Week 11 Blog

By: Be Zen

This week on Wednesday we started talking about Zen Buddhism and how it differentiates from other forms of Buddhism. Zen Buddhism has its origins in the Sanskrit word “dhyana,” which means meditation¹. It has its origins here due to the fact that Zen Buddhism specifies that to attain enlightenment unlike pure land Buddhism or Nichiren Buddhism, one must meditate on his own thoughts and not learn through text. This is the key difference between all forms of Buddhism and Zen Buddhism. 

Zen Buddhists believe that only through meditation and introspection on the world around them through reality breaking questions does one reach enlightenment or Satori². For example, in class, we discussed the quote, “Intuitive grasp of the nature of reality by means of meditation and concentration, not by relying on the intellect or reasoned knowledge.³” This quote shows Zen Buddhists did not look towards texts for how to attain enlightenment, but they look towards their own intuition to discover the truths of reality itself. Moreover, this thought process can be seen in the fact that there are no texts to learn from in Zen Buddhism. The only way to learn is through masters. However, the masters do not teach you, instead, they give you questions that are meant to break your mind or what they call Koān⁴. They give you these questions to stop yourself from being rational as by being irrational you can see the true state of the world. For example, in class, Dr. D gave us the example, ‘What does a one hand clap sound like’. These questions do not have real answers to them. However, these questions are mind numbing and take a long time to think about. As such, Zen Buddhists meditate on these questions. Yet, meditating is hard and tiring so as to not fall asleep Zen Buddhists drink a lot of tea as a way to stay up.

Tea drinking and use of the Koān were practiced primarily by the Rinzai sect from 1141-1215⁵. Meanwhile, the Sōtō Sect sought gradual enlightenment through seated mediation or Zazen from 1200-1253⁶. This sect was primarily composed of warriors and samurai as they needed to focus before a battle started. As such, samurai would use Zazen and mediate before an imminent battle. Samurai found Zen teachings and practices allowed them to focus easier. However, this brings up many questions such as, why are there two sects in the first place? It seems that both tea drinking and meditating would help. Was the Rinzai sect superior while the Sōtō sect was inferior due to the Sōtō sect being composed mostly of warriors and the Rinzai sect composed of the upper echelons? How can Buddhism have such stark interpretations of it? One sees enlightenment through intellectual discovery while the others see enlightenment through text and practices.  

Bibliography

Ellwood, Robert, and Ellwood. “Zen Buddhism.” In Encyclopedia of Global Religions, by Wade Roof, and Mark Juergensmeyer. Sage Publications, 2011. 1. https://muhlenberg.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sagegr/zen_buddhism/0?institutionId=4200

Hane, Mikiso, and Louis G Perez. Premodern Japan : A Historical Survey. Second ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2015. 

1. Ellwood, Robert, and Ellwood. “Zen Buddhism.” In Encyclopedia of Global Religions, by Wade Roof, and Mark Juergensmeyer. Sage Publications (2011), 1.
2. Ellwood, Robert, and Ellwood. “Zen Buddhism,” 1.
3. Hane, Mikiso, and Louis G Perez. Premodern Japan : A Historical Survey. Second ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2015.
4. Ellwood, Robert, and Ellwood. “Zen Buddhism,”1.
5.  Ibid., 1.
6. Ibid.