Zen in Ten: Who? What? Where? When?
Ten Essential Facts
In Japanese, the word “zen” means meditation. It is a translation (or some say a mispronunciation!) of the Chinese word “ch’an,” which is a translation (or a mispronunciation!) of the Indian word “jhana” (Sanskrit, “dhyana”) which means “concentration” or “trance.” These words reflect the dissemination of the Buddha’s teachings from his birthplace in Southern Nepal to India, China, and Japan.
Although Buddhism came to China as early as 65 C.E., Bodhidharma (Jap. Daruma) is the legendary monk from Southern India who is considered the founder of Ch’an in 6th century China. Some scholars say he is pure myth; others say he existed but never traveled to China.
During that T’ang Dynasty (618-907) Five Schools of Ch’an flourished: Linji Caodong, Guiyang, Fayan, and Yunmen. During the Song Dynasty (960–1279), these last three schools were absorbed into the Linji tradition.
The Linji (Jap. Rinzai) and Caodong (Jap. Sōtō) traditions stressed different methods of training: kōan introspection and silent illumination, respectively.
Buddhism arrived on the shores of feudal Japan in the 6th century from Korea where it flourished under the auspices of Prince Shotoku (573-621). During the Nara period (710-784), Buddhism became a state religion.
In China, Buddhism blended with Taoism and Confucianism. In Japan, it took on the flavor of the indigenous tradition of Shinto (“the Way of the Gods”).
Two prominent schools of Buddhism emerged during the Heian Period (794-1185): Shingon (“True Word”) and the Tendai (Chinese, T’ien-t’ai).
Sōtō Zen was founded in Japan by Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) who traveled by boat to China when he was 23. He received Dharma transmission from the Ch’an master Rujing. Upon his return to Japan, he taught shikantaza, or "just sitting,” method of meditation. His most famous writings on the philosophy and practice of Sōtō Zen is his Shōbōgenzō—The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye.
Keizan (1268-1325) was a notable disciple of Dōgen’s who founded Soji-ji temple and authored the Record of the Transmission of the Light. This is an account of the transmission of the Buddha mind seal from Siddhartha Gautama to Keizan.
In the 1950s and 1960s, many Japanese Zen teachers arrived in the United States, including Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Taizan Maezumi, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki, Kōbun Chino Otogawa, Dainin Katagiri, and Shunryu Suzuki. Suzuki Roshi (1904-1971) left Japan in May 1959 to head up Soko-ji, the only Soto Zen temple in San Francisco. Later, he and his disciples founded the San Francisco Zen Center. His book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, a collection of his talks, is one of the most widely read and influential books on Zen practice.
Sources:
Red Pine, trans. The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma. North Point Press, 1987.
Eckel, Malcom David. The Great Courses: Buddhism, 2001.
Nice summary of the history and schools of Zen. Would be great if Korean Seon were included and named as such, as well as Vietnamese Thien.
Hi Shoren, I so appreciate your wonderful Spark Zen and these "Zen in Ten" are a great. That said, what you've got here - in part - aren't so much essential facts as what people say nowadays, especially some Soto folks since the Meiji reformation (what I call the Post Meiji Soto Orthodoxy, aka, PMSO). #4 particularly is not a fact. There were some Caodong teachers who seemed to have taught Silent Illumination as a method for a short time in the 1100's, but it didn't last. In fact, Chan abbots from the various lineages often succeeded each other in the state monasteries. Qingliao in the continuing Caodong/Soto lineage was succeeded at Jinshan by Dahui in the Linji line and so on. There may have been subtle differences in lineage tones, but they all largely embraced the same precepts and practices - so not different schools at all. Dogen's master Rujing didn't even share what lineage he was in until near his death (and also taught the mu koan). There is no mention of silent illumination in his record. Dogen also does not mention silent illumination once in Shogogenzo or Eiheikoroku but mentions koan thousands of times. Dogen, in all voluminous writing, hardly uses the phrase shikantaza (not at all in his various zazen instruction texts). It seems that Caodong teachers in the Song taught koan in very much the same way as Linji affiliated teachers. It seems that such lineage differentiation only happened recently in Japan. Even in Hakuin's time (18th century), there was a lot of movement between lineages and Hakuin himself did ango at Soto monasteries and had many Soto priests that were his students. Through most of Japanese history, the temple-system affiliation was more important than whether a teacher was Soto or Rinzai. Our lineage papers say that Soto and Rinzai are one school and the cut-paper shared in transmission usually included koans important for that lineage. As far as I know, nothing is said about silent illumination in any cut-paper. Also, from what I've studied, the Guiyang, Fayan, and Yunmen lineages simply died out, not that they were absorbed by Linji. The Fayan and Yunmen lines were descended from Shitou, after all, like the Caodong. I've gone on a bit here but it's something I've researched some during these last twenty years or so. I think it is important to know where we've come from and to dispel sectarian myths.