What is zen?

cook99

I know zen Buddhism. What I want to know is what is the meaning of the word zen?

Jeffrey

I have read that it means meditation.

lobster

It can mean what we are experiencing as in 'just words' or 'shit shoveling'.

. . . however as @Jeffrey mentions it can be traced back to Chan and dhyana (meditation).

In Japan and China I feel it equates very much with the 'Tao' which heavely influenced its meaning.

Is that what you are asking?

Shoshin

What is zen?

Nonsense

federica

I heard it was something to do with motorcycle maintenance....

misecmisc1

The word Zen came from the Chinese word Chan, which came from the Sanskrit word Dhayana (pronounced in Sanskrit as Dhayan). The word dhayana means meditation.

DairyLama

Yes, it came from "jhana", so Zen is really an offshoot of Theravada....

seeker242

It really depends on how it's used in context. It can mean meditation or it can mean something else. For example, if a zen master asks you "Do you understand zen?" It means something different than just meditation.

Dakini

"Zen" comes from the Chinese "Chan", generally translated to mean "meditation". Originally from Sanskrit "dhyana", as someone mentioned above.

Explaining Chan from its name, it's the transliteration of the Sanskrit word "Dhyana" into Chinese "Channa", later abbreviated as Chan.

Venerable Master Kumarajiva of the Qin Dynasty translated it into "the cultivation of contemplation", that is cultivation using the activity of thoughts, whereas the Tang Dynasty's Venerable Master Xuanzang translated it as still or quiet contemplation, which is the cultivation of single-mindedly focusing on one object, and properly examining thoughts._

anataman

no No NO nO KNOW;

Look Zen and all those translations - and I know where they come from, boil down to one thing, how are you experiencing the world and what is your relationship with it.

You can sit, and you can walk, and talk and eat and sleep and whatever...

But the key point is this, are you trying to achieve something? And in that trying, are you finding you are achieving nothing but frustration. What is it about this relationship that is a problem?

Well, and this is just my observation of the process, so don't take it harshly as I may not be right, but know I am really - it's KANTIAN ; quite simply you are the connection and relationship with and understanding of the world where you find yourself somewhere between blossoming, pollination, fruition, distribution, sprouting, growth and budding before re-entering the cycle again.

Note the word budding!

...\lol/...

anataman

Or for the AW fans:

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
Alan Watts

Buddhadragon

The "Sutra of 42 sections" is an quaint mix-match sutta, which is said to have been the first Sanskrit work to be translated into Chinese.
It is a collection of sayings culled from the pitakas, with much of the material harking back to the Dhammapada.
Some doctors think it was a sort of "marketing presentation" of Buddhism to the cultures of the Far East, and therefore revealing of what monks at the time considered the most fundamental teachings of the Buddha that would better "sell" in these cultures.

Suzuki has translated a version by Soyen Shaku, but I prefer a version by Christmas Humphreys.
Humphreys claims that point 19 encapsulates the essence of Chan or Zen Buddhism:

'The Buddha said: "My Doctrine implies thinking of that which is beyond thought, performing that which is beyond performance, speaking of that which is beyond words and practising that which is beyond practice." [...] The way which can be expressed in words stops short; there is nothing which can be grasped.'

how

Zen is usually a catchy marketing name to give the mundane, a mysterious spin.

anataman

@DhammaDragon said:
The "Sutra of 42 sections" is an quaint mix-match sutta, which is said to have been the first Sanskrit work to be translated into Chinese.
It is a collection of sayings culled from the pitakas, with much of the material harking back to the Dhammapada.
Some doctors think it was a sort of "marketing presentation" of Buddhism to the cultures of the Far East, and therefore revealing of what monks at the time considered the most fundamental teachings of the Buddha that would better "sell" in these cultures.

Suzuki has translated a version by Soyen Shaku, but I prefer a version by Christmas Humphreys.
Humphreys claims that point 19 encapsulates the essence of Chan or Zen Buddhism:

'The Buddha said: "My Doctrine implies thinking of that which is beyond thought, performing that which is beyond performance, speaking of that which is beyond words and practising that which is beyond practice." [...] The way which can be expressed in words stops short; there is nothing which can be grasped.'

Sorry didn't quite get that!

Buddhadragon

Well, @anataman, if you could easily get it, then it would not be zen.
Humphreys says that a very literal rendering would be:
"Think not thinking thoughts, act not acting acts, speak not spoken words, practise not practising practise."

Definitions fall short of expressing the truth you are supposed to attain during your practice, and can only obscure the truth.

anataman

@DhammaDragon‌

anataman

**Venerable master Nanyue Huairang, a great disciple of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng, asked Mazu Daoyi, "Why are you in meditation?"

He replied, "Because I want to be a Buddha." Thereupon Huairang took a brick and polished it in front of Mazu's hermitage day after day.

Till one day, Mazu asked him, "Why are you polishing the brick?"

Huairang replied, "I am polishing it into a mirror."

Mazu asked, "How can you make a mirror by polishing a brick?"

Huairang said, "If I cannot make a mirror by polishing a brick, how can you become a Buddha by sitting in meditation?"

Mazu said, "Then what shall I do?"

Huairang asked, "When an ox-carriage stops moving, do you hit the carriage or the ox?" Mazu had no reply.

Huairang continued, "Are you practicing sitting in meditation, or practicing to sit like a Buddha?

As to sitting in meditation, meditation is neither sitting nor lying. As to sitting like a Buddha, the Buddha has no fixed form.

In the non-abiding Dharma, one should neither grasp nor reject. If you try to sit like a Buddha, you are just killing the Buddha.

If you attach to the form of sitting, then you do not penetrate this principle."**

reference: http://www.shaolin.org.cn/templates/EN_T_newS_list/index.aspx?nodeid=297&page=ContentPage&contentid=2229

Daozen

lobster

Wish I was cool enough to stop brick polishing . . .

These two approaches to dharma:

• Let it be (Beatles Dharma)
• Develop the attributes

seem a wonderful contrast

Until we find letting it be (OK Mr Cushion you can make an appearance in a moment) works to our dropping of attached attributes . . .

I is so Unzen.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Unzen

Shoshin

What is zen?

Zany
Ego
Negation