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The Belief System of Zen Buddhism | Synonym

Posted: May 22, 2019 at 1:45 pm


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Rock gardens are a well-known example of Zen art.

Zen is a Japanese school of Buddhism that, along with schools that include Nichiren, Tendai, Shingon and Jodo-shu, has existed for centuries and remains popular today. Perhaps more than any other Buddhist school, Zen is concerned with the awakening of awareness in the present moment. It is a disciplined, minimalistic and sometimes fierce system that is more concerned with practice than philosophy. According to its practitioners belief itself is counterproductive to awareness and hinders awakening.

The patriarch of the Zen lineage is Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk who traveled from India in the 5th century AD to bring the practice of dhyana, or meditation, to China. The lineage became known as Ch'an, a word derived from dhyana. In the 12th century, the Tendai monk Eisai traveled to China to study Ch'an with the Lin-chi school -- Rinzai in Japanese -- and brought the teachings back to Japan. The nobility continued to prefer the flowery Tendai rituals, however, and Zen, which is the Japanese pronunciation of Ch'an, did not become immediately popular. Dogen, another monk who traveled to China, helped establish Zen by founding the Soto school in the 13th century.

The core beliefs of Buddhism are contained in the Four Noble Truths. They state that the world is suffering, that suffering has a cause, that you can end suffering and that the way to do so is to follow the Eightfold Path, which is a set of guidelines for proper behavior. Zen does not contradict any of these truths, but it places more emphasis on the third truth than other branches of Buddhism. For the Zen practitioner, ending suffering by waking up into this moment is not only possible, it is the only religious practice that matters.

Practitioners of Zen meditation, or zazen, sit motionless on benches for up to 18 hours a day, subject to a strike from the master's rod if sleep overtakes them. While meditating, they may be struggling with a koan, a nonsensical question posed by the master that frustrates logic. At some point, the practitioner may have an "Aha" moment when the austerity of the practice and the impossibility of solving the koan combine to destroy the thinking process altogether. At that point, the practitioner may awaken into satori, an experience of the present moment unconditioned by thinking. That unconditioned awareness is the goal of Zen practice.

Zen is essentially a system with no belief -- or beyond belief -- and adherents have conveyed inspiration through a multitude of art forms that have come to define Japanese culture. Zen artistic renderings are not expressions of logical beliefs, but of the intuitive understanding that Zen practice awakens. These renderings include rock gardens, tea ceremony, haiku poetry, sumi'e painting and kaiseki cuisine, among many others. Bodhidharma is a favorite subject of sumi'e artists, and his fierce, lidless eyes -- legend has it that he cut off his own eyelids -- glower from countless wall hangings.

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The Belief System of Zen Buddhism | Synonym

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May 22nd, 2019 at 1:45 pm

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Zen Buddhism – Home | Facebook

Posted: May 12, 2019 at 3:52 am


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When a baby is born, he is extremely simple, not complicated, real, sincere, in complete harmony with Nature and with the Cosmic Order.

The subconscious mind of a baby takes very little space in his life as he is connected to the Universe.

As we grow older, the subconscious mind grows bigger and takes more and more space into our life.

With time, the subconscious mind becomes the real you. It is composed of beliefs, fears, and attitudes that interfere with everyday life and that pushes us away from happiness our original nature.

The subconscious mind is a defense mechanism created and maintained by the ego. Its highest priority is to keep us emotionally safe. It spends most of its energy protecting our feelings and keeping us out of emotional pain and discomfort.

Do not underestimate the subconscious mind. It is stronger than the conscious mind, even stronger that the will.

As we grow older and forget our connection with the Cosmos, the subconscious mind becomes the core of who we are; it becomes the center of our personality.

During meditation, the subconscious mind comes to the surface, and we can observe it.

Through the practice of Zazen, with time, the subconscious mind diminishes, decrease and unite with the conscious mind so that in the end its us, its our existence here and now, that dominates, and not our subconscious.

- Fuyu

More on Zen:www.zen-buddhism.net

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Zen 101: An Introduction to Zen Buddhism – learnreligions.com

Posted: May 2, 2019 at 9:50 pm


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You've heard of Zen. You may even have had moments of Zeninstances of insight and a feeling of connectedness and understanding that seem to come out of nowhere. But what exactlyis Zen?

The scholarly answer to that question is that Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that emerged in China about 15 centuries ago. In China, it is called Ch'an Buddhism. Ch'an is the Chinese rendering of the Sanskrit word dhyana, which refers to a mind absorbed in meditation. "Zen" is the Japanese rendering of Ch'an. Zen is called Thien in Vietnam and Seon in Korea. In any language, the name can be translated as "Meditation Buddhism."

Some scholars suggest that Zen originally was something like a marriage of Taoism and traditional Mahayana Buddhism, in which the complex meditative practices of Mahayana met the no-nonsense simplicity of Chinese Taoism to produce a new branch of Buddhism that is today known the world over.

Be aware that Zen is a complicated practice with many traditions. In this discussion, the term "Zen" is used in a general sense, to represent all different schools.

Zen began to emerge as a distinctive school of Mahayana Buddhism when the Indian sage Bodhidharma (ca. 470543) taught at the Shaolin Monastery of China. (Yes, it's a real place, and yes, there is a historic connection between kung fu and Zen.) To this day, Bodhidharma is called the First Patriarch of Zen.

Bodhidharma's teachings tapped into some developments already in progress, such as the confluence of philosophical Taoism with Buddhism. Taoism so profoundly impacted early Zen that some philosophers and texts are claimed by both religions. The early Mahayana philosophies of Madhyamika(ca. third century A.D.) and Yogacara(ca. third century A.D.) also played huge roles in the development of Zen.

Under the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng (638713 A.D.), Zen shed most of its vestigial Indian trappings, becoming more Chinese and more like the Zen we now think of. Some consider Huineng, not Bodhidharma, to be the true father of Zen since his personality and influence are felt in Zen to this day. Huineng's tenure was at the beginning of what is still called the Golden Age of Zen. This Golden Age flourished during the same period as China's Tang Dynasty, 618907 A.D., and the masters of this Golden Age still speak to the present through koans and stories.

During these years, Zen organized itself into five "houses," or five schools. Two of these, called in Japanese the Rinzai and the Soto schools, still exist and remain distinctive from each other.

Zen was transmitted to Vietnam very early, possibly as early as the seventh century. A series of teachers brought Zen to Korea during the Golden Age. Eihei Dogen (12001253) was not the first Zen teacher in Japan, but he was the first to establish a lineage that lives to this day. The West took an interest in Zen after World War II, and now Zen is well established in North America, Europe, and elsewhere.

Bodhidharma's definition:

Zen is sometimes said to be "the face-to-face transmission of the dharma outside the sutras." Dharma refers to the teachings, and sutras, in a Buddhist context,are sacred texts or scriptures, many of which are considered to be transcriptions of the oral teachings of the Buddha. Throughout the history of Zen, teachers have transmitted their realization of dharma to students by working with them face-to-face. This makes the lineage of teachers critical. Genuine Zen teachers can trace their lineage of teachers back to Bodhidharma, and before that to the historical Buddha, and even to those Buddhas before the historical Buddha.

Certainly, large parts of the lineage charts have to be taken on faith. But if anything is treated as sacred in Zen, it's the teachers' lineages. With very few exceptions, calling oneself a "Zen teacher" without having received a transmission from another teacher is considered a serious defilement of Zen.

Zen has become extremely trendy in recent years, and those who are seriously interested are advised to be wary of anyone proclaiming to be or advertised as a "Zen master." The phrase "Zen master" is hardly ever heard inside Zen. The title "Zen master" (in Japanese, zenji) is only given posthumously. In Zen, living Zen teachers are called "Zen teachers," and an especially venerable and beloved teacher is called roshi, which means "old man."

Bodhidharma's definition also says that Zen is not an intellectual discipline you can learn from books. Instead, it's a practice of studying the mind and seeing into one's nature. The main tool of this practice is zazen.

The meditation practice of Zen, called zazen in Japanese, is the heart of Zen. Daily zazen is the foundation of Zen practice.

You can learn the basics of zazen from books, websites,and videos. However, if you're serious about pursuing a regular zazen practice, it is important to sit zazen with others at least occasionally; most people findthat sitting with others deepens the practice. If there's no monastery or Zen center handy, you might find a "sitting group" of laypeople who sit zazen together at someone's home.

As with most forms ofBuddhist meditation, beginners are taught to work with their breath to learn concentration. Once your ability to concentrate has ripened (expect this to take a few months), you may either sit shikantazawhich means "just sitting"or dokoanstudy with a Zen teacher.

As we find with many aspects of Buddhism, most peoplehave to practice zazen for a while to appreciate zazen. At first you might think of it primarily as mind training, and of course, it is. If you stay with the practice, however, your understanding of why you sit will change. This will be your own personal and intimate journey, and it may not resemble the experience of anyone else.

One of the most difficult parts of zazen for most people to comprehend is sitting with no goals or expectations, including an expectation of "getting enlightened." Most peopledo sit with goals and expectations for months or years before the goals are exhausted and they finally learn to "just sit." Along the way, people learn a lot about themselves.

You may find "experts" who will tell you zazen is optional in Zen, but such experts are mistaken. This misunderstanding of the role of zazen comes from misreadings of Zen literature, which is common because Zen literature often makes no sense to readers intent on literalness.

It isn't true that Zen makes no sense. Rather, "making sense" of it requires understanding language differently from the way we normally understand it.

Zen literature is full of vexatious exchanges, such as Moshan's "Its Peak Cannot Be Seen," that defy literal interpretation. However, these are not random, Dadaist utterings. Something specific is intended. How do you understand it?

Bodhidharma said that Zen is "direct pointing to the mind." Understanding is gained through intimate experience, not through intellect or expository prose. Words may be used, but they are used in a presentational rather than a literal way.

Zen teacher Robert Aitken wrote in "The Gateless Barrier":

No secret decoder ring will help you decipher Zenspeak. After you've practiced awhile, particularly with a teacher, you may catch onor not. Be skeptical of explanations of koan study that are found on the internet, which are often peppered with academic explanations that are painfully wrong, because the "scholar" analyzed the koan as if it were discursive prose. Answers will not be found through normal reading and study; they must be lived.

If you want to understand Zen, you really must go face the dragon in the cave for yourself.

Wherever Zen has established itself, it has rarely been one of the larger or more popular sects of Buddhism. The truth is, it's a very difficult path, particularly for laypeople. It is not for everybody

On the other hand, for such a small sect, Zen has had a disproportionate impact on the art and culture of Asia, especially in China and Japan. Beyond kung fu and other martial arts, Zen has influenced painting, poetry, music, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony.

Ultimately, Zen is about coming face-to-face with yourselfin a very direct and intimate way. This is not easy. But if you like a challenge, the journey is worthwhile.

Aitken, Robert. The Gateless Barrier. North Point Press, 1991.

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Zen 101: An Introduction to Zen Buddhism - learnreligions.com

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May 2nd, 2019 at 9:50 pm

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The Four Noble Truths | ZEN BUDDHISM

Posted: April 14, 2019 at 5:49 am


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After Buddha gave up worldly life and sat down for meditation under the Bodhi tree, he attained enlightenment. He laid down his teachings in easily understandable language for the common man in the form of Four Noble truths.

Though Buddhism is now divided into several schools each of which has its own set of beliefs, the essence of Buddhism is summed up in the Four Noble Truths enunciated by the Buddha.

Until the age of 29, Prince Siddhartha (Buddha's real name) was confined to the four walls of the palace by his father. When he first stepped out of the palace, he saw four things which left a deep impact in his tender and nave mind: a new born baby, a crippled old man, a sick man and the corpse of a dead man.

