What is Zen Buddhism?
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| Did the great South Indian Buddhist sage Bodhidharma teach Shaolin kung fu to China? |
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| Shaolin Monastery training is very severe. |
It refers to "meditative absorption," a profound meditative state of still or samadhi, which used to be misleadingly translated into English as "trance" but would have been better rendered "stillness" or "integrated coherence of mind," an all-one (unified, yogic) state of mind necessary for temporary mental purification that puts one in a position of being ready for sudden understanding, kensho or satori, or "insight" (Pali vipassana).
How do we find "Zen" directly?
All the Taoist, Brahminical, Shinto, Pure Land, Mahayana, Chinese and Japanese cultural baggage got blended into what we now refer to as "Zen Buddhism." Alan Watts does an excellent job of unpacking Zen at a detailed level. Here RFB does an admirable job of describing more generally the history and frame of what came to be modern Zen.
"If you meet the Buddha (a cult of personality or ultimate authority figure) on the road, [unalive] him" then means that the Truth we seek cannot be found outside ourselves, so the death of the ego is what is needed, the realization that there is, ultimately speaking, no self.]
- 00:00 Intro
- 1:42 The Legendary Origins
- 2:26 Bodhidharma and Buddha Nature
- 5:58 A special transmission outside of scriptures (sutra texts)
- 9:22 Lineage
- 10:13 Sudden Awakening
- 14:45 Zazen explained
- 17:04 Chan (Zen) moves to Japan
- 22:38 Zen Buddhism goes abroad
- Is the Shaolin Monastery a myth?
Use code RFBINCOGNI at the link below to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan: incogni.com/rfbincogni. Join Patreon community: religionforbreakfast. Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images and Reuters.
- Religion for Breakfast, April 24, 2025; Alan Watts (alanwatts.org) via T&H Inspiration and Motivation; TEXT: Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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