate authority of writing. This has led to
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  Speaker 1: the misunderstanding that Zen is anti intellectual, like it's all
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  Speaker 1: about rejecting books and tossing out study altogether. But that's
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  Speaker 1: not quite right. Zen absolutely includes the study of written texts.
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  Speaker 1: There are tons of Zen texts that you could spend
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  Speaker 1: several lifetime studying. The point in Zen isn't that study,
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  Speaker 1: doctrine or ritual are not important. It's that they can
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  Speaker 1: be understood more deeply. In fact, Zen monastics have long
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  Speaker 1: engaged in rigorous sutra study, highly ritualized monastic life, and
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  Speaker 1: pure land practices. Trying to understand Zen literature without a
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  Speaker 1: firm grasp of Mahyana, sutras and philosophy is basically impossible.
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  Speaker 1: The key is how these texts are used and Zen.
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  Speaker 1: They're seen as provisional tools, helpful pointers, which is common
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  Speaker 1: in many Mahana traditions. A saying attributed to the Mahyana
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  Speaker 1: Buddhist philosopher and a Gardenias says, as the ignorant grasp
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  Speaker 1: the fingertip that points to the moon, and do not
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  Speaker 1: see the moon. So those who cling to the letter
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  Speaker 1: do not see my truth. In other words, scriptures and
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  Speaker 1: doctrines are like fingers pointing at the moon. They're not
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  Speaker 1: the moon itself. The danger come do we mistake the
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  Speaker 1: pointer for the destination? In fact, there's another saying attributed
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  Speaker 1: to Bodhidharma that if you rely only on reading to
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  Speaker 1: understand the dharma, your chi or your vital energy will
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  Speaker 1: be weak. Zen is all about experiencing the truth firsthand,
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  Speaker 1: not just analyzing someone else's version of it. Even an
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  Speaker 1: extremely erudite text from a great zen master is at
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  Speaker 1: best a second hand account of someone else's direct experience.
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  Speaker 1: Reading about someone else's awakening is not the same as
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  Speaker 1: waking up yourself. The phrase a special transmission outside the scriptures.
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  Speaker 1: Not relying on words and letters is more about arguing
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  Speaker 1: that words cannot fully capture reality. They can't help you
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  Speaker 1: solve the problem of rebirth or recognize your inherent Buddha nature.
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  Speaker 1: Zen masters like Dahwe argued the point of words is
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  Speaker 1: to point to something beyond words, and he criticized those
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  Speaker 1: who over intellectualize the path to awakening your whole life.
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  Speaker 1: You've made up so many little word games. When the
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  Speaker 1: last day of your life arrives, which phrases are you
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  Speaker 1: going to use to oppose birth and death. We also
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  Speaker 1: saw this teaching in the Flower Sermon with the Buddha's
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  Speaker 1: wordless transmission of his teaching. After this exchange, the Buddha declared,
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  Speaker 1: I have the all pervading true dharma incomparable nirvana exquisite
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  Speaker 1: teaching of formless form. It does not rely on words
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  Speaker 1: and letters and is transmitted outside all doctrines, I now
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  Speaker 1: hand it to Mahaki Shappa. In other words, liberating insight
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  Speaker 1: is conveyed directly from teacher to student bypassing words and doctrines.
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  Speaker 1: In this we see another key feature of Zen, a
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  Speaker 1: strong emphasis on lineage. Instead of rooting its authority and
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  Speaker 1: sacred texts, Chan Buddhism bases its legitimacy on a direct
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  Speaker 1: personal connection between teacher and student. The direct transmission of
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  Speaker 1: insight from master to disciple creates an unbroken chain that
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  Speaker 1: extends back to the mind of the Buddha himself. That
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  Speaker 1: wordless exchange between the Buddha and Mahakishappa is said to
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  Speaker 1: mark the start of the Chan lineage, and this special
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  Speaker 1: transmission became the defining feature of Chan's identity, with a
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  Speaker 1: lineage of patriarchs called Zushi serving as the custodians of
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  Speaker 1: that transmission. Now zushi is usually translated as patriarch, but
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  Speaker 1: it literally means ancestral teacher. The list of Chan patriarchs
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  Speaker 1: verya there's but a common list, includes twenty eight Indian
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  Speaker 1: patriarchs starting with Mahaka Shappa, and six Chinese patriarchs. Body
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  Speaker 1: Dharma serves as both the twenty eighth Indian Patriarch and
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  Speaker 1: the first Chinese Patriarch. Another key concept in Zen Buddhism
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  Speaker 1: is dwunwu, often translated as sudden awakening. Sudden awakening signifies
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  Speaker 1: that enlightenment is not a gradual process, but a direct
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  Speaker 1: realization of one's inherent Buddha nature, which on the surface
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  Speaker 1: challenges the notion that enlightenment requires extensive learning or practice.
