Commissions and Fees

Services

Best Investment Companies Overview

Some of these top 10 investment companies allow opening an account with no initial deposit requirement ($0 down) and no obligation (customers can close non-retirement account with no fee with all of these firms; and some brokers, such as Scottrade and Charles Schwab, also don't charge retirement account closing fees). This is a great opportunity to open a few brokerage accounts, and see first-hand which one you like better.

All of the top financial investment firms in the list above do not charge account maintenance fees for non-retirement accounts (except IB). Some of the companies have retirement account fees: we suggest to check our Fees pages for a complete information (links to these pages are available in our brokerage reviews). IB is the only broker in the list above that might charge account inactivity fee in some instances.

As you can see, commissions on stock and ETF trades range anywhere from $0 charged by Firstrade all the way up to $6.95 at TD Ameritrade and Etrade. Some of the investment firms have lower pricing for active traders. TD Ameritrade will also give traders better pricing but they don't advertise this ability - customers that can show that they are active traders can call the firm and negotiate lower rates.

Mutual funds commissions have even wider range of prices: the rate is anywhere from $0 at Firstrade and all the way up to $76 for purchase transaction at Charles Schwab. Many of these investment firms also offer no transaction fee mutual funds and that allows their clients to buy and sell mutual funds without paying commissions.

On the surface it may seem that some of the brokerage firms mentioned are expensive (TD Ameritrade or Etrade) while others are very cheap (Ally Invest and Firstrade). Generally speaking it's true. But for many clients there is a way to invest with some higher priced brokers basically for free. TD Ameritrade is the best case: the firm offers 296 commission free ETFs, thousands of no transaction fee mutual funds, and a promotion that offers 60 days of trading for free. With all these perks most customers could essentially create a diversified portfolio at the firm without paying any commissions.

Each of the 10 top financial investment companies has its strengths and weaknesses, and not every firm is right for a particular investor. We encourage readers to take a time to read the reviews, to see if a specific firm is a good fit for them.

The top investment companies are not shy to offer new customers promotional deals and incentives for opening a new non-IRA or even a retirement account: anything from reimbursing account transfer fees charged by an old broker; free trades for a period of time (usually one or two months); and up to significant cash bonuses (where amount of bonus often depends on the amount of initial deposit). Investors should definitely take advantage of these offers!

The Bulls and Bears of Investment Firm Advice

Besides selling funds, there could be other conflicts of interest. For example, a stock investment company could benefit from placing trades in a managed account. The firm could also receive compensation by recommending a certain custodian for client assets.

Investors who elect to turn over their assets to an investment advisor also lose the incentive to educate themselves about financial topics. There's a certain level of blind trust when clients simply turn their money over to an advisor.

Despite the disadvantages of investment broker advice, there are certainly benefits. A financial advisor is an excellent choice for beginners who aren't confident enough to make decisions with their own money. Financial planning could also benefit older people who are in retirement or approaching retirement. People who simply don't have enough time to manage their finances could also benefit from the services of a professional money manager. Many of the above top 10 investment companies offer such investment advice.

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Best Investment Companies: List of 10 ... - brokerage review

Investments are assets which represent a companys right to receive cash from its stake in another company, government, etc. Investments are made through purchase of bonds or shares or other financial instruments of the investee. The intent behind making such investments is to generate investment income (interest and dividend) and to benefit from expected capital gain.

Investments are reported by the investing company on its balance sheet, classified into current and non-current portion. Investments which are expected to be sold within next 12 months are called short-term investments while investments other than short-term investments are called long-term investments. Some investments, which are can be easily converted to cash with negligible fluctuation in its value, are classified as cash equivalents.

Investments can be made in debt securities, equity securities, commodities, derivative securities, etc. Debt securities are financial instruments that represent right to a determined stream of cash flows for a definite period of time. For example, government bonds, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, notes receivable, etc. all have a pre-determined payout for a specific period. Equity instruments are securities that represent residual (ownership) interest in a company, for example, shares of common stock, etc. Derivative securities are financial instruments which derive their value from other financial instruments. They are contracts whose value depend on another variable, for example, price of a common share of a company or its bond price or on price of a commodity, etc.

Traditionally debt securities have been classified into three categories:

However, new accounting standards (IFRS 9) require classifying debt investments into two categories: (a) investments carried at amortized cost and (b) those carried at fair value through profit and loss.

Accounting for equity investments depends on the extent of ownership:

Where the ownership is anywhere below 20%, the equity investment can be classified into any of the following categories:

New accounting standards have introduced a new classification framework for equity investments representing less than 20% ownership in companies. They require such equity investments to be accounted for either as (a) fair value through profit and loss or (b) fair value through other comprehensive income.

You are a Treasury Accountant at Flow, Inc., a futuristic technology-enabled financial services company. Its cash and cash equivalents at 1 January 2015 stood at $2.2 billion. A newly appointed Treasury Manager embarked on an aggressive investment spree. During the year, the company entered into the following transactions:

At the year end, i.e. 31 December 2015, investment in Dots, Inc. dropped to $290 million, investment in Air, Inc. rose to $500 million while investment in Fiber, Inc. was valued at $350 million. The company earned dividends of $2 million from Dots, Inc., nothing from Air, Inc., nothing from the equity mutual fund and nothing from Fiber, Inc. Fiber, Inc. net income for financial year 2015 amounted to $15 million.

Classify the above investments into different traditional investment categories and outline the accounting treatment of related gains or losses.

Solution

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Accounting for Investments | Types | Examples

This retreat is being cancelled but will be rescheduled. We will post the new dates as soon as they are confirmed.

Interspirituality is the deep sharing of prayer and belief across spiritual traditions. When Wayne Teasdale presented the term at the 1993 Parliament of World Religions, the phrase had immediate resonance and added spiritual depth to interreligious dialogue.

In a time when many institutional religious structures are declining, what would it take to have the soul of religion be embedded again in its original meaningful context, namely, to bind together what has been and is now trying to be lived? It suggests a reflection back to our origins, to what has brought the human family to this point in time and holds the seed to the evolution of the spiritual life of all humans.

Just what is interspirituality and what hope does it hold for the human race at this critical time? What can older generations say to younger generations about the religious life they have known all their life? These and many more reflections and group discussion will be the goal of our time together.

Friday, March 9, to Saturday, March 10, 2017The retreat begins at 6:30pm on Friday and concludes at 3:30pm on Saturday.Cost of $175 includes $50 non-refundable deposit, overnight accommodations, and meals.

Frederick R. Gustafson, Jr. is an author, psycho-therapist, and ordained Lutheran minister with a doctorate in ministry. He has lectured on mens spirituality, psychology, dreams, and the relationship between Western and Native American spiritualities. Fred has studied Jungian psychology in Switzerland and has long been active in the ceremonial life and culture of the Lakota Brule Sioux inSouth Dakota.

The rest is here:
Interspirituality: Evolutionary Hope for the Human Family ...

Sri Aurobindo Ashram Donations

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust has set up a facility to receive donations online. Donations may be made to the Ashram by filling in the form below and proceeding with any of the payment methods listed. The site and payment gateway are secure. Additional features and payment options will be added in due course.

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AfghanistanAlbaniaAlgeriaAmerican SamoaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBoliviaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombiaComorosCongoCook IslandsCosta RicaCote D'IvoireCroatiaCubaCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEast TimorEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Faroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuamGuatemalaGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHeard and McDonald IslandsHondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIran (Islamic Republic of)IraqIrelandIsraelItalyJamaicaJapanJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKorea, Democratic People's Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwaitKyrgyzstanLao People's Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacauMacedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMexicoMicronesia, Federated States ofMoldova, Republic ofMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNetherlands AntillesNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorfolk IslandNorthern Mariana IslandsNorwayOmanPakistanPalauPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPitcairnPolandPortugalPuerto RicoQatarReunionRomaniaRussian FederationRwandaSaint LuciaSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSao Tome and PrincipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSpainSri LankaSt. HelenaSt. Pierre and MiquelonSudanSurinameSvalbard and Jan Mayen IslandsSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwanTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailandTogoTokelauTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVatican City State (Holy See)VenezuelaViet NamVirgin Islands (British)Virgin Islands (U.S.)Wallis and Futuna IslandsWestern SaharaYemenZambiaZimbabwe

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Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii (known in English as Peter D. Ouspensky, ; 5 March 1878 2 October 1947),[1] was a Russian esotericist known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine George Gurdjieff, whom he met in Moscow in 1915. Ouspensky was associated[by whom?] with the ideas and practices originating with Gurdjieff from then on. He shared the (Gurdjieff) "system" for 25 years in England and the United States, having separated from Gurdjieff in 1924 personally, for reasons he explains in the last chapter of his book In Search of the Miraculous.