The Prince, who had been brought up in the lap of luxury, oblivious to the suffering in the world outside the palace, was deeply perturbed when he saw death, misery, and suffering with his own eyes.

During his meditation, he realized that 'life is suffering.' The reason for this being the fact that human beings are not perfect. Likewise, the world inhabited by them is also ridden with imperfections.

The Buddha realized that during their journey through life, a human being has to endure many sufferings- physical and psychological- in the form of old age, sickness, separation from beloved ones, deprivation, encounters with unpleasant situations and people, lamentation, sorrow and suffering.

All these misfortunes befall human beings because they are subject to desires and cravings. If they are able to get what they aspire for, they derive pleasure or satisfaction. But this joy or pleasure is also short lived and does not last too long. If it does tend to last too long, the pleasure associated with it becomes monotonous and fades away.

The second noble truth tells us that the root of all suffering is attachment. To avoid suffering, we need to understand what causes suffering and then weeding out these causes from our lives.

According to Buddha, the basic cause of suffering is "the attachment to the desire to have (craving) and the desire not to have (aversion)".

All of us have desires and cravings. Since we cannot satisfy ALL our desires and cravings, we get disturbed and angry, which is but another manifestation of suffering.

The same holds good for people who are over ambitious and seek too much. As they achieve what they desire, they get lustful and want more of it. And so the vicious circle continues.

The other problem pointed out by Buddha here, which is very pertinent, is that denying desire (or depriving oneself) is like denying life itself. A person, he said, has to rise above attachments and for that, he need not deprive himself. The problem arises when he does not know where to put an end to his desires. And when he yields into his desires, he becomes a slave to them.

Buddha stated that to put an end to suffering, we need to control our desires or practice non-attachment. This may sound difficult but can be achieved through diligent practice.

This liberation from attachment and sorrow frees the mind of all troubles and worries. The attainment of this liberation is called "Nirvana" in Sanskrit and "Satori" in Japanese.

Buddha says that salvation (Nirvana/Satori) is a condition that can be attained by leading a balanced life. And to lead a balanced life, one needs to follow the Eightfold path which is a 'gradual path of self-improvement.'

The way to the Eightfold Path is Zen.

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The Four Noble Truths | ZEN BUDDHISM

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April 14th, 2019 at 5:49 am

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The Eightfold Path | ZEN BUDDHISM

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The Buddha laid down the eightfold path for his followers and enunciated that by following this path, they could put an end to their suffering.

Directly related to the Four Noble Truths, the eightfold path, as laid down by Buddha, helps an individual attain the state of Nirvana by freeing him from attachments and delusions and thereby helping him understand the innate truth of all things. This path, therefore, helps a person with his ethical and mental growth and development.

Buddha laid great emphasis on implementing the teachings since a higher level or existence can be attained only by putting translating thoughts into actions.

The eightfold path suggested by Buddha involves adherence to:

By right view, Buddha means seeing things in the right perspective. Seeing things as they really are, without any false illusions or pretenses. He wanted his followers to see and to understand the transient nature of worldly ideas and possessions and to understand that they can attain salvation only if they practiced the right karma.

Buddha says that we are what we are because of what we think. What goes on inside our minds (our thought process) determines our course of action. It is, therefore, necessary to follow the path of Right thought or Right Intention. To have the Right Intention or the Right Thought, a person should be aware of his purpose or role in life and is studying the teachings of Buddha.

Buddha asks his followers to speak truth, to avoid slander and malicious gossip and to refrain from abusive language. Harsh words that can cause distress or offend others should also be avoided while also staying clear of mindless idle chatter which lacks any depth.

Behaving peacefully and harmoniously; Right action, according to Buddha, lies in adherence to the following guidelines:

- Staying in harmony with fellow human beings- Behaving peacefully- Not stealing- Not killing anyone- Avoiding overindulgence in sensual pleasure- Abstaining from sexual misconduct- Not indulging in fraudulent practices, deceitfulness and robbery

By laying down this guideline, Buddha advises his followers to earn their bread and butter righteously, without resorting to illegal and nefarious activities. He does not expect his followers to exploit other human beings or animals or to trade in weapons or intoxicants.

Buddha believed that human nature imposes undue restrictions on the mind at times, causing a person to harbor ill thoughts. So we have to train our mind to think in the right direction if we wish to become better human beings. Once we gain control over our thoughts and replace the unpleasant ones with positive ones, we shall be moving in the right direction.

The Right Mindfulness, together with the Right Concentration, forms the basis of Buddhist meditation. By proposing this, Buddha suggests his followers to focus mentally on their emotions, mental faculties, and capabilities while staying away from worldly desires and other distractions.

It refers to the ability of the mind to see things as they are without being led astray by greed, avarice, anger and ignorance.

This eighth principle laid down by Buddha is fundamental for proper meditation. Zazen (or, Zen meditation) is the way used in Zen to reach the right concentration or "state of mind". Needless to add, this is the most vital of all the aspects stated in the Noble Eightfold path since, without proper meditation, an individual cannot move on to a higher level of well-being.

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The Eightfold Path | ZEN BUDDHISM

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What is Zen? | ZEN BUDDHISM

Posted: April 2, 2019 at 9:48 pm


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Trying to explain or define Zen Buddhism, by reducing it to a book, to a few definitions, or to a website is impossible. Instead, it freezes Zen in time and space, thereby weakening its meaning.

Defining Zen () is like trying to describe the taste of honey to someone who has never tasted it before. You can try to explain the texture and scent of honey, or you can try to compare and correlate it with similar foods. However, honey is honey! As long as you have not tasted it, you are in the illusion of what honey is.

The same goes with Zen because Zen Buddhism is a practice that needs to be experienced, not a concept that you can intellectualize or understand with your brain. The information that we'll give here won't cover all of what of Zen is, but is a starting point to the Zen experience.

At the heart of the Japanese culture lies Zen, a school of Mahayana Buddhism. Zen is, first and foremost, a practice that was uninterruptedly transmitted from master to disciple, and that goes back to the spiritual Enlightenment of a man named Siddhrtha Gautama (Shakyamuni Gotama in Japanese) - The Buddha - 2500 years ago in India.

The practice of Zen meditation or Zazen ( - za meaning sitting, and Zen meaning meditation in Japanese), is the core of Zen Buddhism: without it, there is no Zen. Zen meditation, is a way of vigilance and self-discovery which is practiced while sitting on a meditation cushion. It is the experience of living from moment to moment, in the here and now. It is through the practice of Zazen that Gautama got enlightened and became the Buddha.

Zazen is an attitude of spiritual awakening, which when practiced, can become the source from which all the actions of daily life flow - eating, sleeping, breathing, walking, working, talking, thinking, and so on.

Zen is not a theory, an idea, or a piece of knowledge. It is not a belief, dogma, or religion; but rather, it is a practical experience (read our Buddhism FAQ for more details). We cannot intellectually grasp Zen because human intelligence and wisdom are too limited - the dojo (the hall where Zazen is practiced) is different from the university.

Based on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, Zen is not a moral teaching, and as it is without dogma, it does not require one to believe in anything. A true spiritual path does not tell people what to believe in; rather it shows them how to think; or, in the case of Zen - what not to think.

Zen is not interested in metaphysical theories and rituals and focuses entirely on the mindful practice of Zazen. Zen is very simple. It is so simple, in fact, that it's very difficult to grasp.

In the silence of the dojo or temple, quietly sit down, stop moving, and let go your thoughts. Focus just on your Zazen posture and your breathing. Keep your back straight. Let your ego and your unconscious mind melt away, merge with the universe.

This is Zen.

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What is Zen? | ZEN BUDDHISM

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April 2nd, 2019 at 9:48 pm

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Buddhist beliefs | ZEN BUDDHISM

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Since the beginning of time, man is searching for the truth. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors, sat under the stars, and around the campfire discussed and asked themselves the same questions we ask ourselves today. Who am I? Why am I here? Is there a God? Is there life after death? Are we alone in the Universe?

Zen is very pragmatic and down to earth. It is essentially a practice, an experience, not a theory or dogma. Zen adheres to no specific philosophy or faith, and has no dogma that its followers must accept or believe in, but it traditionnally accept the concepts of karma and samsara. For us westerners, this is very different from our Christian religion and its filled with dogmas.

Zen does not seek to answer subjective questions because these are not important issues for Zen. What really matters is the here and now: not God, not the afterlife, but the present moment and the practice of meditation (zazen).

Moreover, Zen firmly believes that nobody knows the answers to those questions and that they are impossible to answer because of our limited condition. Life is a dream, a grand illusion that we perceive through the filter of our personality, our experiences, our ego. This is a great piece of theater in which we do not see all the actors and in which we barely understand the role of those that we see.

Zen gladly accepts the idea that men are only men and nothing more. Man, being what he is, cannot answer life's impossible questions without falling into the trap of illusion. No one knows the answers to the deep questions about life and death.

These questions are impossible to answer, given the limited sphere of knowledge that comes with the condition of being a human being. As Master Taisen Deshimaru said, "It is impossible to give a definite answer to those questions, unless you suffer from a major mental disorder."

Does this mean that Zen closes the door to metaphysical phenomena? Absolutely not! Zen cannot confirm nor deny them, therefore, it is better to remain silent and to live simply in the moment.

What does Zen think of religions beliefs then? As a great Zen Master once said, "Faith is like painting the walls of your room with mud, then trying to convince yourself that it is beautiful, and it smells good". Faith is an illusion, a dream that we strongly consider real, but that in reality only impoverishes the true spirituality of man. The strength of our faith and conviction has nothing to do with the fact that a belief is true or not. The veracity of our faith is in us only, nowhere else.

Religions feel compelled to give answers to everything as a sign of their "great wisdom", but for Zen, not giving any answer at all is actually the great wisdom.

A true religion shows man how to think and not what to think, therefore, we must learn to ask great questions rather than looking for great answers.

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Zen 101: An Introduction to Zen Buddhism – ThoughtCo

Posted: March 22, 2019 at 2:43 pm


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You've heard of Zen. You may even have had moments of Zeninstances of insight and a feeling of connectedness and understanding that seem to come out of nowhere. But what exactlyis Zen?

The scholarly answer to that question is that Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that emerged in China about 15 centuries ago. In China, it is called Ch'an Buddhism. Ch'an is the Chinese rendering of the Sanskrit word dhyana, which refers to a mind absorbed in meditation. "Zen" is the Japanese rendering of Ch'an. Zen is called Thien in Vietnam and Seon in Korea. In any language, the name can be translated as "Meditation Buddhism."

Some scholars suggest that Zen originally was something like a marriage of Taoism and traditional Mahayana Buddhism, in which the complex meditative practices of Mahayana met the no-nonsense simplicity of Chinese Taoism to produce a new branch of Buddhism that is today known the world over.

Be aware that Zen is a complicated practice with many traditions. In this discussion, the term "Zen" is used in a general sense, to represent all different schools.

Zen began to emerge as a distinctive school of Mahayana Buddhism when the Indian sage Bodhidharma (ca. 470543) taught at the Shaolin Monastery of China. (Yes, it's a real place, and yes, there is a historic connection between kung fu and Zen.) To this day, Bodhidharma is called the First Patriarch of Zen.

Bodhidharma's teachings tapped into some developments already in progress, such as the confluence of philosophical Taoism with Buddhism. Taoism so profoundly impacted early Zen that some philosophers and texts are claimed by both religions. The early Mahayana philosophies of Madhyamika(ca. third century A.D.) and Yogacara(ca. third century A.D.) also played huge roles in the development of Zen.

