Key Challenges That Zen Practitioners Face in the West Essay Example for Free

Key Challenges That Zen Practitioners Face in the West Essay Zen is a specific form of Buddhism, which appeared in post-Heian period. Originally Zen became a hybrid of Indian Buddhism and Chinese Taoism and Confucianism. Zen is a Japanese name, which corresponds to Chinese Ch’an, Vietnamese Thien Buddhism or Korean S’on. All these kinds of Buddhism differ from each other but in the West they became confused and mixed together, forming one idea of Zen Buddhism. Generally, all Zen teaching is based on Buddhist scriptures, such as Perfection of Wisdom Sutras and Diamond Cutter Sutra. Zen tradition also appreciates the teaching of famous Zen masters of the past. Soto and Rinzai are two main schools of Zen Buddhism. In Soto school they pay special attention to the practice of Zazen of sitting meditation. This meditation consists of â€Å"doing nothing† sitting in the posture of lotus and making an attempt to stop thoughts. This is non-object meditation aiming to stop the activity of mind. Rinzai School makes stronger accent on the study of so called koans. Koans are short stories originating usually from the past which are used to pass the meaning of zen. Disciples of Rinzai School spend days and hours meditating on koans, trying to stop activity of mind and achieve the nature of Buddha. Both, Rinzai and Soto schools have practices of walking meditation. Zen is usually taught in Zen centers and monasteries. Zen tradition pays special attention to interaction between master and students. Teachers and students meet privately so that teacher can pass his experience directly to his students. Despite Soto and Rinzai schools have always being practiced separately in Japan; there is a tendency to combine these two schools into one in the West. There are two main ways of passing Zen traditions in the West (Seager). First of all there are Zen masters, who emigrate from China and Japan. These masters keep close to the original tradition of Zen Buddhism. At the same time non-Asian disciples, who popularize Zen in the west often pay much less attention to the traditions and philosophical elements of Zen. Western teachers of Zen make main emphasis on meditation practices and deemphasize rituals and customs of traditional Zen Buddhism. Soto school gives sixteen precepts of Zen way of life. These precepts are taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sanga, following the first three precepts, not doing evil, doing only good and doing good for others, living according to ten grave precepts, which are not killing, not stealing, write sexual conduct, telling no lie, keeping always from drugs and drinking, not judging others, being generous and being not angry. All these precepts shape everyday ethical rules of Zen Buddhism. In addition, Zen, which is based on the principle of spontaneous action often, turns to calligraphy, archery, poetry and marital arts as additional means. (Wallace) During last decades Zen Buddhist movements have moved from monasteries and gradually have become everyday practice. This can be explained by the peculiarities of Western mentality, where people got used to combining religious practices and everyday life, while in Japan and other Asian countries practicing Zen Buddhism required moving away from lay life and living work and family. As states Allan Wallance, â€Å"as Zen has been assimilated into the West, the traditional ceremonial life of the Japanese temple, together with its linguistic and social customs, has gradually become marginalized. Few Western Zen followers have chosen to make the commitment of entering full-blown Zen monastic practice by taking monastic ordination, or tokudoâ€Å" (Wallance, 8). Western Zen has become supplemented with views from other Buddhism traditions. Most Western practitioners of Zen are lay people, who practice short meditation sessions every day and turn to intensive practice during so-called retreats. In Zen traditional retreats are called sesshins and they last from three to several months. At the same time tokudo, or Zen monastic movement became the founder of Buddhist Peace Fellowship. This organization if preoccupied with helping needy, poor and homeless.