All in all, Ouspensky studied the Gurdjieff system directly under Gurdjieff's own supervision for a period of ten years, from 1915 to 1924. His book In Search of the Miraculous recounts what he learned from Gurdjieff during those years. While lecturing in London in 1924, he announced that he would continue independently the way he had begun in 1921. Some, including his close pupil Rodney Collin, say that he finally gave up the system in 1947, just before his death, but his own recorded words on the subject ("A Record of Meetings", published posthumously) do not clearly endorse this judgement, nor does Ouspensky's emphasis on "you must make a new beginning" after confessing "I've left the system".[2]

Ouspensky was born in Moscow in 1878. In 1890, he was studying at the Second Moscow Gymnasium, a government school attended by boys from 10 to 18. At the age of 16, he was expelled from school for painting graffiti on the wall in plain sight of a visiting inspector; thereafter, he would be more or less on his own.[3] In 1906, he was working in the editorial office of the Moscow daily paper The Morning. In 1907 he discovered Theosophy. In the autumn of 1913, age 35, before the beginning of World War I, he journeyed to the East in search of the miraculous, visited Theosophists in Adyar but was forced to return to Moscow after the beginning of the Great War. There he met George Gurdjieff and married Sophie Grigorievna Maximenko. He had a mistress by the name of Anna Ilinishna Butkovsky.[4]

His first book, The Fourth Dimension, appeared in 1909; his second book, Tertium Organum, in 1912. A New Model of the Universe, as explained by Ouspensky in the foreword of the second edition, was written and published as articles by 1914, updated to include "recent developments in physics" and republished as a book in Russian in 1917. The work, as reflected in its title, shows the influence of Francis Bacon and Max Mller and has been interpreted as an attempt to reconcile ideas from natural science and the burgeoning field of religious studies with occultism in the tradition of Gurdjieff and Theosophy.[5] It was assumed that that book was lost to the Revolution's violence, but it was then republished in English (without his knowledge) in 1931. Since the earliest lectures this work attracted a who's who of philosophy (see below) and has been to this day a widely accepted authoritative basis for a study of metaphysics, or rather, to exceed the limits of the same by his "psychological method", which he defines as (paraphrasing p.75.) "a calibration of the tools of human understanding to derive the actual meaning of the thing itself."

This term is one of three high concepts of the material presented, along with "the esoteric method" which as he sums up (p.76) depends on the first to derive the possibility of something beyond ordinary human effort entirely. In high concept terms: "The idea of esotericism ... holds that the very great majority of our ideas are not the product of evolution but the product of the degeneration of ideas which existed at some time or are still existing somewhere in much higher, purer and more complete forms." (p.47) Ouspensky's reputation is presently degenerated to being a follower of Gurdjieff rather than a partner (see below) and the apex of esotericism, self-knowledge, and metaphysical thought. The title itself promises a model of the universe, or unified theory of everything, which it is. He also wrote the novel Strange Life of Ivan Osokin, which explored the concept of eternal recurrence or the eternal return.

He traveled in Europe and the East India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Egypt in his search for knowledge. After his return to Russia and his introduction to Gurdjieff in 1915, Ouspensky spent the next few years studying with him, and supporting the founding of a school.

Denying the ultimate reality of space and time in his book Tertium Organum,[6] he also negates Aristotle's Logical Formula of Identification of "A is A" and finally concludes in his "higher logic" that A is both A and not-A.[7]

Unbeknown to Ouspensky, a Russian migr by the name of Nicholas Bessarabof took a copy of Tertium Organum to America and placed it in the hands of the architect Claude Bragdon who could read Russian and was interested in the fourth dimension.[8] Tertium Organum was rendered into English by Bragdon who had incorporated his own design of the hypercube[9][10] into the Rochester Chamber of Commerce building.[11] Bragdon also published the book and the publication was such a success that it was finally taken up by Alfred A. Knopf. At the time, in the early 1920s, Ouspensky's whereabouts were unknown until Bragdon located him in Constantinople and paid him back some royalties.

Ouspensky's lectures in London were attended by such literary figures as Aldous Huxley, T. S. Eliot, Gerald Heard and other writers, journalists and doctors. His influence on the literary scene of the 1920s and 1930s as well as on the Russian avant-garde was immense but still very little known.[12] It was said of Ouspensky that, though nonreligious, he had one prayer: not to become famous during his lifetime.

Ouspensky also provided an original discussion of the nature and expression of sexuality in his A New Model of the Universe; among other things, he draws a distinction between erotica and pornography.

During his years in Moscow, Ouspensky wrote for several newspapers and was particularly interested in the then-fashionable idea of the fourth dimension.[13] His first published work was titled The Fourth Dimension[14] and he explored the subject along the ideas prevalent at the time in the works of Charles H. Hinton,[15] the fourth dimension being an extension in space.[16][17] Ouspensky treats time as a fourth dimension only indirectly in a novel he wrote titled Strange Life of Ivan Osokin[18] where he also explores the theory of eternal recurrence.

After the Bolshevik revolution, Ouspensky travelled to London by way of Istanbul.G. R. S. Mead became interested in the fourth dimension and Lady Rothermere, wife of Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, the press magnate, was willing to spread the news of Ouspenky's Tertium Organum, while Ouspensky's acquaintance A. R. Orage was telling others about Ouspensky. By order of the British government, Gurdjieff was not allowed to settle in London. Gurdjieff finally went to France with a considerable sum of money raised by Ouspensky and his friends and settled down near Paris at the Prieur in Fontainebleau-Avon.[19] It was during this time, after Gurdjieff founded his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in France, that Ouspensky came to the conclusion that he was no longer able to understand his former teacher and made a decision to discontinue association with him, setting up his own organisation, The Society for the Study of Normal Psychology, which is now known as The Study Society.[20]

Nevertheless, Ouspensky wrote about Gurdjieff's teachings in a book originally entitled Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, only published posthumously in 1947 under the title In Search of the Miraculous. While this volume has been criticized by some of those who have followed Gurdjieff's teachings as only a partial representation of the totality of his ideas, it nevertheless provides what is probably the most concise explanation of the material that was included. This is in sharp contrast to the writings of Gurdjieff himself, such as Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson, where the ideas and precepts of Gurdjieff's teachings are found very deeply veiled in allegory. Initially, Ouspensky had intended this book to be published only if Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson were not published. But after his death, Mme Ouspensky showed its draft to Gurdjieff who praised its accuracy and permitted its publication.

Ouspensky died in Lyne Place, Surrey, in 1947. Shortly after his death, The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution was published, together with In Search of the Miraculous. A facsimile edition of In Search of the Miraculous was published in 2004 by Paul H. Crompton Ltd. London. Transcripts of some of his lectures were published under the title of The Fourth Way in 1957; largely a collection of question and answer sessions, the book details important concepts, both introductory and advanced, for students of these teachings.

Ouspensky's papers are held at Yale University Library's Manuscripts and Archives department.

After Ouspensky broke away from Gurdjieff, he taught the "Fourth Way", as he understood it, to his independent groups.

Gurdjieff proposed that there are three ways of self-development generally known in esoteric circles. These are the Way of the Fakir, dealing exclusively with the physical body, the Way of the Monk, dealing with the emotions, and the Way of the Yogi, dealing with the mind. What is common about the three ways is that they demand complete seclusion from the world. According to Gurdjieff, there is a Fourth Way which does not demand its followers to abandon the world. The work of self-development takes place right in the midst of ordinary life. Gurdjieff called his system a school of the Fourth Way where a person learns to work in harmony with his physical body, emotions and mind. Ouspensky picked up this idea and continued his own school along this line.[21]

Ouspensky made the term "Fourth Way" and its use central to his own teaching of the ideas of Gurdjieff. He greatly focused on Fourth Way schools and their existence throughout history.

Students

Among his students were Rodney Collin, Maurice Nicoll, Robert S de Ropp, Kenneth Walker, Remedios Varo and Dr Francis Roles.[22]

Ouspensky personally confessed the difficulties he was experiencing with "self-remembering," which has later been defined by Osho as 'witnessing'. The present phraseology in the teachings of Advaita is to be in awareness, or being aware of being aware. It is also believed to be consistent with the Buddhist practice of 'mindfulness'. The ultimate goal of each is to be always in a state of meditation even in sleep. It was[clarification needed]a technique to which he had been introduced by Gurdjieff himself. Gurdjieff explained to him this was the missing link to everything else. While in Russia, Ouspensky himself experimented with the technique with a certain degree of success and in his lectures in London and America, he emphasized its practice. The technique requires a division of attention, so that a person not only pays attention to what is going on in the exterior world but also in the interior. A.L. Volinsky, an acquaintance of Ouspensky in Russia mentioned to Ouspensky that this was what professor Wundt meant by apperception. Ouspensky disagreed and noted how an idea so profound to him would pass unnoticed by people whom he considered intelligent. Gurdjieff explained the Rosicrucian principle that in order to bring about a result or manifestation, three things are necessary. With self-remembering and self-observation two things are present. The third one is explained by Ouspensky in his tract on Conscience: it is the non-expression of negative emotions.[23][24]

Self-Knowledge

According to Beryl Pogson, author of The Work Life, "...the only real poverty is lack of self-knowledge."[25]

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P. D. Ouspensky - Wikipedia

Personal Performance Awards

In January 2019, British Canoeing Awarding Body launched the new Personal Performance Awards. They replace the existing Star Awards.

After extensive independent research and wider consultation with the paddling community, British Canoeing Awarding Body and volunteers have created a framework of awards. This framework represents and supports the diverse paddling community.

The new Personal Performance Awards are designed for paddlers wanting to gain recognition of their learning and development, in the craft and environment they choose.

The process of completing the awards is based on learning. The ethos of supporting the paddler is the main focus of all the awards, encouraging individuals in their personal development.

Lee Pooley, British Canoeing Awarding Body Responsible Officer, says:

British Canoeing Awarding Body is delighted to announce the new Personal Performance Awards. They replaced the existing Star Awards from January 2019.

