Philosophy
Zen meaning
Zen is the Japanese name for a school of Mahayana Buddhism that puts seated meditation at its centre. The word comes from the Chinese chan, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit dhyana, meditation. In everyday English, zen has also come to mean calm, simple or unbothered.
Zen is a Buddhist school built around seated meditation. The word itself means meditation: it is the Japanese way of saying the Chinese chan, which was a shortened borrowing of the Sanskrit dhyana.
That makes it a cousin of yoga in a very direct way. Dhyana is also the seventh of the eight limbs of yoga set out by Patanjali, the stage of sustained meditation just before absorption.
Where does Zen come from?
Buddhism reached China in the first centuries CE. Chan took shape there from around the sixth century as a school that stressed direct insight through meditation over study of scripture alone.
Tradition names Bodhidharma, an Indian or Central Asian monk, as its founder in China. Historians regard many stories about him as later legend. A clearer figure is Huineng, the sixth patriarch, whose teaching is collected in the Platform Sutra.
From China the school spread to Korea as Seon, to Vietnam as Thien, and to Japan as Zen. In Japan two main schools took root. Eisai brought Rinzai Zen from China in the late twelfth century. Dogen brought Soto Zen in the early thirteenth century and wrote the Shobogenzo, still one of the key works of Japanese Buddhism.
What do Zen practitioners actually do?
The heart of practice is zazen, seated meditation. Practitioners sit on a round cushion, often in a cross-legged position such as Lotus Pose or half lotus, with the eyes half open and the gaze resting on the floor. The hands rest in the lap in a meditation mudra, one palm on the other and the thumbs lightly touching.
Soto Zen emphasises shikantaza, just sitting, with no object to focus on. Rinzai Zen adds koans, short puzzling stories or questions that a student works with in meditation and discusses with a teacher.
Between periods of sitting there is kinhin, a slow, attentive walk around the hall. It is one of the best known forms of walking meditation. Work, meals and cleaning also count as practice.
How does Zen relate to other Buddhist ideas?
Zen belongs to the Mahayana family, so it shares the bodhisattva ideal and the teaching that things lack a fixed essence. It often speaks of awakening, satori or kensho, as seeing into one’s own nature. Like other Buddhist schools it aims at nirvana, the end of craving and suffering, though Zen writers tend to say that this is not somewhere else but here. Zen keeps the Four Noble Truths as its foundation, read through the teaching of emptiness.
What does zen mean in everyday English?
In casual speech, “zen” means calm, uncluttered or unbothered: a zen bedroom, a zen attitude to traffic. That sense grew from the twentieth century, when writers such as D. T. Suzuki introduced Zen to Western readers and Japanese design became popular abroad.
The casual use is not wrong as English, but it is thin. Zen practice is not mainly about looking calm. It is about sitting still with whatever is happening, calm or not.
How does Zen show up in a modern yoga class?
Mostly in the quiet parts. A seated meditation with the eyes half open, a long still hold, an instruction to simply notice without changing anything: these sit close to the spirit of zazen. Some studios also borrow the minimal look of a Zen hall.
If you want to try sitting in this way, the guide on how to meditate, starting with five quiet minutes covers posture and what to do when the mind wanders.
Questions
Is Zen a religion?
Zen is a school of Buddhism, with temples, monks, ordination and ritual, so in Japan and elsewhere it is a religious tradition. Many people outside Asia practise its meditation without taking on the rest. Both are common, and neither cancels the other.
What is a koan?
A koan is a short story, question or exchange between a teacher and student, used in Rinzai Zen as a focus for meditation. It cannot be solved by reasoning alone. Students work with one, sometimes for a long time, and present their understanding to a teacher.
What is the circle drawn in Zen art?
It is the enso, a circle brushed in a single stroke of ink. Zen teachers and artists have painted it for centuries as an expression of the moment it was made. It is often left slightly open, and no two are the same.
How is Zen meditation different from yoga meditation?
They share a root, since the word zen comes from dhyana, the seventh of Patanjali's eight limbs. The methods differ. Zazen usually keeps the eyes half open and gives no object at all in shikantaza, while yoga meditation often rests on the breath, a mantra or an image.
What does zazen mean?
Zazen is the Japanese term for seated meditation, from za, sitting, and zen, meditation. It is the central practice in Zen, usually done sitting on a cushion facing a wall or the room, with the eyes half open and attention resting on posture and breath. Soto Zen calls its approach shikantaza, just sitting.
Is Zen Japanese or Chinese?
Both. Zen began in China as Chan Buddhism, traditionally traced to the Indian monk Bodhidharma, and grew there from around the sixth century. It spread to Korea as Seon and Vietnam as Thien, and reached Japan in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, where teachers such as Eisai and Dogen founded the Rinzai and Soto schools.
What does it mean when someone says they feel zen?
In everyday speech, feeling zen means feeling calm, unhurried and untroubled, often after a quiet moment, a massage or a tidy room. The casual sense is borrowed loosely from Zen Buddhism's reputation for simplicity and stillness, but it does not mean the person practises Zen.