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  Speaker 1: The idea of Buddha nature suggests that enlightenment is an
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  Speaker 1: inner reality to be uncovered, not an external state to
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  Speaker 1: be achieved, and this can be realized in a single
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  Speaker 1: transformative moment. Take, for example, the story of Bodhi Dharma
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  Speaker 1: in the second Chinese patriarch Quaika. According to legend, after
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  Speaker 1: showing up at the shallin temple, Body Dharma went off
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  Speaker 1: to a cave where he spent nine years just meditating
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  Speaker 1: while staring at a wall. Meanwhile, Huika was so desperate
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  Speaker 1: to learn from him that he waited outside in the
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  Speaker 1: freezing snow. Body Darma ignored him until, in an extreme
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  Speaker 1: show of dedication, Hoika chopped off his own left arm
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  Speaker 1: and offered it to Bodi Darm to show how serious
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  Speaker 1: he was Bodi Dharma was like, okay, fine, you've got
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  Speaker 1: my attention now. Uika then says, my mind is not
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  Speaker 1: at ease. Please pacify it for me. Bodhi Dharma responds,
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  Speaker 1: bring me your mind and I will. Juika says, but
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  Speaker 1: no matter how I might look, the mind is not
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  Speaker 1: a thing I can find. Body Dharma replied, there, I've
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  Speaker 1: pacified your mind for you. Boom, Suddenly Jika is awakened.
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  Speaker 1: This pivotal moment occurs not through gradual study, but in
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  Speaker 1: a single transformative exchange with Body Dharma. Juika confesses his
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  Speaker 1: restless mind, but Body Darma's simple yet profound response, challenging
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  Speaker 1: him to find the mind as a tangible thing, shatters
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  Speaker 1: Juikah's preconceived notions and leads him to an instantaneous realization
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  Speaker 1: of his Buddha nature. Another example is the story of
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  Speaker 1: the Patriarchoynum. According to legend, he was an illiterate peasant
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  Speaker 1: who attained awakening upon hearing a single verse of the
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  Speaker 1: Diamond Sutra, one of the most influential Mahayana sutras. One
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  Speaker 1: line and boom, he was awakened. So notice that the
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  Speaker 1: concept of sudden awakening means that awakening is democratized. It's
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  Speaker 1: within reach of all people, regardless of social status or education.
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  Speaker 1: Though the concept was debated in the early centuries of
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  Speaker 1: Chan history, the traditional narrative is that there was a
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  Speaker 1: debate between a so called Southern school, which taught sudden awakening,
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  Speaker 1: and a Northern school linked with gradual awakening, with the
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  Speaker 1: sudden awakening school eventually winning. Though the story isn't quite
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  Speaker 1: as straightforward as it sounds. The idea that there were
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  Speaker 1: two clearly distinct schools mostly comes from the writing of
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  Speaker 1: the Chan monk Shanhuei, who promoted his own lineage by
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  Speaker 1: criticizing a rival lineage. This sharp contrast between sudden and
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  Speaker 1: gradual awakening was likely exaggerated for rhetorical effect, So while
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  Speaker 1: the sudden awakening model did become dominant in later tradition,
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  Speaker 1: the historical picture is much much messier. Other Chan Buddhist
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  Speaker 1: developed a two tier position called wun Wu jianchio, or
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  Speaker 1: a sudden awakening followed by gradual cultivation. In this framework,
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  Speaker 1: you can suddenly experience something called understanding awakening, where the
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  Speaker 1: being suddenly realizes that they are a Buddha, but this
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  Speaker 1: realization alone is not sufficient to attain buddhahood. After that
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  Speaker 1: initial awakening, you've got to put in the work gradual cultivation,
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  Speaker 1: un learning all of the bad he has, habits and
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  Speaker 1: mental patterns you've built up over well eons. It's only
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  Speaker 1: through this long, steady process that you can actually live
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  Speaker 1: as a Buddha and fully embody awakening. The zen master
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  Speaker 1: Zongmi uses the metaphor of a newborn infant. You've got
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  Speaker 1: all the potential of a full grown adult, but you've
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  Speaker 1: got to grow up, learn and mature before we can
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  Speaker 1: fully realize that potential. With this emphasis on dwun wu
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  Speaker 1: or sudden awakening, Chon masters developed distinctive teaching styles meant
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  Speaker 1: to spark insight in the moment. They use stories, questions,
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  Speaker 1: or statements called coons in Japanese, like that killed the
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  Speaker 1: Buddha statement we started with. Other famous ones include what
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  Speaker 1: is your original face before your father and mother were born?
