Zen Buddhism

Zen is a school of Buddhism, a religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as Buddha. Buddha was believed to have lived and taught in India between the 3^rd and the 4^th century. The word Zen which simply translates to meditation, aims at self-enlightenment by first believing you are already an enlightened being. The process can be achieved gradually or in the flash of insight. However, the main emphasis of the entire process must be through self-stimulation with limited or no intervention from the Deity and the scriptures. It attempts to help an individual contemplate and understand the meaning of life directly without any interventions.

Zen Buddhism was initially introduced to China early in the 6^th century by a travelling Indian monk known as Bodhidharma. In China, it is popularly known as Ch’an Buddhism and as Thien in Vietnam, both of which translate to meditation Buddhism.  It later spread to Korea and Japan, and, by the early 20^th century, it had spread all over the West. The mode of transmission was not by word but rather through spiritual enlightenment. Besides meditation, teaching involved sessions of questions and answers, riddles commonly known as koans, poetry, art, and paintings to stimulate rapid enlightenment and trigger people to think differently away from their conventional way of reasoning. Zen employs a unique technique that makes it compatible with most religions, including Christianity, as they seek spiritual understanding of their faith. This further stimulated its transmission all over the world.

characteristics of Zen Buddhism

Meditation.

Zen Buddhism is purely meditation-based. Its emphasis is on understanding life without relying on doctrinal refinements, teachings of the scriptures, or rituals. It is based on personal experience and inner feelings and only passed from the master to the disciples through hard training rather than word of mouth. However, despite advocating for a personal meditation experience, Zen indirectly recognizes the normative Buddhist scriptures and has, over time, developed its own texts and teachings. These texts are written in informal language incorporating teachings of Taoism, Confucianism, Chinese riddles, and poetry in which the Buddha is never mentioned directly.

Present Moment Emphasis

This is probably the most distinctive characteristic of Zen Buddhism. Usually, most techniques employ the art of learning from past experiences to enable one to make better decisions in the future. With Zen Buddhism, the most critical aspect is about reclaiming and contemplating on the present moment rather than dwelling on issues of the past or the future.

Zen Buddhism is only concerned about the now and the present moment. The approach is that life only exists in the present, and dwelling on the past or the future is just but fantasy.