The development of the new awards has been an exciting project with many paddlers involved in creating Personal Performance Awards for paddlers, as well as people new to paddlesport.

The Personal Performance Awards Provider eLearning is designed to support Providers with the delivery of the British Canoeing Personal Performance Awards. The activities will give a range of information about how Providers can support paddlers and all the information they need to know about the Personal Performance Awards.

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New Personal Performance Awards - British Canoeing ...

Founder of

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence" - Vince Lombardi

I wish that it was me who first thought to say if we chase perfection we can catch excellence, because if anything sums up the ethos of Ultimate Performance personal training this phrase is it.

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Trying to find the perfect Personal Trainer for your specific needs can be a tricky business. There are only a few of us with any sort of profile, so sorting the wheat from the chaff can be a rather confusing process. In fact, the hardest part of my job as the boss of the number one personal training team in London is hiring the right Personal Trainers to match our world-class standards. This is despite the fact that we even have our own successful Personal Trainer Education Academy that trains fitness professionals from all over the world. So if I struggle and only interview an average of one applicant per 115 Personal Trainers who apply for a job, heaven help the unsuspecting potential client looking for a great personal trainer but who lacks my insider knowledge.

It is for this reason that this website is set up a bit differently from any other personal training site that you will find. We can tell you that we are fantastic and the best celebrity Personal Trainers in the land, but self-praise is an easy accolade to pick up and doesnt help you to cut through the BS and find the very best Personal Trainer for your unique and specific needs. So the aim of this website is to entertain and inform you by showing you that we really do know more about achieving maximum results in minimum time than you ever thought possible.

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We will show off our knowledge of all things related to improving your body composition; our groundbreaking personal training gyms that have been described as the best personal training facilities in London by the likes of Mens Health; and most importantly of all we will show you the results that we consistently achieve with our personal training clients, because no other London Personal Trainer comes close to doing what we can do.

Big words and big promises I know, but if you visit our real results section at the top of this page, you can see that we can back up every word that I write. Our clients run the gamut from City of London professionals to international bodybuilders and Victorias Secret models, from Olympic athletes to pop and soap opera stars, people whose careers rely upon us to help them look and perform at the very top of their game.

We have numerous accolades and testimonials, all of which you should look for in any personal trainer worth their salt, but perhaps it all comes down to this one question that you need to ask yourself:

"Your Body is Your Most Precious Asset, Who Would You Trust With It?"

If I were asked this question I know what my answer would be I would trust the Personal Trainer who shows me the most proof and makes me feel the most comfortable.

And why is UP widely recognised throughout the Personal Training industry as the worlds leading personal trainers? I can give you a vague answer and reel off important yet soft factors such as culture, education, passion and quality control, but rather than waffle allow me to give you a few facts.

UP is the only international Personal Training business in the world, with our own gyms in London, Marbella, Singapore, Hong Kong and Los Angeles. This means that I oversee 2,000 plus personal training sessions every week and have a unique insight into the methodologies that get the best results in real world situations with our specific demographic of busy, often highly stressed, 30-50 year old clients. No one else in the world has access to the information that the human laboratory of UP worldwide can produce, and this has been instrumental in allowing us to refine our processes and generate the results that we are famous for.

So sit back, take your time and browse through our site, check out our credentials, personal training testimonials, and results and if you want to learn more and make an appointment then contact us and wed love to get back to you with any advice that we can.

Yours in Health & Wellness,

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Snowshoeing is a massive growing sport. You can do it almost anywhere, with all kinds of snow conditions, regardless of your fitness level or skill. Personal Best and Caledon Hills Bike Shop are working together to bring you a unique-fun-social winter experience on Sunday, Feb 10th at the Albion Hills Conservation Park in Caledon (5min north of Bolton). The Feb 10th PB-Caledon Hills Bike Shop Event is a part of the Snowshoe Canada Winter Race Series. Participants have a number of options on this fun-social bare-bones event.

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Personal Best is proud to work closely with the C3 Canadian Cross Training Club to bring you the popular Mega Day workouts.

Jan 12th, Feb 2nd & Feb 23th

For details and registrationvisitthe C3 website at http://www.c3online.ca

New this year, the Mega Day starts with an optional 6:30-8:00 swim. Then the regular 9:00-12:00 bike, lunch speaker and then Caron Shepley's legendary core/yoga workout 1:15-2:30pm

Join seventy to one hundred motivated age groupers of all ages and fitness levels riding indoors for 2-3 hours with two world-class teacher/coaches on the front stage. The room will be filled with great music, a big screen and a filled with great energy. Athletes are able to accomplish workouts in the group environment that they never could have done on their own. Following the 3 hour indoor ride (you can take breaks whenever you need one), there is a 75 minute lunch break with a different 30 minute educational seminar at each of the Mega Days. Each days seminar will be a different topic (seminars topics to be finalized). Caron Shepley's Core/Yoga class is a 75 minute session where the world-class ironwoman/yoga expert will take all participants through a strengthening, flexibility and injury prevention workout. Each Workout goes from 1:15-2:30pm in the main ball room. You can come for the morning, the afternoon or the full day.

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During the 1950s and 1960s, British philosopher and writer Alan Watts began popularizing Eastern philosophy in the West, offering a wholly different perspective on inner wholeness in the age of anxiety and what it really means to live a life of purpose. We owe much of todays mainstream adoption of practices like yoga and meditation to Wattss influence. His 1966 masterwork The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (public library) builds upon his indispensable earlier work as Watts argues with equal parts conviction and compassion that the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy-religions of the East. He explores the cause and cure of that illusion in a way that flows from profound unease as we confront our cultural conditioning into a deep sense of lightness as we surrender to the comforting mystery and interconnectedness of the universe.

Envisioned as a packet of essential advice a parent might hand down to his child on the brink of adulthood as initiation into the central mystery of life, this existential manual is rooted in what Watts calls a cross-fertilization of Western science with an Eastern intuition.

Though strictly nonreligious, the book explores many of the core inquiries which religions have historically tried to address the problems of life and love, death and sorrow, the universe and our place in it, what it means to have an I at the center of our experience, and what the meaning of existence might be. In fact, Watts begins by pulling into question how well-equipped traditional religions might be to answer those questions:

The standard-brand religions, whether Jewish, Christian, Mohammedan, Hindu, or Buddhist, are as now practiced like exhausted mines: very hard to dig. With some exceptions not too easily found, their ideas about man and the world, their imagery, their rites, and their notions of the good life dont seem to fit in with the universe as we now know it, or with a human world that is changing so rapidly that much of what one learns in school is already obsolete on graduation day.

Watts considers the singular anxiety of the age, perhaps even more resonant today, half a century and a manic increase of pace later:

There is a growing apprehension that existence is a rat-race in a trap: living organisms, including people, are merely tubes which put things in at one end and let them out at the other, which both keeps them doing it and in the long run wears them out.

He weighs how philosophy might alleviate this central concern by contributing a beautiful addition to the definitions of what philosophy is and recognizing the essential role of wonder in the human experience:

Most philosophical problems are to be solved by getting rid of them, by coming to the point where you see that such questions as Why this universe? are a kind of intellectual neurosis, a misuse of words in that the question sounds sensible but is actually as meaningless as asking Where is this universe? when the only things that are anywhere must be somewhere inside the universe. The task of philosophy is to cure people of such nonsense. . . . Nevertheless, wonder is not a disease. Wonder, and its expression in poetry and the arts, are among the most important things which seem to distinguish men from other animals, and intelligent and sensitive people from morons.

At the heart of the human condition, Watts argues, is a core illusion that fuels our deep-seated sense of loneliness the more we subscribe to the myth of the sole ego, one reflected in the most basic language we use to make sense of the world:

We suffer from a hallucination, from a false and distorted sensation of our own existence as living organisms. Most of us have the sensation that I myself is a separate center of feeling and action, living inside and bounded by the physical body a center which confronts an external world of people and things, making contact through the senses with a universe both alien and strange. Everyday figures of speech reflect this illusion. I came into this world. You must face reality. The conquest of nature.

This feeling of being lonely and very temporary visitors in the universe is in flat contradiction to everything known about man (and all other living organisms) in the sciences. We do not come into this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean waves, the universe peoples. Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of themselves as isolated egos inside bags of skin.

(A curious aside for music aficionados and fans of the show Weeds: Watts uses the phrase little boxes made of ticky-tacky to describe the homogenizing and perilous effect of the American quest for dominance over nature , space, mountains, deserts, bacteria, and insects instead of learning to cooperate with them in a harmonious order. The following year, Malvina Reynolds used the phrase in the lyrics to her song Little Boxes, which satirizes suburbia and the development of the middle class. The song became a hit for Pete Seeger in 1963 and was used by Showtime as the opening credits score for the first three seasons of Jenji Kohans Weeds.)

Religions, Watts points out, work to reinforce rather than liberate us from this sense of separateness, for at their heart lies a basic intolerance for uncertainty the very state embracing which is fundamental to our happiness, as modern psychology has indicated, and crucial to the creative process, as Keats has eloquently articulated. Watts writes:

Religions are divisive and quarrelsome. They are a form of one-upmanship because they depend upon separating the saved from the damned, the true believers from the heretics, the in-group from the out-group. . . . All belief is fervent hope, and thus a cover-up for doubt and uncertainty.