Under the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng (638713 A.D.), Zen shed most of its vestigial Indian trappings, becoming more Chinese and more like the Zen we now think of. Some consider Huineng, not Bodhidharma, to be the true father of Zen since his personality and influence are felt in Zen to this day. Huineng's tenure was at the beginning of what is still called the Golden Age of Zen. This Golden Age flourished during the same period as China's Tang Dynasty, 618907 A.D., and the masters of this Golden Age still speak to the present through koans and stories.

During these years, Zen organized itself into five "houses," or five schools. Two of these, called in Japanese the Rinzai and the Soto schools, still exist and remain distinctive from each other.

Zen was transmitted to Vietnam very early, possibly as early as the seventh century. A series of teachers brought Zen to Korea during the Golden Age. Eihei Dogen (12001253) was not the first Zen teacher in Japan, but he was the first to establish a lineage that lives to this day. The West took an interest in Zen after World War II, and now Zen is well established in North America, Europe, and elsewhere.

Bodhidharma's definition:

Zen is sometimes said to be "the face-to-face transmission of the dharma outside the sutras." Dharma refers to the teachings, and sutras, in a Buddhist context,are sacred texts or scriptures, many of which are considered to be transcriptions of the oral teachings of the Buddha. Throughout the history of Zen, teachers have transmitted their realization of dharma to students by working with them face-to-face. This makes the lineage of teachers critical. Genuine Zen teachers can trace their lineage of teachers back to Bodhidharma, and before that to the historical Buddha, and even to those Buddhas before the historical Buddha.

Certainly, large parts of the lineage charts have to be taken on faith. But if anything is treated as sacred in Zen, it's the teachers' lineages. With very few exceptions, calling oneself a "Zen teacher" without having received a transmission from another teacher is considered a serious defilement of Zen.

Zen has become extremely trendy in recent years, and those who are seriously interested are advised to be wary of anyone proclaiming to be or advertised as a "Zen master." The phrase "Zen master" is hardly ever heard inside Zen. The title "Zen master" (in Japanese, zenji) is only given posthumously. In Zen, living Zen teachers are called "Zen teachers," and an especially venerable and beloved teacher is called roshi, which means "old man."

Bodhidharma's definition also says that Zen is not an intellectual discipline you can learn from books. Instead, it's a practice of studying the mind and seeing into one's nature. The main tool of this practice is zazen.

The meditation practice of Zen, called zazen in Japanese, is the heart of Zen. Daily zazen is the foundation of Zen practice.

You can learn the basics of zazen from books, websites,and videos. However, if you're serious about pursuing a regular zazen practice, it is important to sit zazen with others at least occasionally; most people findthat sitting with others deepens the practice. If there's no monastery or Zen center handy, you might find a "sitting group" of laypeople who sit zazen together at someone's home.

As with most forms ofBuddhist meditation, beginners are taught to work with their breath to learn concentration. Once your ability to concentrate has ripened (expect this to take a few months), you may either sit shikantazawhich means "just sitting"or dokoanstudy with a Zen teacher.

As we find with many aspects of Buddhism, most peoplehave to practice zazen for a while to appreciate zazen. At first you might think of it primarily as mind training, and of course, it is. If you stay with the practice, however, your understanding of why you sit will change. This will be your own personal and intimate journey, and it may not resemble the experience of anyone else.

One of the most difficult parts of zazen for most people to comprehend is sitting with no goals or expectations, including an expectation of "getting enlightened." Most peopledo sit with goals and expectations for months or years before the goals are exhausted and they finally learn to "just sit." Along the way, people learn a lot about themselves.

You may find "experts" who will tell you zazen is optional in Zen, but such experts are mistaken. This misunderstanding of the role of zazen comes from misreadings of Zen literature, which is common because Zen literature often makes no sense to readers intent on literalness.

It isn't true that Zen makes no sense. Rather, "making sense" of it requires understanding language differently from the way we normally understand it.

Zen literature is full of vexatious exchanges, such as Moshan's "Its Peak Cannot Be Seen," that defy literal interpretation. However, these are not random, Dadaist utterings. Something specific is intended. How do you understand it?

Bodhidharma said that Zen is "direct pointing to the mind." Understanding is gained through intimate experience, not through intellect or expository prose. Words may be used, but they are used in a presentational rather than a literal way.

Zen teacher Robert Aitken wrote in "The Gateless Barrier":

No secret decoder ring will help you decipher Zenspeak. After you've practiced awhile, particularly with a teacher, you may catch onor not. Be skeptical of explanations of koan study that are found on the internet, which are often peppered with academic explanations that are painfully wrong, because the "scholar" analyzed the koan as if it were discursive prose. Answers will not be found through normal reading and study; they must be lived.

If you want to understand Zen, you really must go face the dragon in the cave for yourself.

Wherever Zen has established itself, it has rarely been one of the larger or more popular sects of Buddhism. The truth is, it's a very difficult path, particularly for laypeople. It is not for everybody

On the other hand, for such a small sect, Zen has had a disproportionate impact on the art and culture of Asia, especially in China and Japan. Beyond kung fu and other martial arts, Zen has influenced painting, poetry, music, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony.

Ultimately, Zen is about coming face-to-face with yourselfin a very direct and intimate way. This is not easy. But if you like a challenge, the journey is worthwhile.

Aitken, Robert. The Gateless Barrier. North Point Press, 1991.

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Zen 101: An Introduction to Zen Buddhism - ThoughtCo

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Buddhism in the United States – Wikipedia

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Buddhism, once thought of as a mysterious religion from the East, has now become very popular in the West, and is one of the largest religions in the United States. As Buddhism does not require any formal "conversion", American Buddhists can easily incorporate dharma practice into their normal routines and traditions. The result is that American Buddhists come from every ethnicity, nationality and religious tradition.[1][2] In 2012, U-T San Diego estimated U.S. practitioners at 1.2 million people, of whom 40% are living in Southern California.[3] In terms of percentage, Hawaii has the most Buddhists at 8% of the population due to its large Asian American community.[4]

The term American Buddhism can be used to describe Buddhist groups within the U.S, which are largely made up of converts.[5] This contrasts with many Buddhist groups in Asia, which are largely made up of people who were born into the faith.[6]

Hawaii has the largest Buddhist population, amounting to 8% of the total Buddhist population of the United States. California follows Hawaii with 2%. Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming have 1% buddhist population.[7]

The following is the percentage of Buddhists in the U.S. territories as of 2010:

Buddhist American scholar Charles Prebish states there are three broad types of American Buddhism:

Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is perhaps the most successful of Japan's new religious movements that grew around the world after the end of World War II.[9] Soka Gakkai, which means "Value Creation Society," is one of three sects of Nichiren Buddhism that came to the United States during the 20th century.[10] The SGI expanded rapidly in the US, attracting non-Asian minority converts,[11] chiefly African Americans and Latino, as well as the support of celebrities, such as Tina Turner, Herbie Hancock, and Orlando Bloom.[12] Because of a rift with Nichiren Shsh in 1991, the SGI has no priests of its own.[13] Its main religious practice is chanting the mantra Nam Myh Renge Ky and sections of the Lotus Sutra. Unlike trends such as Zen, Vipassan, and Tibetan Buddhism, Soka Gakkai Buddhists do not practice meditative techniques other than chanting.[citation needed] An SGI YouTube series called "Buddhist in America" has over a quarter million views in total as of 2015.[14]

Buddhism was introduced into the USA by Asian immigrants in the 19th century, when significant numbers of immigrants from East Asia began to arrive in the New World. In the United States, immigrants from China entered around 1820, but began to arrive in large numbers following the 1849 California Gold Rush.

Immigrant Buddhist congregations in North America are as diverse as the different peoples of Asian Buddhist extraction who settled there. The US is home to Chinese Buddhists, Japanese Buddhists, Korean Buddhists, Sri Lankan Buddhists, Cambodian Buddhists, Vietnamese Buddhists, Thai Buddhists, and Buddhists with family backgrounds in most Buddhist countries and regions. The Immigration Act of 1965 increased the number of immigrants arriving from China, Vietnam, and the Theravada-practicing countries of Southeast Asia.

Fanciful accounts of a visit to North America at the end of the 5th century written by a Chinese monk named Huishen or Hushen can be found in the Wenxian Tongkao by Ma Tuan-Lin. This account is often challenged but it is "at least plausible" in the words of James Ishmael Ford.[15]

The first Buddhist temple in America was built in 1853 in San Francisco by the Sze Yap Company, a Chinese American fraternal society. Another society, the Ning Yeong Company, built a second in 1854; by 1875, there were eight temples, and by 1900 approximately 400 Chinese temples on the west coast of the United States, most of them containing some Buddhist elements. Unfortunately a casualty of racism,[15] these temples were often the subject of suspicion and ignorance by the rest of the population, and were dismissively called joss houses.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 curtailed growth of the Chinese American population, but large-scale immigration from Japan began in the late 1880s and from Korea around 1903. In both cases, immigration was at first primarily to Hawaii. Populations from other Asian Buddhist countries followed, and in each case, the new communities established Buddhist temples and organizations. For instance, the first Japanese temple in Hawaii was built in 1896 near Paauhau by the Honpa Hongwanji branch of Jodo Shinshu. In 1898, Japanese missionaries and immigrants established a Young Men's Buddhist Association, and the Rev. Sry Kagahi was dispatched from Japan to be the first Buddhist missionary in Hawaii.[16] The first Japanese Buddhist temple in the continental U.S. was built in San Francisco in 1899, and the first in Canada was built at the Ishikawa Hotel in Vancouver in 1905.[17] The first Buddhist clergy to take up residence in the continental U.S. were Shuye Sonoda and Kakuryo Nishimjima, missionaries from Japan who arrived in 1899.

The Buddhist Churches of America and the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii are immigrant Buddhist organizations in the United States. The BCA is an affiliate of Japan's Nishi Hongwanji, a sect of Jdo Shinsh, which is, in turn, a form of Pure Land Buddhism. Tracing its roots to the Young Men's Buddhist Association founded in San Francisco at the end of the 19th century and the Buddhist Mission of North America founded in 1899,[18] it took its current form in 1944. All of the Buddhist Mission's leadership, along with almost the entire Japanese American population, had been interned during World War II. The name Buddhist Churches of America was adopted at Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah; the word "church" was used similar to a Christian house of worship. After internment ended, some members returned to the West Coast and revitalized churches there, while a number of others moved to the Midwest and built new churches. During the 1960s and 1970s, the BCA was in a growth phase and was very successful at fund-raising. It also published two periodicals, one in Japanese and one in English. However, since 1980, BCA membership declined. The 36 temples in the state of Hawaii of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission have a similar history.

While a majority of the Buddhist Churches of America's membership are ethnically Japanese, some members have non-Asian backgrounds. Thus, it has limited aspects of export Buddhism. As involvement by its ethnic community declined, internal discussions advocated attracting the broader public.

Another US Buddhist institution is Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, California. Hsi Lai is the American headquarters of Fo Guang Shan, a modern Buddhist group in Taiwan. Hsi Lai was built in 1988 at a cost of $10 million and is often described as the largest Buddhist temple in the Western hemisphere. Although it caters primarily to Chinese Americans, it also has regular services and outreach programs in English. Hsi Lai was at the center of a campaign finance controversy by Vice President Al Gore.

While Asian immigrants were arriving, some American intellectuals examined Buddhism, based primarily on information from British colonies in India and East Asia.

In the last century, numbers of Asian Buddhist masters and teachers have immigrated to the U.S. in order to propagate their beliefs and practices. Most have belonged to three major Buddhist traditions or cultures: Zen, Tibetan, and Theravadan.