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  Speaker 1: Or what is the sound of one hand clapping? It's
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  Speaker 1: not meant to have a logical solution. These questions are
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  Speaker 1: designed to cut through conceptual or dualistic thinking and provoke
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  Speaker 1: sudden direct realization into the nature of reality. During the
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  Speaker 1: Song dynasty, this practice of working with coons evolved into
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  Speaker 1: a specific meditative method called kanhua chan, or questioning meditation.
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  Speaker 1: One of the key figures behind this approach was the
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  Speaker 1: chan master Dahue, who emphasized not just reading or studying coons,
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  Speaker 1: but sitting with them as an object of meditation, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: meditating on a single key word in the coon. CHOHn
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  Speaker 1: masters also developed let's call them more direct teaching methods
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  Speaker 1: to shake students out of their mental ruts. Masters like
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  Speaker 1: Linji and Masu Dai were known for shock techniques called
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  Speaker 1: bangha or the stick and the shout. This involved shouting, hitting, kicking,
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  Speaker 1: and using irrational retorts to startle their students into sudden awakening.
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  Speaker 1: This also included using zen awakening sticks to hit students
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: if they start losing their concentration. Yeah, maybe rethink the
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  Speaker 1: idea that zen means super chill. These unconventional methods were
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  Speaker 1: designed to disrupt ordinary thinking, challenge their students' perceptions, and
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  Speaker 1: stop students from over intellectualizing, prompting not just intellectual comprehension,
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  Speaker 1: but sudden awakening. But direct insight is usually cultivated through
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  Speaker 1: a consistent physical practice called zazen or seated meditation, which
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  Speaker 1: is the heart of zen practice. So what does zzen
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  Speaker 1: actually look like? Well, you don't need a monastery or
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  Speaker 1: a mountaintop, but a quiet, uncluttered space helps. Some people
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  Speaker 1: create a small meditation area with a cushion called a
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  Speaker 1: zafu and mats called zobotoons to support an upright, stable posture.
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  Speaker 1: And posture is important, and zen the body of mind
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  Speaker 1: are seen as interconnected, so how one sits matters. Practitioners
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  Speaker 1: may sit cross legged on a cushion, but also might
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  Speaker 1: kneel or use a chair. Again, whatever supports an upright,
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  Speaker 1: stable and relaxed posture. Hands are typically placed in the
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  Speaker 1: lap and the eyes remain softly open, gazing downward. This
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  Speaker 1: posture encourages alertness without tension. Breath becomes the primary focus,
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  Speaker 1: with some traditions teaching breath counting inhaling on one, exhaling
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  Speaker 1: on two, all the way up to ten before beginning again.
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  Speaker 1: This is seen as a technique to anchor awareness. The
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  Speaker 1: goal is not to suppress thought, but to observe its
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  Speaker 1: movement and gently return attention to the breath whenever the
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  Speaker 1: mind wanders in time. Thoughts are treated like passing clouds,
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  Speaker 1: acknowledged but not pursued as the Zen Master Dogan writes,
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  Speaker 1: to study the self is to forget the self, and
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  Speaker 1: to forget the self is to be enlightened by the
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  Speaker 1: ten thousand things. The aim of zazen is not self
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  Speaker 1: improvement in the conventional sense, but a direct and body
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  Speaker 1: realization of what has always been present. Alongside seated meditation,
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  Speaker 1: Zen practice also includes walking meditation, known as kanhen. While
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  Speaker 1: zazen emphasizes stillness, keenhen introduces mindfulness and motion, bringing the
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  Speaker 1: same attentiveness cultivated while sitting into each physical step. And
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  Speaker 1: Keenhen practitioners walk slowly and deliberately, often in a circular path,
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  Speaker 1: focusing attention on posture, movement, and breath. Though the practice
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  Speaker 1: appears simple, it can be deceptively difficult. Walking at a
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  Speaker 1: slow pace runs counter to the fast paced rhythms of
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  Speaker 1: daily life. But walking meditation trains the mind to settle
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  Speaker 1: into the body in the present moment, where even the
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  Speaker 1: act of walking becomes a form of insight. As Dogan wrote,
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  Speaker 1: if you walk in the way of Buddhas and ancestors,
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  Speaker 1: then you are a Buddha or ancestor. So to summarize,
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  Speaker 1: Zen is all about direct, personal experience of your true nature,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: not relying on scriptures, doctrines and intellectualizing. It's about realizing
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: that you already have Buddha nature deep within you. And
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: awakening is not about acquiring something new. It's about uncovering
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: what's always been there, usually through seated meditation, but also
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: through other practices like walking meditation, meditating on those cryptic coans,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: or even getting smacked with an awakening stick. So how
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: do we go from Chan to Zen? As in how
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: do we go from the Chinese context to the Japanese context?