In a sentiment that Alan Lightman would come to echo more than half a century later in his remarkable meditation on science and what faith really means, Watts adds:

Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, open-ness an act of trust in the unknown.

[]

No considerate God would destroy the human mind by making it so rigid and unadaptable as to depend upon one book, the Bible, for all the answers. For the use of words, and thus of a book, is to point beyond themselves to a world of life and experience that is not mere words or even ideas. Just as money is not real, consumable wealth, books are not life. To idolize scriptures is like eating paper currency.

Instead, Watts proposes that we need a new domain, not of ideas alone, but of experience and feeling, something that serves as a point of departure, not a perpetual point of reference and offers not a new Bible but a new way of understanding human experience, a new feeling of what it is to be an I.' In recognizing and fully inhabiting that feeling, he argues, lies the greatest taboo of human culture:

Our normal sensation of self is a hoax, or, at best, a temporary role that we are playing, or have been conned into playing with our own tacit consent, just as every hypnotized person is basically willing to be hypnotized. The most strongly enforced of all known taboos is the taboo against knowing who or what you really are behind the mask of your apparently separate, independent, and isolated ego.

And yet, he argues, the sense of I and the illusion of its separateness from the rest of the universe is so pervasive and so deeply rooted in the infrastructure of our language, our institutions, and our cultural conventions that we find ourselves unable to experience selfhood except as something superficial in the scheme of the universe. The antidote lies in recognizing not merely that we belong to and with the rest of universe, but that there is no rest in the first place we are the universe.

Still, Watts cautions that this is not to be confused with the idea of unselfishness promoted by many religions and ideologies, which is the effort to identify with others and their needs while still under the strong illusion of being no more than a skin-contained ego:

Such unselfishness is apt to be a highly refined egotism, comparable to the in-group which plays the game of were-more-tolerant-than-you.

Echoing C.S. Lewiss advice to children on duty and love, Watts writes:

Genuine love comes from knowledge, not from a sense of duty or guilt.

[]

Our whole knowledge of the world is, in one sense, self-knowledge. For knowing is a translation of external events into bodily processes, and especially into states of the nervous system and the brain: we know the world in terms of the body, and in accordance with its structure.

One thing that reinforces our isolated sensation of self, Watts argues, is our biological wiring to err on always either side of the figure-ground illusion, only ever able to see one half of the whole and remaining blind to the rest. He illustrates this with a beautiful analogy:

All your five senses are differing forms of one basic sensesomething like touch. Seeing is highly sensitive touching. The eyes touch, or feel, light waves and so enable us to touch things out of reach of our hands. Similarly, the ears touch sound waves in the air, and the nose tiny particles of dust and gas. But the complex patterns and chains of neurons which constitute these senses are composed of neuron units which are capable of changing between just two states: on or off. To the central brain the individual neuron signals either yes or no thats all. But, as we know from computers which employ binary arithmetic in which the only figures are 0 and 1, these simple elements can be formed into the most complex and marvelous patterns.

In this respect our nervous system and 0/1 computers are much like everything else, for the physical world is basically vibration. Whether we think of this vibration in terms of waves or of particles, or perhaps wavicles, we never find the crest of a wave without a trough or a particle without an interval, or space, between itself and others. In other words, there is no such thing as a half wave, or a particle all by itself without any space around it. There is no on without off, no up without down.

[]

While eyes and ears actually register and respond to both the up-beat and the down-beat of these vibrations, the mind, that is to say our conscious attention, notices only the up-beat. The dark, silent, or off interval is ignored. It is almost a general principle that consciousness ignores intervals, and yet cannot notice any pulse of energy without them. If you put your hand on an attractive girls knee and just leave it there, she may cease to notice it. But if you keep patting her knee, she will know you are very much there and interested. But she notices and, you hope, values the on more than the off. Nevertheless, the very things that we believe to exist are always on/offs. Ons alone and offs alone do not exist.

Indeed, he argues that the general conditioning of consciousness is to ignore intervals. (Weve seen the everyday manifestation of this in Alexandra Horowitzs fascinating exploration of what we dont see.) We register the sound but not the silence that surrounds it. We think of space as nothingness in which certain somethings objects, planetary bodies, our own bodies hang. And yet:

Solids and spaces go together as inseparably as insides and outsides. Space is the relationship between bodies, and without it there can be neither energy nor motion.

What further fuels this half-sighted reliance on intervals is the way our attention which has been aptly called an intentional, unapologetic discriminator works by dividing the world up into processable parts, then stringing those together into a pixelated collage of separates which we then accept as a realistic representation of the whole that was there in the first place:

Attention is narrowed perception. It is a way of looking at life bit by bit, using memory to string the bits together as when examining a dark room with a flashlight having a very narrow beam. Perception thus narrowed has the advantage of being sharp and bright, but it has to focus on one area of the world after another, and one feature after another. And where there are no features, only space or uniform surfaces, it somehow gets bored and searches about for more features. Attention is therefore something like a scanning mechanism in radar or television. . . . But a scanning process that observes the world bit by bit soon persuades its user that the world is a great collection of bits, and these he calls separate things or events. We often say that you can only think of one thing at a time. The truth is that in looking at the world bit by bit we convince ourselves that it consists of separate things, and so give ourselves the problem of how these things are connected and how they cause and effect each other. The problem would never have arisen if we had been aware that it was just our way of looking at the world which had chopped it up into separate bits, things, events, causes, and effects.

Nature and nurture conspire in the architecture of this illusion of separateness, which Watts argues begins in childhood as our parents, our teachers, and our entire culture help us to be genuine fakes, which is precisely what is meant by being a real person.' He offers a fascinating etymology of the concept into which we anchor the separate ego:

The person, from the Latin persona, was originally the megaphone-mouthed mask used by actors in the open-air theaters of ancient Greece and Rome, the mask through (per) which the sound (sonus) came.

Indeed, this bisection is perhaps most powerful and painful not in our sense of separateness from the universe but in our sense of being divided within ourselves a feeling particularly pronounced among creative people, a kind of diamagnetic relationship between person and persona. While the oft-cited metaphor of the rider and the elephant might explain the dual processing of the brain, it is also a dangerous dichotomy that only perpetuates our sense of being separate from and within ourselves. Watts writes:

The self-conscious feedback mechanism of the cortex allows us the hallucination that we are two souls in one body a rational soul and an animal soul, a rider and a horse, a good guy with better instincts and finer feelings and a rascal with rapacious lusts and unruly passions. Hence the marvelously involved hypocrisies of guilt and penitence, and the frightful cruelties of punishment, warfare, and even self-torment in the name of taking the side of the good soul against the evil. The more it sides with itself, the more the good soul reveals its inseparable shadow, and the more it disowns its shadow, the more it becomes it.

Thus for thousands of years human history has been a magnificently futile conflict, a wonderfully staged panorama of triumphs and tragedies based on the resolute taboo against admitting that black goes with white.

Returning to our inability to grasp intervals as the basic fabric of world and integrate foreground with background, content with context, Watts considers how the very language with which we name things and events our notation system for what our attention notices reflects this basic bias towards separateness:

Today, scientists are more and more aware that what things are, and what they are doing, depends on where and when they are doing it. If, then, the definition of a thing or event must include definition of its environment, we realize that any given thing goes with a given environment so intimately and inseparably that it is more difficult to draw a clear boundary between the thing and its surroundings.

[]

Individual is the Latin form of the Greek atom that which cannot be cut or divided any further into separate parts. We cannot chop off a persons head or remove his heart without killing him. But we can kill him just as effectively by separating him from his proper environment. This implies that the only true atom is the universe that total system of interdependent thing-events which can be separated from each other only in name. For the human individual is not built as a car is built. He does not come into being by assembling parts, by screwing a head onto a neck, by wiring a brain to a set of lungs, or by welding veins to a heart. Head, neck, heart, lungs, brain, veins, muscles, and glands are separate names but not separate events, and these events grow into being simultaneously and interdependently. In precisely the same way, the individual is separate from his universal environment only in name. When this is not recognized, you have been fooled by your name. Confusing names with nature, you come to believe that having a separate name makes you a separate being. This is rather literally to be spellbound.

So how are we to wake up from the trance and dissolve the paradox of the ego? It all comes down to the fundamental anxiety of existence, our inability to embrace uncertainty and reconcile death. Watts writes:

The hallucination of separateness prevents one from seeing that to cherish the ego is to cherish misery. We do not realize that our so-called love and concern for the individual is simply the other face of our own fear of death or rejection. In his exaggerated valuation of separate identity, the personal ego is sawing off the branch on which he is sitting, and then getting more and more anxious about the coming crash!

And so we return to the core of Watts philosophy, the basis of his earlier work, extending an urgent invitation to begin living with presence a message all the timelier in our age of worshipping productivity, which is by definition aimed at some future reward and thus takes us out of the present moment. Watts writes:

Unless one is able to live fully in the present, the future is a hoax. There is no point whatever in making plans for a future which you will never be able to enjoy. When your plans mature, you will still be living for some other future beyond. You will never, never be able to sit back with full contentment and say, Now, Ive arrived!