The Englishmen William Jones and Charles Wilkins translated Sanskrit texts into English. The American Transcendentalists and associated persons, in particular Henry David Thoreau took an interest in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. In 1844, The Dial, a small literary publication edited by Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, published an English version of a portion of the Lotus Sutra; it had been translated by Dial business manager Elizabeth Palmer Peabody from a French version recently completed by Eugne Burnouf. His Indian readings may have influenced his later experiments in simple living: at one point in Walden Thoreau wrote: "I realized what the Orientals meant by contemplation and the forsaking of works." The poet Walt Whitman also admitted to an influence of Indian religion on his writings.

An early American to publicly convert to Buddhism was Henry Steel Olcott. Olcott, a former U.S. army colonel during the Civil War, had grown interested in reports of supernatural phenomena that were popular in the late 19th century. In 1875, he, Helena Blavatsky, and William Quan Judge founded the Theosophical Society, dedicated to the study of the occult and influenced by Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. The leaders claimed to believe that they were in contact, via visions and messages, with a secret order of adepts called the "Himalayan Brotherhood" or "the Masters". In 1879, Olcott and Blavatsky travelled to India and in 1880, to Sri Lanka, where they were met enthusiastically by local Buddhists, who saw them as allies against an aggressive Christian missionary movement. On May 25, Olcott and Blavatsky took the pancasila vows of a lay Buddhist before a monk and a large crowd. Although most of the Theosophists appear to have counted themselves as Buddhists, they held idiosyncratic beliefs that separated them from known Buddhist traditions; only Olcott was enthusiastic about following mainstream Buddhism. He returned twice to Sri Lanka, where he promoted Buddhist education, and visited Japan and Burma. Olcott authored a Buddhist Catechism, stating his view of the basic tenets of the religion.

Several publications increased knowledge of Buddhism in 19th-century America. In 1879, Edwin Arnold, an English aristocrat, published The Light of Asia,[19] an epic poem he had written about the life and teachings of the Buddha, expounded with much wealth of local color and not a little felicity of versification. The book became immensely popular in the United States, going through eighty editions and selling more than 500,000 copies. Paul Carus, a German American philosopher and theologian, was at work on a more scholarly prose treatment of the same subject. Carus was the director of Open Court Publishing Company, an academic publisher specializing in philosophy, science, and religion, and editor of The Monist, a journal with a similar focus, both based in La Salle, Illinois. In 1894, Carus published The Gospel of Buddha, compiled from a variety of Asian texts which, true to its name, presented the Buddha's story in a form resembling the Christian Gospels.

In a brief ceremony conducted by Dharmapala, Charles T. Strauss, a New York businessman of Jewish descent, became one of the first to formally convert to Buddhism on American soil.[citation needed] A few fledgling attempts at establishing a Buddhism for Americans followed. Appearing with little fanfare in 1887: The Buddhist Ray, a Santa Cruz, California-based magazine published and edited by Phillangi Dasa, born Herman Carl (or Carl Herman) Veetering (or Vettering), a recluse about whom little is known. The Ray's tone was "ironic, light, saucy, self-assured ... one-hundred-percent American Buddhist".[20] It ceased publication in 1894. In 1900 six white San Franciscans, working with Japanese Jodo Shinshu missionaries, established the Dharma Sangha of Buddha and published a bimonthly magazine, The Light of Dharma. In Illinois, Paul Carus wrote more books about Buddhism and set portions of Buddhist scripture to Western classical music.

One American who attempted to establish an American Buddhist movement was Dwight Goddard (18611939). Goddard was a Christian missionary to China when he first came in contact with Buddhism. In 1928, he spent a year living at a Zen monastery in Japan. In 1934, he founded "The Followers of Buddha, an American Brotherhood", with the goal of applying the traditional monastic structure of Buddhism more strictly than Senzaki and Sokei-an. The group was largely unsuccessful: no Americans were recruited to join as monks and attempts failed to attract a Chinese Chan (Zen) master to come to the United States. However, Goddard's efforts as an author and publisher bore considerable fruit. In 1930, he began publishing ZEN: A Buddhist Magazine. In 1932, he collaborated with D. T. Suzuki, on a translation of the Lankavatara Sutra. That same year, he published the first edition of A Buddhist Bible, an anthology of Buddhist scriptures focusing on those used in Chinese and Japanese Zen.[21]

Zen was introduced to the United States by Japanese priests who were sent to serve local immigrant groups. A small group also came to study the American culture and way of life.

In 1893, Soyen Shaku was invited to speak at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago. In 1905, Shaku was invited to stay in the United States by a wealthy American couple. He lived for nine months near San Francisco, where he established a small zendo in the Alexander and Ida Russell home and gave regular zazen lessons, making him the first Zen Buddhist priest to teach in North America.[15]

Shaku was followed by Nyogen Senzaki, a young monk from Shaku's home temple in Japan. Senzaki briefly worked for the Russells and then as a hotel porter, manager and eventually, owner. In 1922 Senzaki rented a hall and gave an English talk on a paper by Shaku; his periodic talks at different locations became known as the "floating zendo". Senzaki established an itinerant sitting hall from San Francisco to Los Angeles in California, where he taught until his death in 1958.[22]

Sokatsu Shaku, one of Shaku's senior students, arrived in late 1906, founding a Zen meditation center called Ryomokyo-kai. One of his disciples, Shigetsu Sasaki, better known under his monastic name Sokei-an, came to New York to teach. In 1931, his small group incorporated as the Buddhist Society of America, later renamed the First Zen Institute of America. By the late 1930s, one of his most active supporters was Ruth Fuller Everett, an American socialite and the mother-in-law of Alan Watts. Shortly before Sokei-an's death in 1945, he and Everett would wed, at which point she took the name Ruth Fuller Sasaki.

D.T. Suzuki had a great literary impact. Through English language essays and books, such as Essays in Zen Buddhism (1927), he became a visible expositor of Zen Buddhism and its unofficial ambassador to Western readers. In 1951, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki returned to the United States to take a visiting professorship at Columbia University, where his open lectures attracted many members of the literary, artistic, and cultural elite.

In the mid-1950s, writers associated with the Beat Generation took a serious interest in Zen,[23] including Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Kenneth Rexroth, which increased its visibility. Prior to that, Philip Whalen had interest as early as 1946, and D. T. Suzuki began lecturing on Buddhism at Columbia in 1950.[24][25] By 1958, anticipating Kerouac's publication of The Dharma Bums by three months, Time magazine said, "Zen Buddhism is growing more chic by the minute."[25][26]

Contemporary Rinzai Zen teachers in United States have included Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, Eido Tai Shimano Roshi, and Omori Sogen Roshi (d. 1994). Sasaki founded the Mount Baldy Zen Center and its branches after coming to Los Angeles from Japan in 1962. One of his students is the Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen. Eido Roshi founded Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji, a training center in New York state. Omori Roshi founded Daihonzan Chozen-ji, the first Rinzai headquarters temple established outside Japan, in Honolulu; under his students Tenshin Tanouye Roshi and Dogen Hosokawa Roshi and their dharma heirs, several other training centers were established including Daiyuzenji in Chicago and Korinji in Wisconsin.

In 1998 Sherry Chayat, born in Brooklyn, became the first American woman to receive transmission in the Rinzai school of Buddhism.[27][28]

In the 1930s Soyu Matsuoka-roshi was sent to America by Stsh, to establish the St Zen tradition in the United States. He established the Chicago Buddhist Temple in 1949. Matsuoka-roshi also served as superintendent and abbot of the Long Beach Zen Buddhist Temple and Zen Center. He relocated from Chicago to establish a temple at Long Beach in 1971 after leaving the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago to his dharma heir Kongo Richard Langlois, Roshi. He returned to Chicago in 1995, where he died in 1998.

St Zen priest Shunryu Suzuki (no relation to D.T. Suzuki), who was the son of a St priest, was sent to San Francisco in the late 1950s on a three-year temporary assignment to care for an established Japanese congregation at the St temple, Soko-ji.[29] Suzuki also taught zazen or sitting meditation which soon attracted American students and "beatniks", who formed a core of students who in 1962 would create the San Francisco Zen Center and its eventual network of highly influential Zen centers across the country, including the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first Buddhist monastery in the Western world.[30] He provided innovation and creativity during San Francisco's countercultural movement of the 1960s but he died in 1971. His low-key teaching style was described in the popular book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a compilation of his talks.[31]

Taizan Maezumi arrived as a young priest to serve at Zenshuji, the North American St sect headquarters in Los Angeles, in 1956. Maezumi received dharma transmission (shiho) from Baian Hakujun Kuroda, his father and high-ranked St priest, in 1955. By the mid-1960s he had formed a regular zazen group. In 1967, he and his supporters founded the Zen Center of Los Angeles. Further, he received teaching permission (inka) from Koryu Osaka a Rinzai teacher and from Yasutani Hakuun of the Sanbo Kyodan. Maezumi, in turn, had several American dharma heirs, such as Bernie Glassman, John Daido Loori, Charlotte Joko Beck, and Dennis Genpo Merzel. His successors and their network of centers became the White Plum Sangha.[32] In 2006 Merle Kodo Boyd, born in Texas, became the first African-American woman ever to receive Dharma transmission in Zen Buddhism.[33]

Sanbo Kyodan is a contemporary Japanese Zen lineage which had an impact in the West disproportionate to its size in Japan. It is rooted in the reformist teachings of Harada Daiun Sogaku (18711961) and his disciple Yasutani Hakuun (18851971), who argued that the existing Zen institutions of Japan (St and Rinzai sects) had become complacent and were generally unable to convey real Dharma.

Sanbo Kyodan's first American member was Philip Kapleau, who first traveled to Japan in 1945 as a court reporter for the war crimes trials. In 1953, he returned to Japan, where he met with Nakagawa Soen, a protg of Nyogen Senzaki. In 1965, he published a book, The Three Pillars of Zen, which recorded a set of talks by Yasutani outlining his approach to practice, along with transcripts of dokusan interviews and some additional texts. In 1965 Kapleau returned to America and, in 1966, established the Rochester Zen Center in Rochester, New York. In 1967, Kapleau had a falling-out with Yasutani over Kapleau's moves to Americanize his temple, after which it became independent of Sanbo Kyodan. One of Kapleau's early disciples was Toni Packer, who left Rochester in 1981 to found a nonsectarian meditation center, not specifically Buddhist or Zen.

Robert Aitken was introduced to Zen as a prisoner in Japan during World War II. After returning to the United States, he studied with Nyogen Senzaki in Los Angeles in the early 1950s. In 1959, while still a Zen student, he founded the Diamond Sangha, a zendo in Honolulu, Hawaii. Aitken became a dharma heir of Yamada's, authored more than ten books, and developed the Diamond Sangha into an international network with temples in the United States, Argentina, Germany, and Australia. In 1995, he and his organization split with Sanbo Kyodan in response to reorganization of the latter following Yamada's death. The Pacific Zen Institute led by John Tarrant, Aitken's first Dharma successor, continues as an independent Zen line.

There are also Zen teachers of Chinese Chn, Korean Seon, and Vietnamese Thien.

In 1962, Hsuan Hua moved to San Francisco's Chinatown, where, in addition to Zen, he taught Chinese Pure Land, Tiantai, Vinaya, and Vajrayana Buddhism. Initially, his students were mostly ethnic Chinese, but he eventually attracted a range of followers.

Sheng-yen first visited the United States in 1978 under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Association of the United States, an organization of Chinese American Buddhists. In 1980, he founded the Chn Meditation Society in Queens, New York. In 1985, he founded the Chung-hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies in Taiwan, which sponsors Chinese Zen activities in the United States.[34]

Seung Sahn was a temple abbot in Seoul. After living in Hong Kong and Japan, he moved to the US in 1972 (not speaking any English) to establish the Kwan Um School of Zen. Shortly after arriving in Providence, he attracted students and founded the Providence Zen Center. The Kwan Um School has more than 100 Zen centers on six continents.

