The Zen Contemplative Tradition

Mythologically, the origins of the Zen Tradition are traced back to Siddhartha Gautama and one of his first disciples – Mahakasyapa.  According to Zen legend, one afternoon, while with his disciples, the Buddha became silent and simply held up a bouquet of flowers before the assembly.  Without speaking, Mahakasyapa looked at the Buddha and smiled.  At that moment the Buddha declared that Mahakasyapa alone understood the teaching and passed on to him dharmic authority, making Mahakasyapa the second Patriarch of Zen. The historicity of the “flower sermon” is in doubt, although scholars do believe that Mahakasyapa did assume some level of leadership in the Buddhist movement after the passing of the Buddha.    

The less legendary account of the origins of Zen begins with a teacher named Bodhidharma, who is credited with bringing what would become Zen Buddhism from India to China in the 5th Century CE.  Outside of being known for meditating while facing a wall, what Bodhidharma specifically taught about meditative practice is unclear.  What was distinct about Bodhidharma’s teaching – likely drawing from Mahayana ideas of Tathagatagarbha – was his characterization of Zen (originally called “Chan” as developed in China) as the “direct perception of one’s true or Buddha Nature.”  A short selection of quotations from his famous Bloodstream Sermon reveals this emphasis clearly:

“To find a buddha, you have to see your nature. 
Whoever sees his nature is a buddha.”

“Your nature is the Buddha.”

“Our nature is the mind.  And the mind is our nature.
This nature is the same as the mind of all buddhas.
Buddhas of the past and future only transmit this mind.”

“...you have buddha-nature.”

“Seeing your nature is zen.  Unless you see your nature, it’s not zen.”

“I only talk about seeing your nature.”

“In India, the twenty-seven patriarchs only transmitted the imprint of the mind. 
And the only reason I’ve come to China is to transmit the instantaneous teaching of the Mahayana:
This mind is the buddha.”

An unattributed four line stanza is also often quoted as a summary of Bodhidharma:

“A special transmission outside the scriptures;
No dependence upon words and letters;
Direct pointing at the soul of man;
Seeing into one’s nature and the attainment of Buddhahood.”

Bodhidharma had a relatively small direct following, but after the later flowering of Zen in China, he is looked back to as its original teacher in the country.

Two centuries after Bodhidharma, a Chinese native, Hui-Neng (638-713), would add his own distinct language to understandings of Zen, using terminology like “original nature,” “original mind,” and “seeing your original face before you were born.”  It is with Hui-Neng and his native Chinese vocabulary and outlook where some scholars see Chan/Zen becoming a distinct movement, now more independent from its origins in India. It is also in the transition to China where Chan/Zen may show influence from the native Chinese tradition of Taoism.

Although remembrances of his illiteracy may have been exaggerated to highlight the idea that traditional learning was unnecessary for enlightenment, Hui-Neng was known as an “unlettered” wood-cutter from Southern China. Despite being “unlettered,” Hui-Neng’s teachings were widely influential, eventually being preserved by his disciples and given the category of Scripture within the tradition. Hui-Neng characterized his own instruction as “the teaching of immediacy” and mysteriously emphasized “just seeing inherent nature.”  When recounting the details of his own realization, he reports:

“...he [Hung-Jen, then current Grand Master] explained the Diamond Sutra to me.  When he came to the point where it says ‘You should activate your mind without dwelling on anything,’ at these words I had the overwhelming realization that all things are not apart from inherent nature.  I then said to the Grand Master, ‘Who would have expected inherent nature to be intrinsically pure?  Who would have expected that inherent nature is originally unborn and undying?  Who would have expected that inherent nature is originally complete in itself?’...”

When addressing mental/meditative practice, Hui-Neng said things like “You should activate your mind without dwelling on anything,” “You should shut out all objects and not conceive a single thought – When you do not think of good and do not think of bad, what is your original face?,” and “When mind and thought are not aroused over any good or bad objects or situations in the external world, this is called sitting – When you see the immutability of your own essential nature inwardly, this is called meditation.”

As with Bodhidharma, Hui-Neng’s instructions on meditative practice do not seem to be systematic.  There is a sense that “you just have to see inherent/essential nature,” and that a Zen teacher may give his disciples a variety of ways to “snap them into realization” depending on their temperament – perhaps including a mix of meditative discipline, logical instruction, and/or the use of koans.  Hui-Neng also wrote a commentary on the Diamond Sutra, and held a special place for that text in his teaching.

Finally, perhaps the most widely-read early Zen teacher is Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), who heavily emphasized the need for ongoing sitting zazen and is credited with bringing Zen to Japan (“Zen” is the Japanese translation of the Chinese “Chan”) in the 13th Century. 

“Observe the example of Shakyamuni Buddha at the Jeta Grove, who practiced upright sitting for six years even though he was gifted with intrinsic wisdom.  Still celebrated is the Master Bodhidharma of Shaolin Temple, who sat facing a wall for nine years, although he had already received the mind seal.  Ancient sages were like this; who nowadays does not need to practice as they did?” 

It is with Dogen where we find more systematic explanations of meditative practice, especially shikantaza – most often translated as “just sitting.”  Dogen is also known for his use of poetic and pregnant language, and is often considered the founder of the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism, although this is open to multiple interpretations.  His most famous work is the Shobogenzo. 

Of the array of sub-traditions which stem from Chan-Zen, the two most well-known schools today are the Soto and Rinzai sects. The first Zen monastery in the West – the Zen Mountain Center at Tassajara – was founded in the 20th Century by Shunryu Suzuki, and is connected to a large lay community at the Zen Center of San Francisco. Well-known modern Zen authors include D.T. Suzuki, Philip Kapleau, Norman Fischer, Katsuki Sekida, and Shunryu Suzuki. 

For more on Zen meditative practice, see the Zazen page of the site.