What is Zen?
The foundation of Zen is emptiness (Shunyata) and the realization of non-self (Anatta). These two concepts do not exist in our Western thinking and are therefore relatively difficult to grasp. However, through the art of Zazen (the meditation technique of Zen Buddhism), we can learn to understand them through direct insight and integrate them into our lives. Only when we have recognized that all things are empty and our ego is an illusion—and we also bring this experience into our lives—have we realized the innermost essence of Zen. It is said that Zen is easy to practice, but very difficult to talk about. In its aspirations, Zen does not differ from the other schools of Buddhism. For all are based on the Four Noble Truths, which Shakyamuni Buddha recognized in the following principles:
- Life is Dukkha (suffering, unsatisfactory)
- The arising of Dukkha has a cause
- There is a path to liberation from Dukkha
- The path to liberation is the Noble Eightfold Path
This Noble Eightfold Path recommends a way of life oriented toward eight objectives:
- right view, understanding
- right thought, intention
- right speech
- right action
- right livelihood
- right effort
- right mindfulness
- right concentration, collectedness
Kōans – linguistic riddles as mental training
The Chinese master Linji (Japanese: Rinzai), who lived in the 9th century, is the founder of the Rinzai Zen school later named after him, which the Bodhidharma Zendo also follows. It was Linji’s personality and his outstanding teachings through which Zen received a new character—not least through the emphasis on Kōan practice. Koan literally means: public testimony, document. Originally, the Kōans were a collection of Mondos—debates between teacher and student or among advanced monks. Today, a Koan is a question or problem posed by the master that the student must solve. The essence of a Kōan is to formulate it in such a way that students cannot arrive at a solution through purely logical and analytical thinking. Only when they succeed in going beyond their dualistically limited consciousness can the answer be found through intuitive insight. Working with Kōans serves personal instruction by the teacher and is good mental training for students. It takes place mainly during a Sesshin (retreat) in collaboration with a Zen master. Seiun Genro Dai Oshō practiced Kōan work with the practitioners of the Bodhidharma Zendo until his death.
How Zen can free us from suffering
Zen can thus help us free ourselves from Dukkha. The path to this leads through Zazen, the practice of meditation sitting on a Zafu (cushion) in the traditional posture. By practicing this meditation, we find the answer to the question “Who am I?” In a new, radical experience of being, we discover our very own essence, recognize our true self. This insight also shows us that Buddha-nature dwells within us and all beings. We reach the return to this pure, innermost nature of our being, with which we were originally born, in Satori (awakening, recognition of truth).
This transformation of consciousness, which frees us from all doubts, fears, and tormenting questions, is not pursued from egoistic motives such as the desire for personal “enlightenment,” but for the benefit of all living beings. Zazen teaches us that the “I” is an illusion. Clinging to it is the root of our lack of freedom, our Dukkha, in all its painful manifestations. Through overcoming our judging, discriminating, dualistic consciousness, which constantly tends to classify everything as good or bad, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, our personality transforms. We arrive at a new quality of life characterized by inner peace, freedom, harmony, equanimity, and unsentimental compassion.
Why Bodhidharma went to the East…
It was the Indian monk Bodhidharma who came to China in the 6th century under very difficult travel conditions at the time. He settled in the still-existing, world-famous Shao Lin monastery (Kung Fu). According to legend, he meditated for nine years facing a rock wall. Bodhidharma is regarded as the founder and first patriarch—today we say forefather—of the Ch’an or Zen tradition. Bodhidharma must have been a very extraordinary monk, as his way of practicing Buddhism did not correspond to common practice and yet became a strong and influential tradition.
At that time, people devoted themselves primarily to the study and interpretation of scriptures, while meditation was neglected. The emphasis was thus on intellectual understanding and not on direct recognition of reality. Bodhidharma rejected these theoretical speculations. He preferred the immediate experience of being in meditation. In doing so, he followed Shakyamuni Buddha, who had attained full awakening (enlightenment) through Dhyana (meditation). This return to the creative power of meditation was soon adopted by other monks as well. The new direction called itself Ch’an—the Chinese form of the Sanskrit word Dhyana (meditation). When Ch’an came to Japan, it was translated as “Zen.”
Living free from illusions
The goal of Zen practice is thus to recognize one’s own true, perfect essence that each of us carries within—in Zen called the “true self” or “essential nature.” We find this recognition primarily through practicing Zazen and through constant, sincere mental work on ourselves. In this way, we gradually bring our imperfect consciousness to perfection and recognize reality. This recognition ultimately enables us to live free from illusions and their painful entanglements.
Whoever knows that all existence is permeated by emptiness (Shunyata) and is subject to constant change and impermanence will be able to free themselves from the illusion of a separately and autonomously existing ego. They will recognize the original unity of the universe, understand themselves as part of it, and also live this experience of non-duality. From this arises the inseparable connection of Zen practice with “ordinary” everyday life.
How does this happen? By consistently implementing the insights gained in daily life and performing even mundane activities “consciously.” Thus all of life becomes a single Zen practice. The Chinese Ch’an master Linji (9th century) also sees the greatest challenge in life here and now:
“The true miracle is not to float in the air or walk on water, but to walk on the earth.”
The insights and realizations gained in formal practice—as well as theoretical knowledge—must therefore be lived daily and find their way into everyday life, into all areas of life and situations. A purely theoretical understanding would be useless! In this sense, meditation must never become an end in itself or a mere habit.
Rinzai modernizes Zen
The 6th Patriarch, a Chinese named Hui-Neng (638–713), later emerged as the most significant personality of Ch’an and is regarded as the actual father of Zen as we know it today. He is also the one who freed Zen from its traditional monastic character and gave it freedom from all philosophical and religious ties. He emphasized that it is not necessary to lead a life turned away from the world as a monk or nun in order to attain the highest realization. A verse attributed to Hui-Neng describes the essence of Zen:
“It is a special transmission outside the scriptures, independent of words and letters. It points directly to the human heart, lets one see one’s own nature and attain Buddhahood.”
It was Rinzai who placed the human being at the center of Zen thinking and built an extremely powerful and dynamic worldview around this center. Master Rinzai said:
“Practitioners of the Buddha-Dharma must first of all attain true insight, that is, recognize their true self. Whoever recognizes the true self cannot be tainted even by birth and death, for they have transcended cause and effect. Such a person transforms from moment to moment and enters freely into the now.”
Rinzai’s perspective is typically Chinese insofar as he makes the human being the center of an entire worldview, and moreover this concept of the human being is extremely realistic and almost pragmatic. It is pragmatic in the sense that it presents the human being as the most concrete individual living at this particular place and at this particular time, eating, drinking, sitting, walking around, or even attending to their natural needs. In one of his addresses he said:
“O brothers on the path, you must know that in the reality of Buddhism you have no extraordinary task to perform. Let the ignorant laugh at me. The wise will know what I mean. Therefore free yourselves from notions of ordinary and holy as well as the habit of underestimating yourselves and thinking the Buddha is something ‘higher.’ Listen carefully to what I teach: You who hear the Dharma here without depending on anything, you yourselves are the mother of all Buddhas! Without making distinctions or clinging to forms, you attain the Way, naturally and instantly. Without any half-measures, without transcending anything and seeking something better—only here and now, just as it is.”