Another Korean Zen teacher, Samu Sunim, founded Toronto's Zen Buddhist Temple in 1971. He is head of the Buddhist Society for Compassionate Wisdom, which has temples in Ann Arbor, Chicago, Mexico City, and New York City.

Hye Am[35] (18841985) brought lineage Dharma to the United States. Hye Am's Dharma successor, Myo Vong[36] founded the Western Son Academy (1976), and his Korean disciple, Pohwa Sunim, founded World Zen Fellowship (1994) which includes various Zen centers in the United States, such as the Potomac Zen Sangha, the Patriarchal Zen Society and the Baltimore Zen Center.[37]

Recently, many Korean Buddhist monks have come to the United States to spread the Dharma. They are establishing temples and zen (Korean, 'Seon') centers all around the United States. For example, Hyeonho established the Goryosah Temple in Los Angeles in 1979, and Muil Woohak founded the Budzen Center in New York.

Vietnamese Zen (Thin) teachers in America include Thich Thien-An and Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Thien-An came to America in 1966 as a visiting professor at UCLA and taught traditional Thien meditation.

Thich Nhat Hanh was a monk in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In 1966, he left Vietnam in exile and founded the Plum Village Monastery in France. In his books and talks, Thich Nhat Hanh emphasizes mindfulness (sati) as the most important practice in daily life. His monastic students live and practice at three centers in the United States: Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, California,[38] Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, New York,[39] and Magnolia Grove Monastery in Batesville, Mississippi.[40]

Perhaps the most widely visible Buddhist leader in the world is Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama, who first visited the United States in 1979. As the exiled political leader of Tibet, he has become a popular cause clbre, attracting celebrity religious followers such as Richard Gere and Adam Yauch. His early life was depicted in Hollywood films such as Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet. An early Western-born Tibetan Buddhist monk was Robert A. F. Thurman, now an academic supporter of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama maintains a North American headquarters in Ithaca, New York.

The Dalai Lama's family has strong ties to America. His brother Thubten Norbu fled China after being asked to assassinate his brother. He was himself a Lama, the Takster Rinpoche, and an abbot of the Kumbum Monastery in Tibet's Amdo region. He settled in Bloomington, Indiana, where he later founded the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center and Kumbum Chamtse Ling Temple. Since the death of the Takster Rinpoche it has served as a Kumbum of the West, with the current Arija Rinpochere serving as its leader.

Dilowa Gegen (Diluu Khudagt) was the first lama to immigrate to the United States in 1949 as a political refugee and joined Owen Lattimore's Mongolia Project. He was born in Tudevtei, Zavkhan, Mongolia and was one of the leading figures in declaration of independence of Mongolia. He was exiled from Mongolia, the reason remains unrevealed until today. After arriving in the US, he joined Johns Hopkins University and founded a monastery in New Jersey.

The first Tibetan Buddhist lama to have American students was Geshe Ngawang Wangyal, a Kalmyk-Mongolian of the Gelug lineage, who came to the United States in 1955 and founded the "Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America" in New Jersey in 1958. Among his students were the future western scholars Robert Thurman, Jeffrey Hopkins, Alexander Berzin and Anne C. Klein. Other early arrivals included Dezhung Rinpoche, a Sakya lama who settled in Seattle, in 1960, and Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, the first Nyingma teacher in America, who arrived in the US in 1968 and established the "Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center" in Berkeley, California in 1969.

The best-known Tibetan Buddhist lama to live in the United States was Chgyam Trungpa. Trungpa, part of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, moved to England in 1963, founded a temple in Scotland, and then relocated to Barnet, Vermont, and then Boulder, Colorado by 1970. He established what he named Dharmadhatu meditation centers, eventually organized under a national umbrella group called Vajradhatu (later to become Shambhala International). He developed a series of secular techniques he called Shambhala Training. Following Trungpa's death, his followers at the Shambhala Mountain Center built the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya, a traditional reliquary monument, near Red Feather Lakes, Colorado consecrated in 2001.[41]

There are four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism: the Gelug, the Kagyu, the Nyingma, and the Sakya. Of these, the greatest impact in the West was made by the Gelug, led by the Dalai Lama, and the Kagyu, specifically its Karma Kagyu branch, led by the Karmapa. As of the early 1990s, there were several significant strands of Kagyu practice in the United States: Chgyam Trungpa's Shambhala movement; Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, a network of centers affiliated directly with the Karmapa's North American seat in Woodstock, New York; a network of centers founded by Kalu Rinpoche. The Drikung Kagyu lineage also has an established presence in the United States. Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen arrived in the US in 1982 and planted the seeds for many Drikung centers across the country. He also paved the way for the arrival of Garchen Rinpoche, who established the Garchen Buddhist Institute in Chino Valley, Arizona. Diamond Way Buddhism founded by Ole Nydahl and representing Karmapa is also active in the US.

In the 21st century, the Nyingma lineage is increasingly represented in the West by both Western and Tibetan teachers. Lama Surya Das is a Western-born teacher carrying on the "great rim", a non-sectarian form of Tibetan Buddhism. The late Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche founded centers in Seattle and Brazil. Gochen Tulku Sangak (sometimes spelled "Sang-Ngag") Rinpoche[42] is the founder and spiritual director of the first Ewam International Center located in the US. He is also the spiritual director of the Namchak Foundation in Montana and a primary lineage holder of the Namchak lineage.[43] Khandro Rinpoche is a female Tibetan teacher who has a presence in America. Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo is the first Western woman to be enthroned as a Tulku, and established Nyingma Kunzang Palyul Choling centers in Sedona, Arizona and Poolesville, Maryland.

The Gelug tradition is represented in America by the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), founded by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa. Gelugpa teacher Geshe Michael Roach, the first American to be awarded a Geshe degree, established centers in New York and at Diamond Mountain University in Arizona.

Sravasti Abbey is the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery for Western monks and nuns in the U.S., established in Washington State by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodronin 2003. It is situated on 300 acres of forest and meadows, 11 miles (18km) outside of Newport, Washington, near the Idaho state line. It is open to visitors who want to learn about community life in a Tibetan Buddhist monastic setting.[44] The name Sravasti Abbey was chosen by the Dalai Lama. Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron had suggested the name, as Sravasti was the place in India where the Buddha spent 25 rains retreats (varsa in Sanskrit and yarne in Tibetan), and communities of both nuns and monks had resided there. This seemed auspicious to ensure the Buddhas teachings would be abundantly available to both male and female monastics at the monastery.[45]

Sravasti Abbey is notable because it is home to a growing group of fully ordained bhikshunis (Buddhist nuns) practicing in the Tibetan tradition. This is special because the tradition of full ordination for women was not transmitted from India to Tibet. Ordained women practicing in the Tibetan tradition usually hold a novice ordination. Venerable Thubten Chodron, while faithfully following the teachings of her Tibetan teachers, has arranged for her students to seek full ordination as bhikshunis in Taiwan.[46]

In January 2014, the Abbey, which then had seven bhikshunis and three novices, formally began its first winter varsa (three-month monastic retreat), which lasted until April 13, 2014. As far as the Abbey knows, this was the first time a Western bhikshuni sangha practicing in the Tibetan tradition had done this ritual in the United States and in English. On April 19, 2014 the Abbey held its first kathina ceremony to mark the end of the varsa. Also in 2014 the Abbey held its first Pavarana rite at the end of the varsa.[46] In October 2015 the Annual Western Buddhist Monastic Gathering was held at the Abbey for the first time; it was the 21st such gathering.[47]

In 2010 the first Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in North America was established in Vermont,[48] called Vajra Dakini Nunnery, offering novice ordination.[48] The abbot of this nunnery is an American woman named Khenmo Drolma who is the first "bhikkhunni," a fully ordained Buddhist nun, in the Drikung Kagyu tradition of Buddhism, having been ordained in Taiwan in 2002.[48] She is also the first westerner, male or female, to be installed as a Buddhist abbot, having been installed as abbot of Vajra Dakini Nunnery in 2004.[49]

Theravada is best known for Vipassana, roughly translated as "insight meditation", which is an ancient meditative practice described in the Pali Canon of the Theravada school of Buddhism and similar scriptures. Vipassana also refers to a distinct movement which was begun in the 20th century by reformers such as Mahsi Saydaw, a Burmese monk. Mahsi Saydaw was a Theravada bhikkhu and Vipassana is rooted in the Theravada teachings, but its goal is to simplify ritual and other peripheral activities in order to make meditative practice more effective and available both to monks and to laypeople.

In 1965, monks from Sri Lanka established the Washington Buddhist Vihara in Washington, DC, the first Theravada monastic community in the United States. The Vihara was accessible to English-speakers with Vipassana meditation part of its activities. However, the direct influence of the Vipassana movement would not reach the U.S. until a group of Americans returned there in the early 1970s after studying with Vipassana masters in Asia.

Joseph Goldstein, after journeying to Southeast Asia with the Peace Corps, lived in Bodhgaya as a student of Anagarika Munindra, the head monk of Mahabodhi Temple and himself a student of Mhsai Saydaw. Jack Kornfield also worked for the Peace Corps in Southeast Asia, and then studied and ordained in the Thai Forest Tradition under Ajahn Chah, a major figure in 20th-century Thai Buddhism. Sharon Salzberg went to India in 1971 and studied with Dipa Ma, a former Calcutta housewife trained in vipassana by Mhsai Saydaw.[53] The Thai Forest Tradition also has a number of branch monasteries in the United States, including Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery (Ajahn Pasanno, Abbot), Metta Forest Monastery (with Thanissaro Bhikkhu as Abbot) and Jetavana Temple Forest Monastery.

Goldstein and Kornfield met in 1974 while teaching at the Naropa Institute in Colorado. The next year, Goldstein, Kornfield, and Salzberg, who had very recently returned from Calcutta, along with Jacqueline Schwarz, founded the Insight Meditation Society on an 80-acre (324,000 m) property near Barre, Massachusetts. IMS hosted visits by Mhsi Saydaw, Munindra, Ajahn Chah, and Dipa Ma. In 1981, Kornfield moved to California, where he founded another Vipassana center, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, in Marin County. In 1985, Larry Rosenberg founded the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Another Vipassana center is the Vipassana Metta Foundation, located on Maui.

In 1989, the Insight Meditation Center established the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies near the IMS headquarters, to promote scholarly investigation of Buddhism. Its director is Mu Soeng, a former Korean Zen monk.[54]

In 1997 Dhamma Cetiya Vihara in Boston[55] was founded by Ven. Gotami of Thailand, then a 10 precept nun. Ven. Gotami received full ordination in 2000, at which time her dwelling became America's first Theravada Buddhist bhikkhuni vihara. "Vihara" translates as monastery or nunnery, and may be both dwelling and community center where one or more bhikkhus or bhikkhunis offer teachings on Buddhist scriptures, conduct traditional ceremonies, teach meditation, offer counseling and other community services, receive alms, and reside. More recently established Theravada bhikkhuni viharas include: Mahapajapati Monastery[56] where several nuns (bhikkhunis and novices) live together in the desert of southern California near Joshua Tree, founded by Ven. Gunasari Bhikkhuni of Burma in 2008; Aranya Bodhi Hermitage[57] founded by Ven. Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni in the forest near Jenner, CA, with Ven. Sobhana Bhikkhuni as Prioress, which opened officially in July 2010, where several bhikkhunis reside together along with trainees and lay supporters; and Sati Saraniya[58] in Ontario, founded by Ven. Medhanandi in appx 2009, where two bhikkhunis reside. (There are also quiet residences of individual bhikkhunis where they may receive visitors and give teachings, such as the residence of Ven. Amma Thanasanti Bhikkhuni[59] in 2009-2010 in Colorado Springs; and the Los Angeles residence of Ven. Susila Bhikkhuni; and the residence of Ven. Wimala Bhikkhuni in the mid-west.)