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Over the centuries, Zen has deeply influenced Japanese culture, from
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the tea ceremony and landscape gardening to martial arts and
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: haiku poetry. You can see Zen everywhere. By the middle
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: of the eleven hundreds, Chan was the dominant form of
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Buddhism in China, and a network of monasteries was even
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: receiving state sponsorship from the Song dynasty. In this context,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: two major schools emerged, the Linji school, which would later
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: become known as Rinzai in Japanese and that Saudong school
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: later known as Soto and Japanese. Lnji was known for
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: its dynamic and sometimes confrontational style an emphasis on Coan's,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: while Saudong focused on silent illumination through the practice of
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: just sitting, a form of meditation where the mere active
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: sitting is considered a manifestation of enlightenment. Lineages from these
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: two schools eventually made their way to Japan and the
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: eleven hundreds and twelve hundreds thanks to the Japanese Buddhist
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: monks Asi and Dogan, who both journeyed from Japan to
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: study in China's grand monasteries, bringing Chan Buddhism back to
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: their homeland. Asai was a Japanese Buddhist of the Tendai tradition,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: a Japanese branch of Mahayana Buddhism known for esotericism and
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: tantric style practice. In fact, Asai was known as a
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: tontric specialist himself. He traveled to China to study under
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: a Linei Chan master, and after receiving the special transmission
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: from him, Asi returned to Japan and went on to
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: establish the Rinzai School of Zen Buddhism. The Rinsai school
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: placed a strong emphasis on Coan practice. In fact, in Rinzai,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: coons became part of a structured training system with students
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: working through a carefully sequenced curriculum of coans under the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: guidance of a teacher. And again, the goal of coans
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: was not to solve them intellectually, but to trigger moments
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: of deep, nonconceptual insight. One of the most famous coans
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: in the Rinsi tradition is the so called mu Koon.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: It comes from a dialogue between the chan master Joujo
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: and a student who asks a seemingly straightforward question, does
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: a dog have Buddha nature? Now? According to Mahayana Buddhist teachings,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the answer is a clear, easy yes. All sension beings
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: are said to possess Buddha nature. But Jojo doesn't say yes.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: He says moo no, or literally, it does not have it.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, is Jaujo denying a core doctrine. Well, no,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: not exactly. His answer is not meant to be a
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: ductrinal correction. It's not even meant to make sense in
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: a logical way. Instead, this kind of answer is meant
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  Speaker 1: to disrupt the student's expectations, to break the mind out
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  Speaker 1: of its usual habits, and push the student into a
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: state of deep questioning. This sense of confusion or even
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: frustration becomes meditation fuel. In fact, the word MoU became
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: a central meditative focus in Rinzai. Zen practitioners are instructed
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: to sit with his co on, not to figure it
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: out intellectually, but to experience it again. It's not about
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: getting a logical answer, It's about pushing them toward kensho,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: a sudden insight or glimpse into their own Buddha nature.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Asi is also credited with introducing tea culture to Japan,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: which eventually blossomed into the ritualized Japanese tea ceremony. He
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: even wrote a treatise called Drinking Tea for Health, promoting
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: tea as a medicine for body and mind. The other
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: major figure in introducing Zen to Japan was Dogan. Like Asi,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: he started as a ten dimes monk and actually studied
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: under one of Asi students. But Dogan wasn't satisfied with
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the answers he was getting in Japan, so he did
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: what any serious seeker did back then and packed his
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: bags and went to China, where he encountered the Tzaudong
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: lineage of Chan Buddhism. He brought it back to Japan,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: where it became known as Soto While Dogan did write
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: extensively on Coan's he explicitly discouraged focusing on them during zazen. Instead,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: he emphasized what he called non thinking. This idea comes
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: from eighth centuries and dialogue. A monk once asked Master Yaoshan,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: what do you think about while meditating. Yaoshan replied, think
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: not thinking. The monk asked, how do you think not thinking?
