The Encyclopedia of World Religions

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There are two major traditions of Zen. The Soto school stresses zazen more. In the Soto tra dition meditators sit around the perimeter of an enclosure, facing the outside wall. They adopt a comfortable posture with spine straight, shoulders hanging, and the hands resting in the lap, palms up and the tips of the thumbs touching. Ideally, the knees touch the floor and the feet rest, soles up, on the opposite thighs. (Other leg positions are available for the less limber.) Practitioners are encouraged to attend to their posture and breath ing. D OGEN , the founder of Soto, considered zazen more than a means of achieving enlightenment. He considered just sitting, if done properly, to be enlightenment. The other school of Zen, known as Rinzai, uses riddles called KOAN as well as seated medita tion. In the Rinzai tradition, meditators face the interior of the room and thus each other. During meditation, they attend to their koan. Zen Buddhism A variety of B UDDHISM found especially in Japan. It attempts to recover a per son’s “original mind” through MEDITATION . The word Zen is the Japanese version of the Chinese word Ch’an, which in turn reproduces the Sanskrit word dhyana, “meditation.” HISTORY The “founder” or first patriarch of Zen was an Indian Buddhist named B ODHIDHARMA . An expert in a scripture known as the Lankavatara Sutra, Bod hidharma was brought to China around the sixth century as part of a campaign to nurture Buddhism.

Zarathustra (first half of first millennium B . C . E .) the founder of Z OROASTRIANISM As a historical personage, Zarathustra (also known as Zoroaster) remains shrouded in mystery. He was Persian, but the time when he lived and his precise activities are known only vaguely. Scholars generally date him sometime between 1000 and 500 B . C . E . His religious poems, known as Gathas, provide the major evidence for his teachings. In contrast to the then dominant polytheism, Zarathustra attributed the creation of the world to a single being, Ahura Mazda, the “wise lord.” He is attended by seven lesser spirits, the Amesha Spentas. These in turn are opposed by EVIL spir its known as daevas. The world in which human beings live is the site of the struggle between these two forces, but Zarathustra taught that in the end good would triumph and the current world would be destroyed by fire. Iranian religion derived from the same heri tage as the V EDA in India. Prior to Zarathustra it had focused, as Vedic religion did, on animal sacri fice. Zarathustra may have eliminated the sacrifice of animals as defiling and therefore unworthy of Ahura Mazda and replaced it with a pure SACRIFICE of fire. At least that was later Zoroastrian practice. zazen Seated MEDITATION in Z EN B UDDHISM . Bud dhism cultivates an awareness of things as they are. Many activities can foster this awareness. The most specifically religious is sitting in meditation. It is the Zen practice that people living in North America are most likely to encounter.

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