“Zen is entering into things as they are, beyond concept and cosmology, beyond separation and duality, beyond personality, and into the intimacy and richness of this whole moment.” (Deshimaru, p6) Zen is the day to day and moment to moment method of focusing on the moment. It has spanned two thousand, six hundred years from India to China to Japan to right here.

Zen is a philosophy designed to accomplish the Buddhist goal of seeing the world just as it is, that is, without the mind being cluttered by thoughts and feelings. This attitude is called “no-mind”, a state of consciousness where thoughts come and go without leaving any trace. Unlike other forms of Buddhism, Zen holds that such freedom of

I decided that if I ever seriously wanted to practice Zen (as opposed to just wanting to break bricks) I could study it again. If a desire to practice Zen never arises, that is all right too.

Zen, itself, originated from a blend between the Mahayana form of Buddhism originating in India and the Chinese philosophy of Taoism. Zen is the Japanese (Ch'an, which is often used interchangeably with Zen is the Chinese way of pronouncing dhayna) way of pronouncing the Sanskrit term dhyana, which can be roughly defined as meditation. “Dhyana denotes specifically the state of consciousness of a Buddha, one whose mind is free from the assumption that the distinct individuality of oneself and other things is real.” (Crompton, p13) The school of Zen Buddhism begins with a Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma, an Indian Buddhist monk who arrived in China in 520. Bodhidharma began the Lanka School which later became known as Ch’an (Zen). The doctrine of the Lanka School mainly concerned itself with the study of the mind. The members of the Lanka School were noted for the ascetic life, living faraway from communities. Not until the ninth century, did the name Ch’an (Zen) become adopted. Early Zen became associated with enlightenment rather than physical seated meditation. Around 1200 AD, Ch’an spread from China to Japan where it became to be known as Zen.

Zen students develop wisdom if they are vigilant in their zazen practice, in their effort to know themselves, to go beyond themselves, to give of themselves without expecting any personal gain. During the course of a day, one’s mind is rambling thinking about family, friends, pressures, responsibilities, etc. During zazen, one concentrates only on posture and breathing, and can delve into his consciousness.

Both Zen and Metaphysics recognize the importance of reality and both see reality as being the world as it is, unaffected by thought.

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