ZEN BUDDHISM

Zen Buddhism
Buddhism teaching first came to Japan from Korea during the sixth century CE. Not long after this, increasing numbers of Japanese Buddhist scholars also started to turn to China, and the leading six Chinese schools were all transplanted to Japan during the next five centuries. However, in Japan theses schools tended to be the preserve of the elite, and so came under threat in the twelfth century, when the samurai, or warrior class, overthrew the decadent imperial aristocracy.

In this new climate, more accessible and straightforward practice started to gain ground, among them Zen Buddhism.

The Zen school places supreme emphasis on self power, and on the ability of the individual to galvanize his or her energies towards self-realization. The sometimes ruthlessly pragmatic approach of Zen masters won favor with the new samurai elite, for it provided them with a way of facing death with equanimity, and the emphasis in its method of responding spontaneously to the spirit of the moment could be transferred very effectively to military tactics and practices such as archery, sword play and wrestling. Conversely, the military tactics of the samurai themselves were fed into the development of Zen.

At the same time, the principles of spontaneity, simplicity and understatement flowered in the arts, bringing a distinctive style to calligraphy, ink painting, flower arranging, poetry and pottery, as well as interior design and to tea ceremony.

Two Zen schools- Rinzai and Soto - were brought by Chinese Ch'an master from china to Japan . Of the two, Rinzai is more goal-oriented and militant in character. In addition to "Zazen" or sitting practice, it employ :koan" seemingly illogical questions - as a way of pushing the student beyond ordinary thought pattern..

The Soto school also stress the important of Zazen, but is more straight .For the Soto practitioner, enlightenment is just likely un the field of rich as in the meditation hall. in the words of its founder,
Dogen:
To study the way is to study the self,
To study the self is to forget the self,
To forget self is to be enlightened by all things