About Zen Buddhism
From Wikipedia.
Zen asserts,
as do other schools in Mahayana Buddhism, that all sentient beings
have Buddha-nature, the universal nature of inherent wisdom (Sanskrit
prajna) and virtue, and emphasizes that Buddha-nature is not other
than the nature of mind itself. The aim of Zen practice is to discover
this Buddha-nature within each person, through meditation and mindfulness
of daily experiences. Zen practitioners believe that this provides
new perspectives and insights on existence, which ultimately lead
to enlightenment.
In distinction
to many other Buddhist sects, Zen deemphasizes reliance on religious
texts and verbal discourse on metaphysical questions. Zen holds that
these things lead the practitioner to seek external answers, rather
than searching within their own minds for the direct intuitive apperception
of Buddha-nature. This search within goes under various terms such
as “introspection,” “a backward step,” “turning-about,”
or “turning the eye inward.”
In this
sense, Zen, as a means to deepen the practice and in contrast to many
other religions, could be seen as fiercely anti-philosophical, iconoclastic,
anti-prescriptive and anti-theoretical. The importance of Zen's non-reliance
on written words is often misunderstood as being against the use of
words. However, Zen is deeply rooted in both the scriptural teachings
of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama and in Mahayana Buddhist thought
and philosophy. What Zen emphasises is that the awakening taught by
the Buddha came through his meditation practice, not from any words
that he read or discovered, and so it is through meditation that others
too may awaken to the same insights as the Buddha.
The teachings
on the technique and practice of turning the eye inward are found
in many suttas and sutras of Buddhist canons, but in its beginnings
in China, Zen primarily referred to the Mahayana Sutras and especially
to the Lankavatara Sutra. Ironically, since Bodhidharma taught the
turning-about techniques of dhyana with reference to the Lankavatara
Sutra, the Zen school was initially identified with that sutra. It
was in part through reaction to such limiting identification with
one text that Chinese Zen cultivated its famous non-reliance on written
words and independence of any one scripture. However, a review of
the teachings of the early Zen masters clearly reveals that they were
all well versed in various scriptures. For example, in The Platform
Sutra of the Sixth ancestor and founder Huineng, this famously "illiterate"
Zen master cites and explains the Diamond Sutra, the Lotus Sutra,
the Vimalakirti Sutra, the Shurangama Sutra, and the Lankavatara Sutra.