In 2010, in Northern California, 4 novice nuns were given the full bhikkhuni ordination in the Thai Theravada tradition, which included the double ordination ceremony. Bhante Gunaratana and other monks and nuns were in attendance. It was the first such ordination ever in the Western hemisphere.[60]

Bhante Gunaratana is currently the abbot of the Bhavana Society, a monastery and meditation retreat center that he founded in High View, West Virginia.[61][62]

S. N. Goenka was a Burmese-born meditation teacher of the Vipassana movement. His teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin of Burma, was a contemporary of Mhsi Saydaw's, and taught a style of Buddhism with similar emphasis on simplicity and accessibility to laypeople. Goenka established a method of instruction popular in Asia and throughout the world. In 1981, he established the Vipassana Research Institute in Igatpuri, India and his students built several centers in North America.[63]

The Association of American Buddhists was a group which promotes Buddhism through publications, ordination of monks, and classes.[64]

Organized in 1960 by American practitioners of Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhism, it does not espouse any particular school or schools of Buddhism. It respects all Buddhist traditions as equal, and encourages unity of Buddhism in thought and practice. It states that a different, American, form of Buddhism is possible, and that the cultural forms attached to the older schools of Buddhism need not necessarily be followed by westerners.

Rita M. Gross, a feminist religious scholar, claims that many people converted to Buddhism in the 1960s and '70s as an attempt to combat traditional American values. However, in their conversion, they have created a new form of Buddhism distinctly Western in thought and practice.[5] Democratization and the rise of women in leadership positions have been among the most influential characteristics of American Buddhism. However, another one of these characteristics is rationalism, which has allowed Buddhists to come to terms with the scientific and technological advances of the 21st century. Engagement in social issues, such as global warming, domestic violence, poverty and discrimination, has also shaped Buddhism in America. Privatization of ritual practices into home life has embodied Buddhism in America. The idea of living in the present life rather than focusing on the future or the past is also another characteristic of American Buddhism .[65]

American Buddhism was able to embed these new religious ideals into such a historically rich religious tradition and culture due to the high conversion rate in the late 20th century. Three important factors led to this conversion in America: the importance of religion, societal openness, and spirituality. American culture places a large emphasis on having a personal religious identity as a spiritual and ethical foundation. During the 1960s and onward, society also became more open to other religious practices outside of Protestantism, allowing more people to explore Buddhism. People also became more interested in spiritual and experiential religion rather than the traditional institutional religions of the time.[65]

The mass conversion of the 60s and 70s was also occurring alongside the second-wave feminist movement. While many of the women who became Buddhists at this time were drawn to its gender neutral teachings, in reality Buddhism is a traditionally patriarchal religion.[66] These two conflicting ideas caused uneasiness with American Buddhist women.[66] This uneasiness was further justified after 1983, when some male Buddhist teachers were exposed as sexual adventurers and abusers of power.[67] This spurred action among women in the American Buddhist community. After much dialogue within the community, including a series of conferences entitled The Feminine in Buddhism, Sandy Boucher, a feminist-Buddhist teacher, interviewed over one hundred Buddhist women.[66] She determined from their experiences and her own that American Buddhism has the possibility for the creation of a religion fully inclusive of womens realities, in which women hold both institutional and spiritual leadership.[67]

In recent years, there is a strong presence of women in American Buddhism, and many women are even in leadership roles.[68] This also may be due to the fact that American Buddhism tends to stress democratization over the traditional hierarchical structure of Buddhism in Asia.[6] One study of Theravada Buddhist centers in the U.S., however, found that although men and women thought that Buddhist teachings were gender-blind, there were still distinct gender roles in the organization, including more male guest teachers and more women volunteering as cooks and cleaners.[68]

In 2006, for the first time in American history, a Buddhist ordination was held where an American woman (Sister Khanti-Khema) took the Samaneri (novice) vows with an American monk (Bhante Vimalaramsi) presiding. This was done for the Buddhist American Forest Tradition at the Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center in Missouri.[69]

Socially engaged Buddhism has developed in Buddhism in the West. While some critics[who?] assert the term is redundant, as it is mistaken to believe that Buddhism in the past has not affected and been affected by the surrounding society, others have suggested that Buddhism is sometimes seen as too passive toward public life. This is particularly true in the West, where almost all converts to Buddhism come to it outside of an existing family or community tradition. Engaged Buddhism is an attempt to apply Buddhist values to larger social problems, including war and environmental concerns. The term was coined by Thich Nhat Hanh, during his years as a peace activist in Vietnam. The Buddhist Peace Fellowship was founded in 1978 by Robert Aitken, Anne Aitken, Nelson Foster, and others and received early assistance from Gary Snyder, Jack Kornfield, and Joanna Macy.[70] Another engaged Buddhist group is the Zen Peacemaker Order, founded in 1996 by Bernie Glassman and Sandra Jishu Holmes.[71]In 2007, the American Buddhist scholar-monk, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, was invited to write an editorial essay for the Buddhist magazine Buddhadharma. In his essay, he called attention to the narrowly inward focus of American Buddhism, which has been pursued to the neglect of the active dimension of Buddhist compassion expressed through programs of social engagement. Several of Ven. Bodhis students who read the essay felt a desire to follow up on his suggestions. After a few rounds of discussions, they resolved to form a Buddhist relief organization dedicated to alleviating the suffering of the poor and disadvantaged in the developing world. At the initial meetings, seeking a point of focus, they decided to direct their relief efforts at the problem of global hunger, especially by supporting local efforts by those in developing countries to achieve self-sufficiency through improved food productivity. Contacts were made with leaders and members of other Buddhist communities in the greater New York area, and before long Buddhist Global Relief emerged as an inter-denominational organization comprising people of different Buddhist groups who share the vision of a Buddhism actively committed to the task of alleviating social and economic suffering.[72]

A number of groups and individuals have been implicated in scandals.[73] Sandra Bell has analysed the scandals at Vajradhatu and the San Francisco Zen Center and concluded that these kinds of scandals are most likely to occur in organisations that are in transition between the pure forms of charismatic authority that brought them into being and more rational, corporate forms of organization".[74]

Ford states that no one can express the "hurt and dismay" these events brought to each center, and that the centers have in many cases emerged stronger because they no longer depend on a "single charismatic leader".[75]

Robert Sharf also mentions charisma from which institutional power is derived, and the need to balance charismatic authority with institutional authority.[76] Elaborate analyses of these scandals are made by Stuart Lachs, who mentions the uncritical acceptance of religious narratives, such as lineages and dharma transmission, which aid in giving uncritical charismatic powers to teachers and leaders.[77][78][79][80][81]

Following is a partial list from reliable sources, limited to the United States and by no means all-inclusive.

Definitions and policies may differ greatly between different schools or sects: for example, "many, perhaps most" Soto priests "see no distinction between ordination and Dharma transmission". Disagreement and misunderstanding exist on this point, among lay practitioners and Zen teachers alike.[92]

James Ford writes,

[S]urprising numbers of people use the titles Zen teacher, master, roshi and sensei without any obvious connections to Zen [...] Often they obfuscate their Zen connections, raising the very real question whether they have any authentic relationship to the Zen world at all. In my studies I've run across literally dozens of such cases.[93]

James Ford claims that about eighty percent of authentic teachers in the United States belong to the American Zen Teachers Association or the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and are listed on their websites. This can help a prospective student sort out who is a "normative stream" teacher from someone who is perhaps not, but of course twenty percent do not participate.[93]

Accurate counts of Buddhists in the United States are difficult. Self-description has pitfalls. Because Buddhism is a cultural concept, individuals who self-describe as Buddhists may have little knowledge or commitment to Buddhism as a religion or practice; on the other hand, others may be deeply involved in meditation and committed to the Dharma, but may refuse the label "Buddhist". In the 1990s, Robert A. F. Thurman estimated there were 5 to 6 million Buddhists in America.

In a 2007 Pew Research Center survey, at 0.7% Buddhism was the third largest religion in the US after Christianity (78.4%), no religion (10.3%) and Judaism (1.7%).[94] In 2012 on the occasion of a visit from the Dalai Lama, U-T San Diego said there are 1.2 million Buddhist practitioners in the U.S., and of them 40% live in Southern California.[95]

In 2008, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Religious Landscape survey and the American Religious Identification Survey estimated Buddhists at 0.7 percent and 0.5 percent of the American population, respectively. ARIS estimated that the number of adherents rose by 170 percent between 1990 and 2000, reaching 1.2 million followers in 2008.[96] According to William Wilson Quinn "by all indications that remarkable rate of growth continues unabated."[97] But according to Robert Thurman,

Scholars are unsure whether the reports are accurate, as Americans who might dabble in various forms of Buddhism may not identify themselves as Buddhist on a survey. That makes it difficult to quantify the number of Buddhists in the United States.[96]

Others argued, in 2012, that Buddhists made up 1 percent of the American population (about three million people).[65]

A sociological survey conducted in 1999 found that relative to the US population as a whole, import Buddhists (i.e., those who are not Buddhist by birth) are proportionately more likely to be white, upper middle class, highly educated, and left-leaning in their political views. In terms of race, only 10% of survey respondents indicated they were a race other than white, a matter that has been cause of some concern among Buddhist leaders. Nearly a third of the respondents were college graduates, and more than half held advanced degrees. Politically, 60% identified themselves as Democrats, and Green Party affiliations outnumbered Republicans by 3 to 1. Import Buddhists were also proportionately more likely to have come from Catholic, and especially Jewish backgrounds. More than half of these adherents came to Buddhism through reading books on the topic, with the rest coming by way of martial arts and friends or acquaintances. The average age of the respondents was 46. Daily meditation was their most commonly cited Buddhist practice, with most meditating 30 minutes a day or more.[98]

In 2015 a Pew Foundation survey found 67% of American Buddhists were raised in a religion other than Buddhism.[99] 61% said their spouse has a religion other than Buddhism.[99] The survey was conducted only in English and Spanish, and may under-estimate Buddhist immigrants who speak Asian languages. A 2012 Pew study found Buddhism is practiced by 15% of surveyed Chinese Americans, 6% of Koreans, 25% of Japanese, 43% of Vietnamese and 1% of Filipinos.[100]

Only about a third (32%) of Buddhists in the United States are Asian; a majority (53%) are white. Buddhism in the America is primarily made up of native-born adherents, whites and converts.[101]

Discussion about Buddhism in America has sometimes focused on the issue of the visible ethnic divide separating ethnic Buddhist congregations from import Buddhist groups.[102] Although many Zen and Tibetan Buddhist temples were founded by Asians, they now attract fewer Asian-Americans. With the exception of Ska Gakkai,[11] almost all active Buddhist groups in America are either ethnic or import Buddhism based on the demographics of their membership. There is often limited contact between Buddhists of different ethnic groups.