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Yaoshan answered, non thinking. It's cryptic, but that's the point.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: This is not ordinary thinking. The Chinese word used here
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: for thinking, si leong, carries connotations of calculation, evaluation, and
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  Speaker 1: even desiring. Dogan picked up on this and advised his
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  Speaker 1: students to put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and chasing phrases, and learned to take the backward step
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: that turns the light of the mind around and shines
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: it inward. Give up the operation of the mind, intellect,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: and consciousness. Stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. The
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: modern Sotosen monk Suzukiroshi said, the point is not to
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: stop your thinking, but to let your thinking come and
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: go like clouds in a vast sky, without getting caught
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: up in their stories. Let it stop by itself. He says,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: things will come as they come and go as they go.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Then eventually your clear, empty mind will last fairly long.
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  Speaker 1: So during zazen, Sotozen urges practitioners to abandon this way
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  Speaker 1: of thinking, where the mind is constantly evaluating everything as
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: an object separate from itself. How do you do that well,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Dogan's answer sounds almost too simple. Just sit shikantaza. Don't
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: chase your thoughts, don't try to shut them down. Just
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: let them come and go without judgment or attachment, and
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: over time, the constant stream of thoughts may quiet down,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: creating moments of profound stillness where the mind simply is
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: without the usual noise. In sotozen, especially in the practice
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: of Shikantaza, enlightenment is not typically seen as a lightning
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: bolt event. Instead, it's more like a slow, steady unfolding
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: what's called mokusho, or silent illumination of your Buddha nature.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: But for Dogan, just sitting was not a means to enlightenment.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: It was enlightenment fully expressed in the present moment. You
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: don't need to become a Buddha. You are a Buddha.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: When comparing Sotozen and Rinzai Zen. The scholar Brett Davis
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: uses the analogy of a slow simmer versus a pressure cooker.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Sotozen is the slow simmer where realization gently unfolds through steady,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: silent practice. Rinzai Zen, on the other hand, uses coons
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: and intense student teacher exchanges to build up mental tension
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: until it bursts into sudden awakening. As Japan opened its
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: doors to the West in the late nineteenth and early
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: twentieth centuries, pioneering teachers like Shaku Soin and DT Suzuki
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: began to introduce Zen to American audiences. Japanese American immigrants
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: also founded Zen temples in Hawaii in California. The eighteen
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: ninety three World Parliament of Religions in Chicago marked turning point.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Shaku Sohan's disciple Suzuki, presented Zen as the essence of
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Asian spirituality, stripped of cultural trappings in religious dogma, and
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: in the nineteen fifties and six new generation of spiritual
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: seekers discovered Zen through the writings of Alan Watts and
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the Beat poets like Jack Kerouac. Japanese masters like ties
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: On Maizumi established thriving centers in California and American born
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: teachers help to translate Zen into a Western idiom. Today,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Zen is a vibrant and diverse presence in American Buddhist life,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: with hundreds of centers and groups representing various lineages and
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: styles of practice. So let's return again to that provocative
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: saying that we started with. If you meet the Buddha
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: on the road, kill him. I hope its deeper meaning
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: has become clear by now. This is not a cull
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: to violence, but a reminder that the truth we seek
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: can't be found outside ourselves, in any external authority or
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: conceptual formulation. The real killing that the Zen masters speak
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: of is letting go of attachments and preconceptions, shedding all
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: that obscures one's inherent Buddha nature. In a sense, that
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: is a kind of death, but the death of the ego,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: the death of the illusion that people are separate and permanent.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Even though Zen practice emphasizes finding the Buddha within, scholars
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: and practitioners alike have noticed a tendency in individualistic societies
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: like the US to interpret that inward serve, which as
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: a personal quest for spiritual authenticity, self actualization, or self improvement.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: The kind of Buddhism as self discovery that we see
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: in books like Caroax and Dharma Bums, though many Zen
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: practitioners would argue that one needs to counterbalance this individualizing
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: tendency through communal practice, as in working in the temple kitchen,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: performing routine chores, or participating in the daily life of
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the community. Should not be seen as peripheral, but integral
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: to the path. Embodied practices that challenge self centeredness and
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: reinforce the idea that awakening is not a solitary accomplishment.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Sometimes killing the ego looks a lot like washing dishes
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: at the local temple, So whether you're sitting in meditation
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: or raking sand in the temple garden, Zen practice reminds
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: people that awakening is not about acquiring something new. It's
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: about unlearning the habits that obscure what's already there, and
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: often it's in the most ordinary moments that those insights emerge.
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