The Essence of Zen Buddhism

THE essence of Zen Buddhism consists in acquiring a new

viewpoint of looking at life and things generally. By this I

mean that if we want to get into the inmost life of Zen, we

must forgo all our ordinary habits of thinking which control

our everyday life, we must try to see if there is any other

way of judging things, or rather if our ordinary way is

always sufficient to give us the ultimate satisfaction of our

spiritual needs. If we feel dissatisfied somehow with this

life, if there is something in our ordinary way of living that

deprives us of freedom in its most sanctified sense, we must

endeavour to find a way somewhere which gives us a sense

of finality and contentment. Zen proposes to do this for us

and assures us of the acquirement of a new point of view in

which life assumes a fresher, deeper, and more satisfying

aspect. This acquirement, however, is really and naturally

the greatest mental cataclysm one