Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Chan is the originating tradition of Zen Buddhism (the Japanese pronunciation of the same character, which is the most commonly used English name for the school). Chan Buddhism spread from China south to Vietnam as Thiền and north to Korea as Seon, and, in the 13th century, east to Japan as Japanese Zen.
The Five Houses of Chán (also called the Five Houses of Zen) were the five major schools of Chan Buddhism that originated during Tang China. Although at the time they were not considered formal schools or sects of Buddhism, they are now regarded as important schools in the history of Chán Buddhism.
In Chan and Zen Buddhism, dharma transmission is a custom in which a person is established as a "successor in an unbroken lineage of teachers and disciples, a spiritual 'bloodline' theoretically traced back to the Buddha himself."
The principle teachers of the Chan, Zen and Seon traditions are commonly known in English translations as "Patriarchs". However, the more precise terminology would be "Ancestors" or "Founders" ( Chinese : 祖 ; pinyin : zǔ ) and "Ancestral Masters" or "Founding Masters" ( Chinese : 祖師 ), as the commonly used Chinese terms are gender neutral.
"Silent illumination" or "silent reflection" was the hallmark of the Chinese Caodong school of Chan. [web 2] The first Chan teacher to articulate silent illumination was the Caodong master Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091—1157), who wrote an inscription entitled "silent illumination meditation" (Mokushō zen 默照禅 or Mòzhào chán 默照禪). [9]
Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva sitting in meditation. In Zen Buddhism two main views on the way to enlightenment are discernible, namely sudden and gradual enlightenment.. Early Chán recognized the "transcendence of the body and mind", followed by "non-defilement [of] knowledge and perception", meaning sudden insight into the true nature followed by gradual purification of intentions.
Contemporary research on Buddhism has shed new light on the history of Chan and Zen. Since the 1960s the scientific research on Zen has created another narrative of Zen. [17] The "grand saga" [21] of Zen appears not to be an accurate historical documentation, but a skillfully created narrative, meant to lend authority to the Zen school. [6]
Gunaratana notes that "[t]he classical source for the distinction between the two vehicles of serenity and insight is the Visuddhimagga." [29] Ajahn Brahm (who, like Bhikkhu Thanissaro, is of the Thai Forest Tradition) writes that Some traditions speak of two types of meditation, insight meditation (vipassanā) and calm meditation (samatha). In ...