However, the cultural divide should not necessarily be seen as pernicious. It is often argued that the differences between Buddhist groups arise benignly from the differing needs and interests of those involved. Convert Buddhists tend to be interested in meditation and philosophy, in some cases eschewing the trappings of religiosity altogether. On the other hand, for immigrants and their descendants, preserving tradition and maintaining a social framework assume a much greater relative importance, making their approach to religion naturally more conservative. Further, based on a survey of Asian-American Buddhists in San Francisco, "many Asian-American Buddhists view non-Asian Buddhism as still in a formative, experimental stage" and yet they believe that it "could eventually mature into a religious expression of exceptional quality".[1]

Additional questions come from the demographics within import Buddhism. The majority of American converts practicing at Buddhist centers are white, often from Christian or Jewish backgrounds. Only Ska Gakkai has attracted significant numbers of African-American or Latino members. A variety of ideas have been broached regarding the nature, causes, and significance of this racial uniformity. Journalist Clark Strand noted

Strand, writing for Tricycle (an American Buddhist journal) in 2004, notes that SGI has specifically targeted African-Americans, Latinos and Asians, and other writers have noted that this approach has begun to spread, with Vipassana and Theravada retreats aimed at non-white practitioners led by a handful of specific teachers.[104]

A question is the degree of importance ascribed to discrimination, which is suggested to be mostly unconscious, on the part of white converts toward potential minority converts.[105] To some extent, the racial divide indicates a class divide, because convert Buddhists tend to be more educated.[106] Among African American Buddhists who commented on the dynamics of the racial divide in convert Buddhism are Jan Willis and Charles R. Johnson.[107]

A Pew study shows that Americans tend to be less biased towards Buddhists when compared to other religions, such as Christianity, to which 18% of people were biased, when only 14% were biased towards Buddhists. American Buddhists are often not raised as Buddhists, with 32% of American Buddhists being raised Protestant, and 22% being raised Catholic, which means that over half of the American Buddhists were converted at some point in time. Also, Buddhism has had to adapt to America in order to garner more followers so that the concept would not seem so foreign, so they adopted "Catholic" words such as "worship" and "churches."[108]

Chgyam Trungpa founded Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, a four-year Buddhist college in the US (now Naropa University) in 1974.[109] Allen Ginsberg was an initial faculty member, christening the Institute's poetry department the "Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics". Now Naropa University, the school offers accredited degrees in a number of subjects, many not directly related to Buddhism.

The University of the West is affiliated with Hsi Lai Temple and was previously Hsi Lai University. Soka University of America, in Aliso Viejo California, was founded by the Ska Gakkai as a secular school committed to philosophic Buddhism. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is the site of Dharma Realm Buddhist University, a four-year college teaching courses primarily related to Buddhism but including some general-interest subjects. The Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California, in addition to offering a master's degree in Buddhist Studies acts as the ministerial training arm of the Buddhist Churches of America and is affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union. The school moved into the Jodo Shinshu Center in Berkeley.

The first Buddhist high school in the United States, Developing Virtue Secondary School, was founded in 1981 by the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association at their branch monastery in the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Ukiah, California. In 1997, the Purple Lotus Buddhist School offered elementary-level classes in Union City, California, affiliated with the True Buddha School; it added a middle school in 1999 and a high school in 2001.[110] Another Buddhist high school, Tinicum Art and Science now The Lotus School of Liberal Arts |url=http://Lotusla.org, which combines Zen practice and traditional liberal arts, opened in Ottsville, Pennsylvania in 1998. It is associated informally with the World Shim Gum Do Association in Boston. The Pacific Buddhist Academy opened in Honolulu, Hawaii in 2003. It shares a campus with the Hongwanji Mission School, an elementary and middle school; both schools affiliated with the Honpa Hongwanji Jodo Shinshu mission.[111]

Juniper Foundation, founded in 2003, holds that Buddhist methods must become integrated into modern culture just as they were in other cultures.[112] Juniper Foundation calls its approach "Buddhist training for modern life"[113] and it emphasizes meditation, balancing emotions, cultivating compassion and developing insight as four building blocks of Buddhist training.[114]

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St Zen or the St school (, St-sh) is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and baku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Codng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dngshn Linji. It emphasizes Shikantaza, meditation with no objects, anchors, or content. The meditator strives to be aware of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference.

The Japanese brand of the sect was imported in the 13th century by Dgen Zenji, who studied Codng Buddhism (Chinese: ; pinyin: Codng Zng) abroad in China. Dgen is remembered today as the co-patriarch of St Zen in Japan along with Keizan Jkin.

With about 14,000 temples, St is one of the largest Japanese Buddhist organizations.[a] St Zen is now also popular in the West, and in 1996 priests of the St Zen tradition formed the Soto Zen Buddhist Association based in North America.

The original Chinese version of St-sh, i.e. the Caodong-school () was established by the Tang dynasty monk Dongshan Liangjie ( Ja: Tzan Rykai) in the 9th century.

One prevalent view is that the sect's name was originally formed by taking one character each from the names of Dongshan and his disciple Caoshan Benji (, Tzan Rykai), and was originally called Dongcao sect (with the characters in transposed order). However, to paraphrase the Dongshan Yulu (, "Record of the Dialogues of Dongshan"), the sect's name denotes 'colleagues () of the teachings above the caves ()' who together follow the "black wind (teachings of Taoism?)"[citation needed] and admire the masters of various sects.[b]

Perhaps more significantly for the Japanese brand of this sect, Dgen among others advocated the reinterpretation that the "Cao" represents not Caoshan, but rather "Huineng of Caoxi temple" (Skei En); zh:). The branch that was founded by Caoshan died off, and Dgen was a student of the other branch that survived in China.

A precursor to the sect is Shtu Xqin (Ch. , ca.700 ca.790), the attributed author of the poem Sandokai, which formed the basis of Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi of Dongshan Liangjie (Jp. Tzan Rykai) and the teaching of the Five Ranks.

The Caodong-teachings were brought to Japan in 1227, when Dgen returned to Japan after studying Ch'an in China and settled at Kennin-ji in Kyoto. Dgen had received Dharma transmission from Tiantong Rujing at Qngd Temple, where Hongzhi Zhengjue once was abbot. Hongzhi's writings on "silent illumination" had greatly influenced Dgen's own conception of shikantaza.[8]

Dgen did return from China with various kan anthologies and other texts, contributing to the transmission of the koan tradition to Japan.[9] In the first works he wrote he emphasised the practice of zazen, which brought him into trouble at Kennin-ji:

This assertion of the primacy of Zen aroused the anger of the Enryaku-ji monks, who succeeded in driving Dgen from the Kennin-ji where he had settled after his return to the capital.

In 1243 Dgen founded Eihei-ji, one of the two head temples of St-sh today, choosing...

... to create new monastic institutions based on the Chinese model and risk incurring the open hostility and opposition of the established schools.

Daily routine was copied from Chinese practices, which went back to the Indian tradition:

The elements of St practice that contributed most to the success of the school in medieval Japan were precisely the generic Buddhist monastic practices inherited from Sung China, and ultimately from India. The St Zen style of group meditation on long platforms in a sangha hall, where the monks also took meals and slept at night, was the same as that prescribed in Indian Vinaya texts. The etiquette followed in St monasteries can also be traced back to the Indian Vinaya.

Dgen was succeeded around 1236 by his disciple Koun Ej (11981280), who originally was a member of the Daruma school of Nnin, but joined Dgen in 1229.Ej started his Buddhist studies at Mount Hiei, the center of Tendai studies. following his stay there he studied Pure Land Buddhism under Shk, whereafter he joined the Daruma school of Nnin by then led by Kakuan.

Ej, like Dgen, believed in the primacy of Zen Buddhism. He resisted efforts from outside to water down the tradition with other beliefs.

A large group from the Daruma-school under the leadership of Ekan joined the Dogen-school in 1241, after severe conflicts with the Tendai and Rinzai schools. Among this group were Gikai, Gien and Giin, who were to become influential members of Dgen's school.

After the death of Ej, a controversy called the sandai sron occurred. In 1267 Ej retired as Abbot of Eihei-ji, giving way to Gikai, who was already favored by Dogen. Gikai too originally was a member of the Daruma school, but joined Dgen's school in 1241, together with a group from the Nnin school led by Ekan. Gikai introduced esoteric elements into the practice:

[W]ith the premature death of Dgen the group lost its focus and internal conflicts led to a split. Dgen's followers soon introduced such esoteric elements as prayers and incantations into the teaching.

Opposition arose, and in 1272 Ej resumed the position of abbot. After his death in 1280, Gikai became abbot again, strengthened by the support of the military for magical practices. Opposition arose again, and Gikai was forced to leave Eihei-ji, and exiled to Kaga Province, Daj-ji (in Ishikawa Prefecture). He was succeeded by Gien, who was first trained in the Daruma-school of Nnin. His supporters designated him as the third abbot, rejecting the legitimacy of Gikai.

The second most important figure in St, Keizan, belonged to this dissident branch. Keizan received ordination from Ej when he was, twelve years old, shortly before Ej's death When he was seventeen he went on a pilgrimage for three years throughout Japan. During this period, he studied Rinzai, Shingon and Tendai. After returning to Daij-ji, Keizan received dharma transmission from Gikai in 1294, and established Joman-ji. In 1303 Gikai appointed Keizan as abbot of Daij-ji, a position he maintained until 1311.

Keizan enlarged the Shingon-temple Yk-ji in Ishikawa prefecture, turning it into a Zen monastery in 1312. Thereafter he inherited the Shingon temple Shogaku-ji in 1322, renaming it Sji-ji, which was recognized as an official monastery. In 1324 he put Gasan Jseki in charge of Sojo-ji, and returned to Yk-ji. Yko-ji was Keizan's main temple, but Sji-ji thrived better, thanks to Gasan Jseki

Though today Dgen is referred as the founder of St, for a long period St history recognized several important ancestors, next to Dgen. In 1877 the heads of the St community acknowledged Keizan for a brief period as the overall founder of the St sect.

Dogen is known as the "koso", where Keizan is known as the "taiso";

Both terms mean the original patriarch, that is, the founder of Japanese St Zen tradition.

At the end of the Kamakura period, Dgen's school centered around four centers, namely Eihei-ji, Daijo-ji monastery, and the temples Yoko-ji and Soji-ji. Soji-ji became the most influential center of the Dgen school.

During the Muromachi period the Rinzai school was the most successful of the schools, since it was favoured by the shgun. But Soto too spread out over Japan.

Gasan Jseki (12751365) and Meiho Sotetsu were Keizan's most prominent students.

Gasan too started his Buddhist studies at mount Hiei. He became head of Soji-ji in 1324. Gasan adopted the Five Ranks of Tung-shan as a fit vehicle to explain the Mahayana teachings.

Sotetsu became head of Yoko-ji in 1325. Initially his influence soon grew. In 1337 Sotetsu was appointed as abbot of Daijo-ji.

After a period of war Japan was re-united in the AzuchiMomoyama period. Neo-Confucianism gained influence at the expense of Buddhism, which came under strict state control. The power of Buddhism decreased during the Tokugawa period. Buddhism had become a strong political and military force in Japan and was seen as a threat by the ruling clan. Measures were taken to control the Buddhist organisations, and to limit their power and influence. The temple hierarchy system was centralized and unified.

Japan closed the gates to the rest of the world. New doctrines and methods were not to be introduced, nor were new temples and schools. The only exception was the baku lineage, which was introduced in the 17th century during the Edo period by Ingen, a Chinese monk. The presence of these Chinese monks also influenced the existing Zen-schools, spreading new ideas about monastic discipline and the rules for dharma transmission.

The St school started to place a growing emphasis on textual authority. In 1615 the bakufu declared that "Eheiji's standards (kakun) must be the rule for all St monks". In time this came to mean all the writings of Dgen, which thereby became the normative source for the doctrines and organisation of the St school.

A key factor in this growing emphasis on Dogen was Manzan's appeal to change the rules for dharma transmission, based on arguments derived from the Shbgenz. From its beginnings, St-sh has laid a strong emphasis on the right lineage and dharma transmission. In time, dharma transmission became synonymous with the transmission of temple ownership. When an abbot changed position, becoming abbot of another temple, he also had to discard his lineage and adopt the lineage of his new temple. This was changed by Manzan Dokahu (16361714), a St reformer, who...

[P]ropagated the view that Dharma transmission was dependent on personal initiation between a Master and disciple rather than on the disciple's enlightenment. He maintained this view in the face of strong opposition, citing as authority the towering figure of Japanese Zen, Dgen... This became and continues to this day to be the official St Zen view.