Traditionally, humanity has handled this paradox in two ways, either by withdrawing into the depths of consciousness, as monks and hermits do in their attempt to honor the impermanence of the world, or servitude for the sake of some future reward, as many religions encourage. Both of these, Watts argues, are self-defeating strategies:

Just because it is a hoax from the beginning, the personal ego can make only a phony response to life. For the world is an ever-elusive and ever-disappointing mirage only from the standpoint of someone standing aside from it as if it were quite other than himself and then trying to grasp it. Without birth and death, and without the perpetual transmutation of all the forms of life, the world would be static, rhythm-less, undancing, mummified.

But a third response is possible. Not withdrawal, not stewardship on the hypothesis of a future reward, but the fullest collaboration with the world as a harmonious system of contained conflicts based on the realization that the only real I is the whole endless process. This realization is already in us in the sense that our bodies know it, our bones and nerves and sense-organs. We do not know it only in the sense that the thin ray of conscious attention has been taught to ignore it, and taught so thoroughly that we are very genuine fakes indeed.

The failure to recognize this harmonious interplay, Watts argues, has triggered a lamentable amount of conflict between nations, individuals, humanity and nature, and with the individual. Again and again, he returns to the notion of figure and ground, of a cohesive whole that masquerades as separate parts under the lens of our conditioned eye for separateness:

Our practical projects have run into confusion again and again through failure to see that individual people, nations, animals, insects, and plants do not exist in or by themselves. This is not to say only that things exist in relation to one another, but that what we call things are no more than glimpses of a unified process. Certainly, this process has distinct features which catch our attention, but we must remember that distinction is not separation. Sharp and clear as the crest of the wave may be, it necessarily goes with the smooth and less featured curve of the trough. In the Gestalt theory of perception this is known as the figure/ground relationship.

Noting our difficulty in noticing both the presence and the action of the background, Watts illustrates this with an example, which Riccardo Manzotti reiterated almost verbatim half a century later. Watts writes:

A still more cogent example of existence as relationship is the production of a rainbow. For a rainbow appears only when there is a certain triangular relationship between three components: the sun, moisture in the atmosphere, and an observer. If all three are present, and if the angular relationship between them is correct, then, and then only, will there be the phenomenon rainbow. Diaphanous as it may be, a rainbow is no subjective hallucination. It can be verified by any number of observers, though each will see it in a slightly different position.

Like the rainbow, all phenomena are interactions of elements of the whole, and the relationship between them always implies and reinforces that wholeness:

The universe implies the organism, and each single organism implies the universe only the single glance of our spotlight, narrowed attention, which has been taught to confuse its glimpses with separate things, must somehow be opened to the full vision

In recognizing this lies the cure for the illusion of the separate ego but this recognition cant be willed into existence, since the will itself is part of the ego:

Just as science overcame its purely atomistic and mechanical view of the world through more science, the ego-trick must be overcome through intensified self-consciousness. For there is no way of getting rid of the feeling of separateness by a so-called act of will, by trying to forget yourself, or by getting absorbed in some other interest. This is why moralistic preaching is such a failure: it breeds only cunning hypocrites people sermonized into shame, guilt, or fear, who thereupon force themselves to behave as if they actually loved others, so that their virtues are often more destructive, and arouse more resentment, than their vices.

In considering how an organism might realize this sense of implying the universe and how we might shake the ego-illusion in favor of a deeper sense of belonging, Watts expresses a certain skepticism for practices like yoga and meditation when driven by striving rather than total acceptance a skepticism all the more poignant amidst our age of ubiquitous yoga studios and meditation retreats, brimming with competitive yogis and meditators:

An experience of this kind cannot be forced or made to happen by any act of your fictitious will, except insofar as repeated efforts to be one-up on the universe may eventually reveal their futility. Dont try to get rid of the ego-sensation. Take it, so long as it lasts, as a feature or play of the total process like a cloud or wave, or like feeling warm or cold, or anything else that happens of itself. Getting rid of ones ego is the last resort of invincible egoism! It simply confirms and strengthens the reality of the feeling. But when this feeling of separateness is approached and accepted like any other sensation, it evaporates like the mirage that it is.

This is why I am not overly enthusiastic about the various spiritual exercises in meditation or yoga which some consider essential for release from the ego. For when practiced in order to get some kind of spiritual illumination or awakening, they strengthen the fallacy that the ego can toss itself away by a tug at its own bootstraps.

In asserting that the ego is exactly what it pretends it isnt not the epicenter of who we are but a false construct conditioned since childhood by social convention Watts echoes Albert Camus on our self-imposed prisons and reminds us:

There is no fate unless there is someone or something to be fated. There is no trap without someone to be caught. There is, indeed, no compulsion unless there is also freedom of choice, for the sensation of behaving involuntarily is known only by contrast with that of behaving voluntarily. Thus when the line between myself and what happens to me is dissolved and there is no stronghold left for an ego even as a passive witness, I find myself not in a world but as a world which is neither compulsive nor capricious. What happens is neither automatic nor arbitrary: it just happens, and all happenings are mutually interdependent in a way that seems unbelievably harmonious. Every this goes with every that. Without others there is no self, and without somewhere else there is no here, so that in this sense self is other and here is there.

(Perhaps this is what Gertrude Stein really meant when she wrote there is no there there.)

And therein lies the essence of what Watts is proposing not a negation of who we are, but an embracing of our wholeness by awakening from the zombie-like trance of separateness; not in resignation, but in active surrender to what Diane Ackerman so memorably termed the plain everythingness of everything, in cahoots with the everythingness of everything else, that immutable recognition of the sum that masquerades as parts:

In immediate contrast to the old feeling, there is indeed a certain passivity to the sensation, as if you were a leaf blown along by the wind, until you realize that you are both the leaf and the wind. The world outside your skin is just as much you as the world inside: they move together inseparably, and at first you feel a little out of control because the world outside is so much vaster than the world inside. Yet you soon discover that you are able to go ahead with ordinary activitiesto work and make decisions as ever, though somehow this is less of a drag. Your body is no longer a corpse which the ego has to animate and lug around. There is a feeling of the ground holding you up, and of hills lifting you when you climb them. Air breathes itself in and out of your lungs, and instead of looking and listening, light and sound come to you on their own. Eyes see and ears hear as wind blows and water flows. All space becomes your mind. Time carries you along like a river, but never flows out of the present: the more it goes, the more it stays, and you no longer have to fight or kill it.

[]

Once you have seen this you can return to the world of practical affairs with a new spirit. You have seen that the universe is at root a magical illusion and a fabulous game, and that there is no separate you to get something out of it, as if life were a bank to be robbed. The only real you is the one that comes and goes, manifests and withdraws itself eternally in and as every conscious being. For you is the universe looking at itself from billions of points of view, points that come and go so that the vision is forever new.

You do not ask what is the value, or what is the use, of this feeling. Of what use is the universe? What is the practical application of a million galaxies?

Watts ends with a wonderful verse by the infinitely inspiring James Broughton:

This is Itand I am Itand You are Itand so is Thatand He is Itand She is Itand It is Itand That is That

No words can describe just how profoundly perspective-shifting The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are is in its entirety, and with what exquisite stickiness it stays with you for a lifetime.

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The Ego and the Universe: Alan Watts on Becoming Who You ...

This article is about Chan/Zen Buddhism in China. For an overview of the school, see Zen.

Chan (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Chn; abbr. of Chinese: ; pinyin: chnn), from Sanskrit dhyna (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahyna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming dominant during the Tang and Song dynasties. After the Yuan, Chan more or less fused with Pure Land Buddhism.

Chan spread south to Vietnam as Thin and north to Korea as Seon, and, in the 13th century, east to Japan as Zen.

The historical records required for a complete, accurate account of early Chan history no longer exist.[3]

The history of Chan in China can be divided into several periods. Chan as we know it today is the result of a long history, with many changes and contingent factors. Each period had different types of Chan, some of which have remained influential, while others vanished.

Ferguson distinguishes three periods from the fifth century into the thirteenth century:

Although McRae has reservations about the division of Chan's history in phases or periods, he nevertheless distinguishes four phases in the history of Chan:

Neither Ferguson nor McRae gives a periodisation for Chinese Chan after the Song Dynasty, though McRae mentions "at least a post-classical phase or perhaps multiple phases".[note 2]

When Buddhism came to China, it was adapted to the Chinese culture and understanding. Theories about the influence of other schools in the evolution of Chan vary widely and heavily reliant upon speculative correlation rather than on written records or histories. Some scholars have argued that Chan developed from the interaction between Mahyna Buddhism and Taoism, while others insist that Chan has roots in yogic practices, specifically kammahna, the consideration of objects, and kasia, total fixation of the mind.[21] A number of other conflicting theories exist.

Buddhism was exposed to Confucian and Taoist influences when it came to China. Goddard quotes D.T. Suzuki,[note 3] calling Chan a "natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist conditions". Buddhism was first identified to be "a barbarian variant of Taoism", and Taoist terminology was used to express Buddhist doctrines in the oldest translations of Buddhist texts, a practice termed "matching the concepts".

Judging from the reception by the Han of the Hinayana works and from the early commentaries, it appears that Buddhism was being perceived and digested through the medium of religious Daoism (Taoism). Buddha was seen as a foreign immortal who had achieved some form of Daoist nondeath. The Buddhists' mindfulness of the breath was regarded as an extension of Daoist breathing exercises.

