Ch’an and Zen Buddhism

Ch’an and Zen Buddhism

Throughout the early years in many East Asian countries, there were many people who were looking for answers to this world’s, and otherworldly, questions. When Gotama became enlightened, and began preaching the practices of Buddhism, it came at such a time when the Han dynasty was collapsing, citizens were tired of Confucianism and looking for a new ideology that they could put there hearts and souls into. Over the years, Buddhism proved to be much more than just a religion; it became a way of life. But over time, the powerful orthodoxy transformed, and many different Buddhist sects emerged. One of the more popular sects, Ch’an, or Zen, Buddhism, has become one of the most influential religions in China and Japan, and is still flourishing today.

In the year 220 AD, as the Han dynasty was collapsing, Confucianism, then the state ideology, began to lose its popularity. This, along with the demise of the Han order, set up a situation in which the people of China were hungry for new ideas. There were also many dignitaries within the Chinese government that were looking to gain good political footing in order to ensure staying power. These factors all opened up the gate for Buddhism to enter Chinese society and gain popularity with the Chinese culture.

At first, Buddhism was transmitted to the different East Asian countries via the Silk Road, but as its domination grew, many people began to interpret their own meaning of the Buddhist doctrines that had been translated from Indian to Chinese. “By the fourth century AD a much greater number of sutras were available in both north and south China, and the Chinese were beginning to realize the immensity of Buddhist literature.” Buddhism did not reach Japan, however, until October 13th, 538, from the Korean kingdom of Paekche.

At this point in time, there were two major schools of Buddhism in China. The first form to emerge was known as Hinayana, or Theravada Buddhism. This loosely translated means, “The Lesser Vehicle.” Theravada Buddhism was mainly concerned with reaching individual enlightenment; how one could rise above the cycle of samsara and reach nirvana. Mahayana Buddhism, or, “The Great Vehicle,” became the popular form practiced in most of China, Japan and Korea. The followers of Mahayana believed that the entire world could reach salvation, and that those who follow Theravada were selfish for only fulfilling personal enlightenment. The bodhisattva, someone who has become enlightened but prolongs his/her entry to nirvana in order to save others, became the ideal, for it was the bodhisattva that was in search of universal salvation.

A few years before Buddhism gained a following in Japan, Bodhidharma took early Ch’an thoughts to China from India in 520 AD. When Bodhidharma arrived in China, it was not known as Ch’an yet, simply a school of meditation. This idea was further built on by another Chinese ideology at the time: Taoism. Taoists exalted intuition over reason, a tradition easily absorbed into the Chinese meditation school of the Ch’an.

“There is a legend the Buddha was once handed a flower and asked to preach on the law. The story says he received the blossom without a sound and silently wheeled it in his hand. Then amid the hush his most perceptive follower, Kashyapa, suddenly burst into a smile… and thus was born the wordless wisdom of Zen.”

Within two centuries, the meditation school had divided into two factions: Northern Ch’an and Southern Ch’an. The northern school, a short-lived affair, insisted on a doctrine of gradual enlightenment. The southern school, which became the more dominant of the two, held to a doctrine of instantaneous enlightenment.

The southern school evolved under the powerful influence of Hui-neng (638-713), who is recognized as the sixth great patriarch of Ch’an and the founder of its modern interpretation. In fact, the forms of Ch’an and Zen still practiced today originate from his teachings. Hui-neng is the most well known of all the patriarchs, and receives the most, if not all, credit for Ch’an and Zen Buddhism.

In a sermon recorded as the “Platform Scripture of the Sixth Patriarch,” which has since been shortened to The Platform Sutra, Hui-neng taught that all people possess the Buddha nature and that one’s nature (before and after being born) is originally pure. Instead of undertaking a variety of religious obligations to seek salvation, one should discover one’s own nature. The traditional way to do this, sitting in meditation, is useless. If one perceives one’s own nature, enlightenment will suddenly follow. Hui-neng was preaching on a form of Buddhism that the people of China had never heard of before, and they liked it.

The goal of adherents to the southern Ch’an is to gain transcendental,