Dgen scholarship came to a central position in the St sect with the writings of Menzan Zuih (16831769), who wrote over a hundred works, including many commentaries on Dgen's major texts and analysis of his doctrines. Menzan promoted reforms of monastic regulations and practice, based on his reading of Dgen.

Another reformation was implemented by Gent Sokuch (17291807), the 11th abbot of Eihei-ji, who tried to purify the St school, de-emphasizing the use of kans. In the Middle Ages kan study was widely practiced in the St school. Gent Sokuch started the elevation of Dgen to the status he has nowadays, when he implemented new regulations, based on Dgen's regulations.

This growing status of Dgen as textual authority also posed a problem for the St school:

The St hierarchy, no doubt afraid of what other radical reformers might find in Dgen's Shobo Genzo, a work open to a variety of interpretations, immediately took steps to restrict access to this traditional symbol of sectarian authority. Acting at the request of the St prelates, in 1722 the government prohibited the copying or publication of any part of Shobo Genzo.

During the Meiji period (18681912) Japan abandoned its feudal system and opened up to Western modernism. Shinto became the state religion, and Buddhism was coerced to adapt to the new regime. Rinzai and St Zen chose to adapt, with embarrassing consequences when Japanese nationalism was endorsed by the Zen institutions. War endeavours against Russia, China and finally during the Pacific War were supported by the Zen establishment.

Within the Buddhist establishment the Western world was seen as a threat, but also as a challenge to stand up to. Parties within the Zen establishment sought to modernize Zen in accord with Western insights, while simultaneously maintaining a Japanese identity.

During this period a reappraisal of Dgen started. The memory of Dgen was used to ensure Eihei-ji's central place in the St organisation, and "to cement closer ties with lay people". In 1899 the first lay ordination ceremony was organized in Eihei-ji. Eihei-ji also promoted the study of Dgen's works, especially the Shbgenz, which changed the view of Dgen in St's history. An image of Dgen was created that suited the specific interests of Eihei-ji:

Dgen's memory has helped keep Eihei-ji financially secure, in good repair, and filled with monks and lay pilgrims who look to Dgen for religious inspiration... the Dgen we remember is a constructed image, an image constructed in large measure to serve the sectarian agendas of Eihei-ji in its rivalry with Sji-ji. We should remember that the Dgen of the Shbgenz, the Dgen who is held up as a profound religious philosopher, is a fairly recent innovation in the history of Dgen remembrances.

Funerals continue to play an important role as a point of contact between the monks and the laity. Statistics published by the St school state that 80 percent of St laymen visit their temple only for reasons having to do with funerals and death, while only 17 percent visit for spiritual reasons and a mere 3 percent visit a Zen priest at a time of personal trouble or crisis.

In a piece of advice to western practitioners, Kojun Kishigami Osho, a dharma heir of Kd Sawaki, writes:

Every year, about 150 novices arrive. About 90 percent of them are sons of temple heads, which leaves only 10 percent who chose this path for themselves. For the autumn session, about 250 monks come together. Essentially what they are learning in these temples is the ability to officiate all kinds of ceremonies and rites practiced by the St School the methods for fulfilling their role. Apart from this aspect, practicing with the idea of developing ones own spirituality is not prevalent.[web 1]

According to Kishigami, practice may as well be undertaken elsewhere:

If you want to study Buddhism, I recommend the Japanese universities. If you want to learn the ceremonies practiced by the St School, you need only head for Eihei-ji or Soji-ji.

But if your goal is to seriously learn the practice of zazen, unfortunately, I have no Japanese temple to recommend to you. Of course, you can go to Antai-ji, if you want; but if you want to deepen your practice of true Zen, you can do it in Europe. If you go to Japan for this, you will be disappointed. Don't expect to find anything wonderful there.[web 1]

In the 20th century St Zen spread out to the west.

Shunry Suzuki played a central role in bringing St to the west. Suzuki studied at Komazawa University, the St Zen university in Tokyo. In 1959 Suzuki arrived in California to attend to Soko-ji, at that time the sole St temple in San Francisco. His book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind has become a classic in western Zen culture. Suzuki's teaching of Shikantaza and Zen practice led to the formation of the San Francisco Zen Center, one of the largest and most successful Zen organizations in the West. The training monastery of the San Francisco Zen center, at Tassajara Hot Springs in central California, was the first Buddhist Monastery to be established outside Asia. Today SFZC includes Tassajara Monastery, Green Gulch Farm, and City Center. Various Zen Centers around the U.S. are part of the dharma lineage of San Francisco Zen Center and maintain close organizational ties with it.

Suzuki's assistant Dainin Katagiri was invited to come to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he moved in 1972 after Suzuki's death. Katagiri and his students built four St Zen centers within MinneapolisSaint Paul.[web 2][web 3][web 4]

The Sanbo Kyodan, in which St and Rinzai are merged, is also of central importance western St Zen. Their lineage, starting with Hakuun Yasutani, includes Taizan Maezumi, who gave dharma transmission to various American students, among them Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, Dennis Genpo Merzel disrobed in disgrace, Charlotte Joko Beck and John Daido Loori.

In Europe the Sanbo Kyodan has been influential via Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle, and via students of Dennis Genpo Merzel, especially in the Netherlands.

Sanbo Kyodan was also connected to the Soen NakagawaEido Tai Shimano lineage, (disgraced), due to a personal fondness of Soen for the teaching practices of Harada roshi, who was the teacher of Hakuun Yasutani.

The Antaiji-based lineage of Kd Sawaki is also widespread. Sawaki's student and successor as abbot Ksh Uchiyama was the teacher of Shhaku Okumura who established the Sanshin Zen Community in Bloomington, Indiana, and his student Gud Wafu Nishijima was Brad Warner's teacher.

Houn Jiyu-Kennett (1924-1996) was the first western female Soto Zen priest. She converted to Buddhism in the early 1950s, and studied in Sojiji, Japan, from 1962 to 1963.[46] Formally, Keido Chisan Koho Zenji was her teacher, but practically, one of Koho Zenji's senior officers, Suigan Yogo roshi, was her main instructor. She became Osh, i.e. "priest" or "teacher," in 1963. In 1969 she returned to the west, founding Shasta Abbey in 1970.[46]

The larger majority of North American St priests[c] joined together in 1996 to form the Soto Zen Buddhist Association. While institutionally independent of the Japanese Stsh, the St Zen Buddhist Association works closely with what most members see as their parent organization. With about one hundred fully transmitted priests, the St Zen Buddhist Association now represents about 80% of Western St teachers.[48] The Soto Zen Buddhist Association approved a document honoring the women ancestors in the Zen tradition at its biannual meeting on October 8, 2010. Female ancestors, dating back 2,500 years from India, China, and Japan, may now be included in the curriculum, ritual, and training offered to Western Zen students.[49]

Daily services in St monasteries include chanting of sutras and dharanis.[web 5]

In the St school of Zen, Shikantaza, meditation with no objects, anchors, or content, is the primary form of practice. The meditator strives to be aware of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference.

Considerable textual, philosophical, and phenomenological justification of this practice can be found throughout Dgen's works:

In the first works he wrote after his return to Japan, the Fukan zazengi (Principles for the universal promotion of zazen) and Bendwa (Distinguishing the Way), he advocated zazen (seated meditation) as the supreme Buddhist practice for both monks and laypersons.

Other important texts promoting zazen are the Shbgenz, and the "Principles of Zazen"[web 6] and the "Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen".[web 7]

St Zen was often given the derogatory name "farmer Zen" because of its mass appeal. Some teachers of Zen would say that the reason why it was called "farmer Zen" was because of its down-to-earth approach, while the Rinzai school was often called "samurai Zen" because of the larger samurai following.[50][51] The latter term for the Rinzai can be somewhat misleading, however, as the St school also had samurai among its rosters.[52]

St Zen, like all of Zen, relies on the Prajnaparamita Sutras, as well as general Mahayana Buddhist sutras, such as the Lotus Sutra, the Brahma Net Sutra and the Lankavatara Sutra. Zen is influenced in large part by the Yogacara school of philosophy as well as the Huayan school.

Until the promotion of Dogen studies in modern times, the study of Chinese texts was prevalent in St:

After textual learning was revived during the early Tokugawa period, most Japanese St monks still studied only well-known Chinese Buddhist scriptures or classic Chinese Zen texts. Eventually a few scholarly monks like Menzan Zuih began to study Dgen's writings, but they were the exceptions. Even when scholarly monks read Dgen's writings, they usually did not lecture on them to their disciples.

Shih-t'ou Hsi-ch'ien's (Shitou Xiqien, Sekito Kisen, 700790) poem "The Harmony of Difference and Sameness" is an important early expression of Zen Buddhism and is chanted in St temples to this day.

One of the poems of Tung-shan Liang-chieh, the founder of St, "The Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness" is also chanted in St temples. Another set of his poems on the Five Positions (Five Ranks) of Absolute and Relative is important as a set of kans in the Rinzai school.

Other texts typically chanted in St Zen temples include the Heart Sutra (Hannyashingy), and Dgen's Fukanzazengi (Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen).

Dgen's teaching is characterized by the identification of practice as enlightenment itself. This is to be found in the Shbgenz. The popularity of this huge body of texts is from a relatively recent date:

Today, when someone remembers Dgen or thinks of St Zen, most often that person automatically thinks of Dgen's Shbgenz. This kind of automatic association of Dgen with this work is very much a modern development. By the end of the fifteenth century most of Dgen's writings had been hidden from view in temple vaults where they became secret treasures... In earlier generations only one Zen teacher, Nishiari Bokusan (18211910), is known to have ever lectured on how the Shbgenz should be read and understood.

The study of Dgen, and especially his Shobogenzo, has become the norm in the 20th century:

Beginning in 1905 Eiheiji organized its first Shbgenz conference (Genz e)... Since 1905 it has become an annual event at Eiheiji, and over time it gradually changed the direction of St Zen monastic education... Stan's lectures provided a model that could be emulated by each of the other Zen monks who came to Eiheiji. This model has become the norm, not the exception. Today every St Zen teacher lectures on Dgen's Shbgenz.

St's head temples (honzan)

The St-sh organisation has an elaborate organisation.[d] It consists of about 15,000 temples. There are circa 30 training centers, where St monks can train to become an osh or priest and run their own temple.[web 8]

St-shu has a centralised organisation, run by a head:

St-sh is a democratic organization with a head (called Shmusch) that is elected by a parliament. The parliament in turn consist of 72 priests that are elected in 36 districts throughout Japan, 2 from each district. The Shmusch selects a cabinet that consists of him and seven other priests who together govern the organization. It is commonly believed that the Kanch, who is either the head of Eiheiji or Sjiji, the two head temples, is the boss of St-sh. This is not the case. The Kanch has only representational functions; the real power lies with the Shmusch and his cabinet.[web 8]

Contemporary St-sh has four classes of temples:

While Eihei-ji owes its existence to Dgen, throughout history this head temple has had significantly fewer sub-temple affiliates than the Sji-ji. During the Tokugawa period, Eiheiji had approximately 1,300 affiliate temples compared to Sji-ji's 16,200. Furthermore, out of the more than 14,000 temples of the St sect today, 13,850 of those identify themselves as affiliates of Sji-ji. Additionally, most of the some 148 temples that are affiliates of Eiheiji today are only minor temples located in Hokkaidofounded during a period of colonization during the Meiji period. Therefore, it is often said that Eiheiji is a head temple only in the sense that it is head of all St dharma lineages.

The St-sh is an "umbrella (hokatsu) organization for affiliated temples and organizations".[attribution needed] It has "three sets of governing documents":[attribution needed]

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St - Wikipedia

Written by admin

February 9th, 2019 at 4:45 am

Posted in Zen Buddhism


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