The first Buddhist recruits in China were Taoists. They developed high esteem for the newly introduced Buddhist meditational techniques, and blended them with Taoist meditation. Representatives of early Chinese Buddhism like Sengzhao and Tao Sheng were deeply influenced by the Taoist keystone works of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Against this background, especially the Taoist concept of naturalness was inherited by the early Chan disciples: they equated to some extent the ineffable Tao and Buddha-nature, and thus, rather than feeling bound to the abstract "wisdom of the stras", emphasized Buddha-nature to be found in "everyday" human life, just as the Tao.

Neo-Taoist concepts were taken over in Chinese Buddhism as well. Concepts such as T'i-yung ( Essence and Function) and Li-shih ( Noumenon and Phenomenon, or Principle and Practice) were first taken over by Hua-yen Buddhism, which consequently influenced Chan deeply. On the other hand, Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being.

The emerging Chinese Buddhism nevertheless had to compete with Taoism and Confucianism:

Because Buddhism was a foreign influence, however, and everything "barbarian" was suspect, certain Chinese critics were jolted out of complacency by the spread of the dharma [...] In the first four centuries of the Christian Era, this barbarian influence was infiltrating China just when it was least politically stable and more vulnerable to sedition. As the philosophy and practice infiltrated society, many traditionalists banded together to stop the foreign influence, not so much out of intolerance (an attitude flatly rejected by both Taoism and Confucianism), but because they felt that the Chinese world view was being turned upside down.

When Buddhism came to China, there were three divisions of training:

It was in this context that Buddhism entered into Chinese culture. Three types of teachers with expertise in each training practice developed:

Monasteries and practice centers were created that tended to focus on either the Vinaya and training of monks or the teachings focused on one scripture or a small group of texts. Dhyna (Chan) masters tended to practice in solitary hermitages, or to be associated with vinaya training monasteries or the dharma teaching centers. The later naming of the Zen school has its origins in this view of the threefold division of training.

McRae goes so far as to say:

...one important feature must not be overlooked: Chan was not nearly as separate from these other types of Buddhist activities as one might think [...] [T]he monasteries of which Chan monks became abbots were comprehensive institutions, "public monasteries" that supported various types of Buddhist activities other than Chan-style meditation. The reader should bear this point in mind: In contrast to the independent denominations of Soto and Rinzai that emerged (largely by government fiat) in seventeenth-century Japan, there was never any such thing as an institutionally separate Chan "school" at any time in Chinese Buddhist history (emphasis McRae).[35]

The Chan tradition ascribes the origins of Chan in India to the Flower Sermon, the earliest source for which comes from the 14th century.[36] It is said that Gautama Buddha gathered his disciples one day for a Dharma talk. When they gathered together, the Buddha was completely silent and some speculated that perhaps the Buddha was tired or ill. The Buddha silently held up and twirled a flower and his eyes twinkled; several of his disciples tried to interpret what this meant, though none of them were correct. One of the Buddha's disciples, Mahkyapa, gazed at the flower and broke into laugher. The Buddha then acknowledged Mahkyapa's insight by saying the following:[21]

I possess the true Dharma eye, the marvelous mind of Nirva, the true form of the formless, the subtle Dharma gate that does not rest on words or letters but is a special transmission outside of the scriptures. This I entrust to Mahkyapa.

Traditionally the origin of Chan in China is credited to the Indian monk Bodhidharma. Only scarce historical information is available about him, but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century. By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chan in China was developed.[37] In the late 8th century, under the influence of Huineng's student Shenhui, the traditional form of this lineage had been established:[37]

In later writings this lineage was extended to include 28 Indian patriarchs. In the Song of Enlightenment ( Zhngdo g) of Yongjia Xuanjue (, 665713), one of the chief disciples of Hunng, it is written that Bodhidharma was the 28th patriarch in a line of descent from Mahkyapa, a disciple of kyamuni Buddha, and the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism.

Mahkyapa was the first, leading the line of transmission;Twenty-eight Fathers followed him in the West;The Lamp was then brought over the sea to this country;And Bodhidharma became the First Father here:His mantle, as we all know, passed over six Fathers,And by them many minds came to see the Light.

In its beginnings in China, Chan primarily referred to the Mahyna stras and especially to the Lakvatra Stra.[40] As a result, early masters of the Chan tradition were referred to as "Lakvatra masters". As the Lakvatra Stra teaches the doctrine of the Ekayna "One Vehicle", the early Chan school was sometimes referred to as the "One Vehicle School". In other early texts, the school that would later become known as Chan is sometimes even referred to as simply the "Lakvatra school" (Ch. , Lngqi Zng).[42] Accounts recording the history of this early period are to be found in the Records of the Lakvatra Masters (Chinese: ).

The establishment of Chan in China is traditionally credited to the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma, who is recorded as having come to China during the time of Southern and Northern Dynasties to teach a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words".

Little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend.[37] There are three principal sources for Bodhidharma's biography:[43] The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang by Yng Xunzh's (, 547), Tan Lin's preface to the Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices (6th century CE), and Dayi Daoxin's Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (7th century CE).

These sources vary in their account of Bodhidharma being either "from Persia" (547 CE), "a Brahman monk from South India" (645 CE), "the third son of a Brahman king of South India" (c. 715 CE).[37] Some traditions specifically describe Bodhidharma to be the third son of a Pallava king from Kanchipuram.[web 1]

The Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices written by Tan Lin (; 506574), contains teachings which are attributed to Bodhidharma. The text is known from the Dunhuang manuscripts. The two entrances to enlightenment are the entrance of principle and the entrance of practice:

The entrance of principle is to become enlightened to the Truth on the basis of the teaching. One must have a profound faith in the fact that one and the same True Nature is possessed by all sentient beings, both ordinary and enlightened, and that this True Nature is only covered up and made imperceptible [in the case of ordinary people] by false sense impressions".[45]

The entrance of practice includes the following four increments:

This text was used and studied by Huike and his students. The True Nature refers to the Buddha-nature.[45]

Bodhidharma settled in Northern Wei China. Shortly before his death, Bodhidharma appointed his disciple Dazu Huike to succeed him, making Huike the first Chinese-born ancestral founder and the second ancestral founder of Chan in China. Bodhidharma is said to have passed three items to Huike as a sign of transmission of the Dharma: a robe, a bowl, and a copy of the Lakvatra Stra. The transmission then passed to the second ancestral founder Dazu Huike, the third Sengcan, the fourth ancestral founder Dayi Daoxin, and the fifth ancestral founder Daman Hongren.

The period of Dayi Daoxin (580651) and Daman Hongren ( 601674) came to be called the East Mountain Teaching due to the location of the residence of Daman Hongren in Huangmei County, modern Anhui. The term was used by Yuquan Shenxiu, the most important successor to Hongren.[47] The East Mountain community was a specialized meditation training centre. Hongren was a plain meditation teacher, who taught students of "various religious interests", including "practitioners of the Lotus Sutra, students of Madhyamaka philosophy, or specialists in the monastic regulations of Buddhist Vinaya".[48] The establishment of a community in one location was a change from the wandering lives of Bodhiharma and Huike and their followers.[48] It fitted better into the Chinese society, which highly valued community-oriented behaviour, instead of solitary practice.[49]

Yuquan Shenxiu (, 606?706) was the most important successor to Hongren. In 701 he was invited to the Imperial Court by Zhou Empress Wu Zetian, who paid him due imperial reverence. The first lineage documents were produced in this period:

[T]he genealogical presentation of the Chan transmission was first recorded on paper in the early years of metropolitan Chan activity. The earliest recorded instance of this was in the epitaph for a certain Faru, a student of Hongren's who died in 689, and by the second decade of the 8th century, the later followers of Hongren had produced two separate texts describing the transmission from Bodhidharma to Shenxiu.[50]

The transition from the East Mountain to the two capitals changed the character of Chan:

[I]t was only when Hongren's successors moved into the environment of the two capitals, with its literate society and incomparably larger urban scale, that well-written texts were required for disseminating the teaching.[51]

According to tradition, the sixth and last ancestral founder, Huineng (; 638713), was one of the giants of Chan history, and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor.[52] The dramatic story of Huineng's life tells that there was a controversy over his claim to the title of patriarch. After being chosen by Hongren, the fifth ancestral founder, Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples.

Modern scholarship, however, has questioned this narrative. Historic research reveals that this story was created around the middle of the 8th century, beginning in 731 by Shenhui, a successor to Huineng, to win influence at the Imperial Court. He claimed Huineng to be the successor of Hongren instead of Shenxiu, the recognized successor.[37] In 745 Shenhui was invited to take up residence in the Heze Temple in the capital, Dongdu (modern Luoyang) In 753, he fell out of grace and had to leave Dongdu to go into exile.

The most prominent of the successors of Shenhui's lineage was Guifeng Zongmi.[53] According to Zongmi, Shenhui's approach was officially sanctioned in 796, when "an imperial commission determined that the Southern line of Ch'an represented the orthodox transmission and established Shen-hui as the seventh patriarch, placing an inscription to that effect in the Shen-lung temple".

