Zen Buddhism

Honorific titles associated with teachers typically include, in Chinese: Fashi (法師) or Chanshi (禪師); in Korean, Sunim or Seon Sa; in Japanese: Osho (priest) Roshi (old master) or Sensei (teacher); and in Vietnamese, Thich adopted in place of a surname. Note that many of these titles are common among Buddhist priests of all schools present in the specific cultural context. Some titles, such as the Japanese sensei are also used beyond the Buddhist schools.

The term Zen master is often used to refer to important teachers, especially ancient and medieval ones. However, there is no specific criterion by which one can be called a Zen master. The term is less common in reference to modern teachers, because they are generally reluctant to proclaim themselves "masters." At the same time these teachers willingly acknowledge their lineage connections, naming who authorized them as teachers.

This is important as there are a number of people in the west, some leading relatively large centers, who claim to be Zen teachers but who will not say where they trained or who authorized them to teach. This is a radical departure from normative Zen where "lineage" is considered crucial. As such it is reasonable to assume such people are not what they claim to be. People seeking a teacher should be aware that there are a surprisingly large number of such self-declared masters.

Some schools such as the Kwan Um publish lists of their teachers. The American Zen Teachers Association is in the process of providing lists of their members at the Association's website. When posted, while not a complete record of legitimately authorized Zen teachers in North America, it will be an enormous help to those attempting to find people who at least have formal authorization in some traditional lineage.

Of course even formal authorization should not be considered "enough." The moral lapses of any number of contemporary Zen teachers should be a warning in this regard. As the relationship between a teacher and a student requires complete intimacy and a profound trust on the part of the student, any one seriously considering studying with a Zen teacher should read widely about the prospective teacher, ask people who've studied Zen for some years, do web searches, and perhaps most importantly look closely at the teacher's students. Much can be discovered in such simple acts.

 

Chinese character for "nothing." Chinese: wú (Japanese: mu).

The Zen schools (especially but not exclusively Rinzai) are associated with koans (Japanese; Chinese: gongan; Korean: gong'an). The term originally referred to legal cases in Tang-dynasty China.

In some sense, a koan embodies a realized principle, or law of reality. Koans often appear paradoxical or linguistically meaningless. The 'answer' to the koan involves a transformation of perspective or consciousness, which may be either radical or subtle, possibly akin to the experience of metanoia in Christianity. They are a tool to allow the student to approach enlightenment by essentially 'short-circuiting' the logical way we order the world. Through assimilation of a Koan it is possible to 'jump-start' an altered mindset that then facilitates enlightenment.

An example of a Zen koan is: "Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand clapping?" It is sometimes said that after diligent practice, the practitioner and the koan become one. Though most Zen groups aim for a "sudden" enlightenment, this usually comes only after a great deal of preparation.

For examples of 'successful' koan practice resulting in enlightenment experiences, see the anecdotes of Rinzai koan practice recounted in the first book in English to engage Zen as a practice, 'The Three Pillars of Zen' by Philip Kapleau. For examples of years of futile and fruitless koan practice see the book 'After Zen' by Janwillem van de Wetering. The most important book on the subject in English is probably Isshu Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki's 'Zen Dust,' sadly long out of print. Fortunately the text, while lacking the extensive footnotes, continues to be available as 'The Zen Koan: It's History and Use in Rinzai Zen.' Probably the best relatively brief survey of koan study is the introduction to Victor Sogen Hori's 'Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice" which can be found on the web. Also of importance, although marred by the ideological perspectives of several of its authors, is the anthology edited by Steven Heine and Dale Wright, 'The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism.'

Zen teachers advise that the problem posed by a koan is to be taken quite seriously, and to be approached quite literally as a matter of life and death. There is a sharp distinction between right and wrong ways of answering a koan — though there may be many "right answers", practitioners are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the koan and of Zen with their whole being.

The Zen student's mastery of a given koan is presented to the teacher in a private session (called in various Japanese schools dokusan, daisan or sanzen). The answer to a koan is more dependent on "how" it is answered. Or, to put it somewhat differently, the answer is a function not merely of a reply, but of a whole modification of the student's experience; he or she must live the answer to the koan rather than merely offering a correct statement.

It is misleading to suggest there is a single correct answer for any given koan, though there are "correct" and "incorrect" answers, and, indeed, students in a cheating mindset would often compile books of accepted answers to koans to help prepare for the interview. These collections are of great value to modern scholarship on the subject.

Following the tradition of "living koans," a number of western Zen teachers supplement the traditional koan curriculum using various western sources, such as apparently paradoxical sayings from the Bible.

Some of the traditional Zen fables describe Zen masters using controversial methods of 'teaching', which modern Zen enthusiasts may have a tendency to interpret too literally. For example, though Zen and Buddhism deeply respect life and teach non-violence, the founder of the Zen Rinzai school, Linji said: "If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet a Patriarch, kill the Patriarch."

