The Encyclopedia of World Religions

486 S Zen Buddhism

A story from his life illustrates the Zen emphasis on meditation. It tells how, upon arriving in China, Bodhidharma spent nine years in meditation fac ing the wall of a cave. Another important figure in early Ch’an was Hui Neng (638–713). The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch tells how Hui Neng defeated a rival for the position of sixth patriarch. He did so in a contest to write a poem that most exhibited the mind of enlightenment. For years the Ch’an school was divided between partisans of the two rival patriarchs. Eventually Hui Neng’s branch won out, but it, too, split. Its two forms were known in Chinese as Lin chi and Ts’ao-tung. Lin-chi used enigmatic riddles (in Japa nese, KOAN ) in the hopes of provoking a sudden enlightenment. Ts’ao-tung cultivated a gradual enlightenment through the practice of sitting in meditation without any purpose or goal (in Japanese, ZAZEN ). In the early 13th century two monks brought these schools to Japan. Eisai received training in Lin-chi, known in Japanese as Rinzai, while D OGEN received training in Ts’ao tung, known in Japanese as Soto. In Japan both schools flourished. During the Middle Ages the aristocratic-mili tary classes who ruled Japan took a particular interest in Zen. Warriors were especially fond of the attitude of mind that Zen cultivated. As a result, Zen contributed to the strict martial ethic known as bushido. Somewhat later, the great Zen master Hakuin (1686–1769) systematized the koan or riddles that Rinzai Zen uses. Eventually the influence of Zen extended to many Japanese arts. That is because, according to Zen, the original mind can be cultivated in any human activity. Zen arts of swordsmanship and archery recall the special relationship between Zen and the military class. The poet Basho (1644–94) developed haiku, a type of poem now well-known in North America, as a means of cultivating Zen mind. Other prominent Zen arts include garden ing, especially waterless gardens of rock and gravel, the tea ceremony, Noh drama, calligraphy, and flower arranging.

Portrait of Bodhidharma (Daruma) from the late 16th century (Erich Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y.)

In the 20th century, Zen spread to North America and Europe, where it found devoted fol lowers. An important early figure in this move ment was the lay writer D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966). In the second half of the 20th century, Japanese