Doctrinally, Shenhui's "Southern School" is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is sudden while the "Northern" or East Mountain school is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is gradual. This was a polemical exaggeration since both schools were derived from the same tradition, and the so-called Southern School incorporated many teachings of the more influential Northern School.[37] Eventually both schools died out, but the influence of Shenhui was so immense that all later Chan schools traced their origin to Huineng, and "sudden enlightenment" became a standard doctrine of Chan.[37]

Shenhui's influence is traceable in the Platform Sutra, which gives a popular account of the story of Huineng but also reconciles the antagonism created by Shenhui. Salient is that Shenhui himself does not figure in the Platform Sutra; he was effectively written out of Chan history. The Platform Sutra also reflects the growing popularity of the Diamond Stra (Vajracchedik Prajpramit Stra) in 8th-century Chinese Buddhism. Thereafter, the essential texts of the Chan school were often considered to be both the Lakvatra Stra and the Diamond Stra. The Lakvatra Stra, which endorses the Buddha-nature, emphasized purity of mind, which can be attained in gradations. The Diamond-sutra emphasizes sunyata, which "must be realized totally or not at all". David Kalupahana associates the later Caodong school (Japanese St, gradual) and Linji school (Japanese Rinzai school, sudden) schools with the Yogacara and Madhyamaka philosophies respectively. The same comparison has been made by McRae. The Madhyamaka school elaborated on the theme of nyat, which was set forth in the prajnaparamita sutras, to which the Diamond Sutra also belongs. The shift from the Lakvatra Stra to the Diamond Sutra also signifies a tension between Buddha-nature teachings, which imply a transcendental reality, versus nyat, which denies such a transcendental reality.

Chinese Chan Buddhist teachers such as Moheyan first went to Tibet in the eighth century during the height of the Tibetan Empire.[62] There seems to have been disputes between them and Indian Buddhists, as exemplified by the Samye debate. Many Tibetan Chan texts have been recovered from the caves at Dunhuang, where Chan and Tantric Buddhists lived side by side and this led to religious syncretism in some cases.[63] Chan Buddhism survived in Tibet for several centuries,[64] but had mostly been replaced by the 10th century developments in Tibetan Buddhism. According to Sam Van Schaik:

After the 'dark period', all visible influences of Chan were eliminated from Tibetan Buddhism, and Mahayoga and Chan were carefully distinguished from each other. This trendcan already be observed in the tenth-century Lamp for the Eyes in Contemplation by the great central Tibetan scholar Gnubs chen Sangs rgyas ye shes. This influential work represented a crucial step in the codification of Chan, Mahayoga and the Great Perfection as distinct vehicles to enlightenment. In comparison, our group of [Dunhuang] manuscripts exhibits a remarkable freedom, blurring the lines between meditation systems which were elsewhere kept quite distinct. The system of practice set out in these manuscripts did not survive into the later Tibetan tradition. Indeed, this creative integration of meditation practices derived from both Indic and Chinese traditions could only have been possible during the earliest years of Tibetan Buddhism, when doctrinal categories were still forming, and in this sense it represents an important stage in the Tibetan assimilation of Buddhism.[63]

Daoxin, Hongren, Shenxiu, Huineng and Shenhui all lived during the early Tang. The later period of the Tang Dynasty is traditionally regarded as the "golden age" of Chan. This proliferation is described in a famous saying:

Look at the territory of the house of Tang The whole of it is the realm of the Chan school.

The An Lushan Rebellion (755763) led to a loss of control by the Tang dynasty, and changed the Chan scene again. Metropolitan Chan began to lose its status, while "other schools were arising in outlying areas controlled by warlords. These are the forerunners of the Chan we know today. Their origins are obscure; the power of Shen-hui's preaching is shown by the fact that they all trace themselves to Hui-neng."[66]

The most important of these schools is the Hongzhou school () of Mazu, to which also belong Shitou, Baizhang Huaihai, Huangbo and Linji (Rinzai). Linji is also regarded as the founder of one of the Five Houses.

This school developed "shock techniques such as shouting, beating, and using irrational retorts to startle their students into realization". Some of these are common today, while others are found mostly in anecdotes. It is common in many Chan traditions today for Chan teachers to have a stick with them during formal ceremonies which is a symbol of authority and which can be also used to strike on the table during a talk.

These shock techniques became part of the traditional and still popular image of Chan masters displaying irrational and strange behaviour to aid their students.[37][68] Part of this image was due to later misinterpretations and translation errors, such as the loud belly shout known as katsu. "Katsu" means "to shout", which has traditionally been translated as "yelled 'katsu'" which should mean "yelled a yell".[web 2]

A well-known story depicts Mazu practicing dhyana, but being rebuked by his teacher Nanyue Huairang, comparing seated meditation with polishing a tile. According to Faure, the criticism is not about dhyana as such, but "the idea of "becoming a Buddha" by means of any practice, lowered to the standing of a "means" to achieve an "end"". The criticism of seated dhyana reflects a change in the role and position of monks in Tang society, who "undertook only pious works, reciting sacred texts and remaining seated in dhyana". Nevertheless, seated dhyana remained an important part of the Chan tradition, also due to the influence of Guifeng Zongmi, who tried to balance dhyana and insight.

The Hung-chou school has been criticised for its radical subitism. Guifeng Zongmi ( ) (780841), an influential teacher-scholar and patriarch of both the Chan and the Huayan school, claimed that the Hongzhou school teaching led to a radical nondualism that denies the need for spiritual cultivation and moral discipline. While Zongmi acknowledged that the essence of Buddha-nature and its functioning in the day-to-day reality are but difference aspects of the same reality, he insisted that there is a difference.

Traditionally Shtu Xqin (Ch. , c. 700 c.790) is seen as the other great figure of this period. In the Chan lineages he is regarded as the predecessor of the Caodong (St) school. He is also regarded as the author of the Sandokai, a poem which formed the basis for the Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi of Dongshan Liangjie (Jp. Tzan Rykan) and the teaching of the Five Ranks.

During 845846 Emperor Wuzong persecuted the Buddhist schools in China:

It was a desperate attempt on the part of the hard-pressed central government, which had been in disarray since the An Lu-shan rebellion of 756, to gain some measure of political, economic, and military relief by preying on the Buddhist temples with their immense wealth and extensive lands.[75]

This persecution was devastating for metropolitan Chan, but the Chan school of Ma-tsu and his likes survived, and took a leading role in the Chan of the later Tang.[75]

After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, China was without effective central control during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. China was divided into several autonomous regions. Support for Buddhism was limited to a few areas. The Hua-yen and T'ient-tai schools suffered from the changing circumstances, since they had depended on imperial support. The collapse of T'ang society also deprived the aristocratic classes of wealth and influence, which meant a further drawback for Buddhism. Shenxiu's Northern School and Henshui's Southern School didn't survive the changing circumstances. Nevertheless, Chan emerged as the dominant stream within Chinese Buddhism, but with various schools developing various emphasises in their teachings, due to the regional orientation of the period. The Fayan school, named after Fa-yen Wen-i (885958) became the dominant school in the southern kingdoms of Nan-T'ang (Jiangxi, Chiang-hsi) and Wuyue (Che-chiang).

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period was followed by the Song Dynasty, which established a strong central government. During the Song Dynasty, Chan () was used by the government to strengthen its control over the country, and Chan grew to become the largest sect in Chinese Buddhism. An ideal picture of the Chan of the Tang period was produced, which served the legacy of this newly acquired status:

In the Song dynasty (9601279), Chinese Chan Buddhism reached something of a climax paradigm. By "climax paradigm", I mean a conceptual configuration by which Chan was described in written texts, practiced by its adherents, and by extension understood as a religious entity by the Chinese population as a whole ... Previous events in Chan were interpreted through the lens of the Song dynasty configuration, and subsequent developments in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam were evaluated, even as they occurred, against what was known of the standards established during the Song. Thus the romanticized image of the great Tang dynasty masters Mazu and his students, Caoshan, Dongshan, and their students, and of course Linji was generated by Song dynasty authors and functioned within Song dynasty texts. Similarly, even where subsequent figures throughout East Asia Hakuin Ekaku (16851769), the famous reviver of Japanese Rinzai, is the best example evoke the examples of Bodhidharma, the Sixth Patriarch Huineng, Mazu, and the others, they do so through the conceptual filter of Song-dynasty Chan.[77]

During the Song the Five Houses (Ch. ) of Chan, or five "schools", were recognized. These were not originally regarded as "schools" or "sects", but based on the various Chan-genealogies. Historically they have come to be understood as "schools".

The Five Houses of Chan are:[3]

The Linji-school became the dominant school within Chan, due to support from literati and the court. Before the Song Dynasty, the Linji-school is rather obscure, and very little is known about its early history. The first mention of Linji is in the Zutang ji, compiled in 952, 86 years after Linji's death. But the Zutang ji pictures the Xuefeng Yicun lineage as heir to the legacy of Mazu and the Hongzhou-school.

According to Welter, the real founder of the Linji-school was Shoushan (or Baoying) Shengnian () (926993), a fourth generation dharma-heir of Linji. The Tiansheng Guangdeng lu (), "Tiansheng Era Expanded Lamp Record", compiled by the official Li Zunxu () (9881038) confirms the status of Shoushan Shengnian, but also pictures Linji as a major Chan patriarch and heir to the Mazu, displacing the prominence of the Fayan-lineage. It also established the slogan of "a special transmission outside the teaching", supporting the Linji-school claim of "Chan as separate from and superior to all other Buddhist teachings".