A contemporary Zen Master, Seung Sahn, has echoed this teaching in saying that in this life we must all 'kill' three things: first we must kill parents; second we must kill Buddha; and last, we must kill the Zen teacher (e.g. Seung Sahn). Of course, kill here is not literally killing. What is meant is to kill one's devotion to teachers or other external objects. Rather than see concepts outside of themselves, Zen practitioners must integrate these objects with their concepts of self.

When visiting Zen centers, people who began with the stories featuring apparent iconoclastic encounters are often surprised by the conservative and ritualistic nature of the practice. Since, most Zen centers in the west, like their counterparts in the east, emphasize regular meditation on both a daily basis and in monthly retreat as well as a discipline based in practice schedules and everyday household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and gardening as the path of enlightenment.

Since the 1930s in the United Kingdom, and at least since the Beatnik movement of the 1950s in the United States, the West has had a growing interest in Zen. Often, it has been diluted or used as a brand name, leading to criticism of Western appreciation for Buddhism. However, there is some genuine interest as well.

In Europe, the Expressionist and Dada movements in art tend to have much in common thematically with the study of koans and actual Zen. The early French surrealist René Daumal translated D.T. Suzuki as well as Buddhist Sanskrit texts.

Eugen Herrigel's book Zen and the Art of Archery (ISBN 0375705090), described his training in the Japanese Zen martial art of Kyudo [4], which inspired many early Zen practitioners.

The British-American philosopher Alan Watts had a personal interest in the Zen school of Buddhism and wrote and lectured extensively on it. He was interested in it as a vehicle for a mystical transformation of consciousness, and also in the historical example of a non-Western, non-Christian way of life that had fostered both the practical and fine arts.

The Dharma Bums, a novel written by Jack Kerouac and published in 1959, gave its readers a look at how a fascination with Buddhism and Zen was being absorbed into lifestyle experimentation by a small group of mainly west-coast American youths. Besides the narrator, the main character in this novel was Gary Snyder, thinly veiled as "Japhy Ryder" by his friend Kerouac. The story was based on actual events that occurred when Snyder pursued formal Zen studies in Japanese monasteries between 1956 and 1968.

Many youths in the Beat generation and among the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s misunderstood the goals and methods of Zen. While the scholar D.T. Suzuki may have brought attention to concepts in Zen such as humility, labor, service, prayer, gratitude, and meditation, the "hip" subculture often focused on states of consciousness in themselves. Japanese Zen master Zenkei Shibayama commented: "It may be true that the effect which such scientifically prepared drugs as LSD produce may have some superficial resemblance to some aspects of Zen experience.... When the effect of the drug is gone, the psychological experience one may have had is also weakened and dispersed, and does not endure as a living fact."

The book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig, was a 1974 bestseller, but is not specifically about Zen per se, but deals with the notion of the metaphysics of "quality" from the point of view of the main character. Pirsig was attending the Minnesota Zen Center at the time of writing the book.[5] Pirsig explains in the book that, despite its title, the book "should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice."

Many modern students have made the mistake of thinking that since much of Zen sounds like nonsense, especially in translation and out of context, any clever nonsense is also Zen. This is not the case — see koan — although the Church of the SubGenius and especially Discordianism have been influenced by this idea.

More "mainstream" forms of Zen, led by teachers who trained in East Asia or were trained by such teachers have begun to take root in the west. In North America the largest family of "lineages" is derived from the Japanese Soto school. These include the "White Plum" founded by Taizan Maezumi Roshi and the "Ordinary Mind" school founded by Maezumi's Dharma heir Zen master Joko Beck; as well as the "San Francisco Zen Center" lineage established by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi; and the "Katagiri" lineage established by Suzuki's sometime associate, Dainin Katagiri Roshi which has a significant presence in the midwest.

A Soto reform school which emphasizes lay practice as well as incorporating a full koan curriculum, the Sanbo Kyodan (or Order of the Three Treasures) is represented in North America by Ruben Habito Roshi, as well as Robert Aitken Roshi's "Diamond Sangha" network, the "Pacific Zen Institute" led by John Tarrant Roshi, and the "Boundless Way Zen" network led by James Ford Roshi.

The single largest Zen lineage is the Korean derived "Kwan Um School of Zen" established by Zen Master Seung Sahn. There are also a number of Japanese derived Rinzai centers, most notably the "Rinzaiji" lineage of Joshu Sasaki Roshi. and the "Dai Bosatsu" lineage established by Eido Shimano Roshi. There are also a few centers based in Chinese Chan, most notable in that it has significant western leadership is the "Dharma Drum" lineage led by Zen Master Sheng Yen.

The Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh has developed the Order of Interbeing as an independent school that combines some aspects of Zen together with other disciplines. While he appears never to have received Dharma transmission, Thich Nhat Hanh has become an important influence in the development of a western Zen.

Two pan-lineage organizations have formed in the last few years. The oldest is the American Zen Teachers Association which includes the majority of Zen teachers in North America and sponsors an annual conference. Soto lineage teachers in North America have also recently formed a Soto Zen Buddhist Association where they are exploring the possibilities of a "western Soto."