The Buddhist traditions
Zen
Seated meditation, koans and sudden awakening: Chan in China, Zen in Japan, Seon in Korea.
What it is
Zen (Chinese Chan) traces itself to the legendary Indian monk Bodhidharma and to a transmission of awakening from mind to mind, outside the scriptures. It stresses seated meditation (zazen) and, in the Rinzai school, the koan, a puzzling saying meant to break ordinary thinking. Eisai brought Rinzai to Japan in 1191; Dogen (1200-1253) founded Soto.
Our response
Zen is right that God is not a concept we can master. But the Bible says God is not silent either: he has spoken, finally in his Son. Awakening is not discovering that we were always already enlightened, but being born again by God's Spirit.
1God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
Hebrews 1:1-2 (WEB) · context
3Jesus answered him, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and Spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:3-6 (WEB) · context
9But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.” 10But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except God’s Spirit. 12But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.
1 Corinthians 2:9-12 (WEB) · context
Where scholars and traditions differ
- Historians such as John McRae regard much of the early Chan lineage, including Bodhidharma's biography, as later construction.
Sources
- John R. McRae, Seeing through Zen (University of California Press, 2003).