Over the course of Song Dynasty (9601279), the Guiyang, Fayan, and Yunmen schools were gradually absorbed into the Linji. Song Chan was dominated by the Linji school of Dahui Zonggao, which in turn became strongly affiliated to the Imperial Court:

...the Ta-hui school of Sung Chan had become closely associated with the Sung court, high officials, and the literati [...] With the establishment of the Wu-shan (Gozan) system during the Southern Sung the school of Ta-hui took precedence. The Chinese bureaucratic system entered into Chan temples throughout the country, and a highly organized system of temple rank and administration developed.[83]

The Gozan system was a system of state-controlled temples, which were established by the Song government in all provinces.[84]

The teaching styles and words of the classical masters were recorded in the so-called "encounter dialogues".[85] Snippets of these encounter dialogues were collected in texts as the Blue Cliff Record (1125) of Yuanwu, The Gateless Gate (1228) of Wumen, both of the Linji lineage, and the Book of Equanimity (1223) by Wansong Xingxiu of the Caodong lineage.

These texts became classic gng'n cases, together with verse and prose commentaries, which crystallized into the systematized gng'n (koan) practice. According to Miura and Sasaki, "[I]t was during the lifetime of Yan-wu's successor, Dahui Zonggao (; 10891163) that Koan Chan entered its determinative stage."[86]Gng'n practice was prevalent in the Linji school, to which Yuanwu and Dahui belonged, but it was also employed on a more limited basis by the Caodong school.

The recorded encounter dialogues, and the koan collections which derived from this genre, mark a shift from solitary practice to interaction between master and student:

The essence of enlightenment came to be identified with the interaction between masters and students. Whatever insight dhyana might bring, its verification was always interpersonal. In effect, enlightenment came to be understood not so much as an insight, but as a way of acting in the world with other people[87]

This mutual enquiry of the meaning of the encounters of masters and students of the past gave students a role model:

One looked at the enlightened activities of one's lineal forebears in order to understand one's own identity [...] taking the role of the participants and engaging in their dialogues instead[note 4]

Koan practice was a literary practice, styling snippets of encounter-dialogue into well-edited stories. It arose in interaction with "educated literati".[89]

There were dangers involved in such a literary approach, such as fixing specific meanings to the cases.[89] Dahui Zonggao is even said to have burned the woodblocks of the Blue Cliff Record, for the hindrance it had become to study of Chan by his students[90]

The Caodong was the other school to survive into the Song period. Its main protagonist was Hung-chih Cheng-chueh, a contemporary of Dahui Zonggao. It put emphasis on "silent illumination", or "just sitting". This approach was attacked by Dahui as being mere passivity, and lacking emphasis on gaining insight into one's true nature. Cheng-chueh in his turn criticized the emphasis on koan study.[91]

The Yuan dynasty was the empire established by Kublai Khan, the leader of the Borjigin clan, after the Mongol Empire conquered the Jin dynasty (11151234) and the Southern Song Dynasty. Chan began to be mixed with Pure Land Buddhism as in the teachings of Zhongfeng Mingben (12631323).[citation needed]

Chan Buddhism enjoyed something of a revival in the Ming dynasty, with teachers such as Hanshan Deqing (), who wrote and taught extensively on both Chan and Pure Land Buddhism; Miyun Yuanwu (), who came to be seen posthumously as the first patriarch of the baku school of Zen; and as Yunqi Zhuhong () and Ouyi Zhixu ().

Chan was taught alongside Pure Land Buddhism in many monasteries. In time much of the distinction between them was lost, and many masters taught both Chan and Pure Land.[92]

With the downfall of the Ming, several Chan masters fled to Japan, founding the baku school.

In the beginning of the Qing dynasty, Chan was "reinvented", by the "revival of beating and shouting practices" by Miyun Yuanwu (15661642), and the publication of the Wudeng yantong ("The strict transmission of the five Chan schools") by Feiyin Tongrong's (15931662), a dharma heir of Miyun Yuanwu. The book placed self-proclaimed Chan monks without proper Dharma transmission in the category of "lineage unknown" (sifa weixiang), thereby excluding several prominent Caodong monks.

Around 1900, Buddhists from other Asian countries showed a growing interest in Chinese Buddhism. Anagarika Dharmapala visited Shaghai in 1893,[web 3] intending "to make a tour of China, to arouse the Chinese Buddhists to send missionaries to India to restore Buddhism there, and then to start a propaganda throughout the whole world", but eventually limiting his stay to Shanghai.[web 3] Japanese Buddhist missionaries were active in China in the beginning of the 20th century.[web 3]

The modernisation of China led to the end of the Chinese Empire, and the installation of the Republic of China, which lasted on the mainland until the Communist Revolution and the installation of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

After further centuries of decline during the Qing, Chan was revived again in the early 20th century by Hsu Yun (), a well-known figure of 20th-century Chinese Buddhism. Many Chan teachers today trace their lineage to Hsu Yun, including Sheng-yen () and Hsuan Hua (), who have propagated Chan in the West where it has grown steadily through the 20th and 21st century.

The Buddhist reformist Taixu propagated a Chan-influenced humanistic Buddhism, which is endorsed by Jing Hui, former abbott of Bailin Monastery.

Until 1949, monasteries were built in the Southeast Asian countries, for example by monks of Guanghua Monastery, to spread Chinese Buddhism. Presently, Guanghua Monastery has seven branches in the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia.[web 4]

Chan was repressed in China during the recent modern era in the early periods of the People's Republic, but subsequently had been re-asserting itself on the mainland, and has a significant following in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as among Overseas Chinese.

Since the Chinese economic reform of the 1970s, a new revival of Chinese Buddhism is going on.[web 5][web 6] Ancient Buddhist temples, such as Bailin Monastery and Guanghua Monastery have been refurbished.

Bailin Monastery was ruined long before 1949. In 1988, Jing Hui was persuaded to take over the Hebei Buddhist Association, and start rebuilding the Monastery. Jing Hui is a student and dharma successor[web 7] of Hsu Yun, but has also adopted the Humanistic Buddhism of Taixu.[note 5][note 6]

Guanghua Monastery was restored beginning in 1979, when a six-year restoration program began under the supervision of then 70-year-old Venerable Master Yuanzhou (). In 1983 the temple became one of the Chinese Buddhism Regional Temples () whilst 36-year-old Master Yiran () became abbot. The same year, Venerable Master Yuanzhou funded the establishment of the new Fujian Buddhism Academy () on the site.

Several Chinese Buddhist teachers left China during the Communist Revolution, and settled in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Sheng Yen (19302009) was the founder of the Dharma Drum Mountain, a Buddhist organization based in Taiwan. During his time in Taiwan, Sheng Yen was well known as one of the progressive Buddhist teachers who sought to teach Buddhism in a modern and Western-influenced world.

Wei Chueh (19282016) was born in Sichuan, China, and ordained in Taiwan. In 1982, he founded Lin Quan Temple in Taipei County and became known for his teaching on Ch'an practices by offering many lectures and seven-day Ch'an retreats. His order is called Chung Tai Shan.

Two additional traditions emerged in the 1960s, based their teaching on Ch'an practices.

Cheng Yen (born 1937), a Buddhist nun, founded the Tzu Chi Foundation as a charity organization with Buddhist origins on 14 May 1966 in Hualien, Taiwan. She was inspired by her master and mentor, the late Venerable Master Yin Shun (, Yn Shn dosh) a proponent of Humanistic Buddhism, who exhorted her to "work for Buddhism and for all sentient beings". The organisation began with a motto of "instructing the rich and saving the poor" as a group of thirty housewives who donated a small amount of money each day to care for needy families.[98]

Hsing Yun (born 1927), founded the Fo Guang Shan an international Chinese Buddhist new religious movement based in Taiwan in 1967. The order promotes Humanistic Buddhism. Fo Guang Shan also calls itself the International Buddhist Progress Society. The headquarters of Fo Guang Shan, located in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. Hsing Yun's stated position within Fo Guang Shan is that it is an "amalgam of all Eight Schools of Chinese Buddhism" (), including Chan. Fo Guang Shan is the most comprehensive of the major Buddhist organizations of Taiwan, focusing extensively on both social works and religious engagement.[99]

In Taiwan, these four masters are popularly referred to as the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Taiwanese Buddhism, with their respective organizations Dharma Drum Mountain, Chung Tai Shan, Tzu Chi, and Fo Guang Shan being referred to as the "Four Great Mountains".[100][101]

According to traditional accounts of Vietnam, in 580 an Indian monk named Vintaruci (Vietnamese: T-ni-a-lu-chi) travelled to Vietnam after completing his studies with Sengcan, the third patriarch of Chinese Chan. This, then, would be the first appearance of Thin Buddhism. Other early Thin schools included that of Wu Yantong (Chinese: ; Vietnamese: V Ngn Thng), which was associated with the teachings of Mazu Daoyi, and the Tho ng (Caodong), which incorporated nianfo chanting techniques; both were founded by Chinese monks.

Seon was gradually transmitted into Korea during the late Silla period (7th through 9th centuries) as Korean monks of predominantly Hwaeom (Hangul:; Hanja:) and East Asian Yogcra (Hangul:; Hanja:) background began to travel to China to learn the newly developing tradition. Seon received its most significant impetus and consolidation from the Goryeo monk Jinul () (11581210), who established a reform movement and introduced kan practice to Korea. Jinul established the Songgwangsa () as a new center of pure practice.

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