This story, however historically unverifiable, represents the beginning of the Zen transmission, said to start directly with the Buddha. The story tells us two things: first, although the Buddha taught many true and useful teachings and techniques, the essence of what he taught is simple and ineffable.
Holding up a flower is one expression of this essence. Second, the very simplicity and ineffability of this essential teaching requires that it be handed on in a lineage from master to disciple in mutual wordless understanding.
We are all familiar with the transformation that takes place in apprenticeship and mentorship relationships, processes that involve a wordless give and take between individuals, and in which something quite hard to define is passed on.
To be sure, respect for and confidence in the teacher is essential if one is to undergo the transformation in consciousness that Zen promises. But the Zen teacher is also an ordinary, conditioned human being, simply a person, however much they have realized of Zen.
Through the relationship to the teacher, the student comes to embrace all beings, including himself or herself, in this way. It was typical in the early days of the transmission of Zen to the West for teachers of different lineages to be scornful of each other. There were centuries of tradition behind this prodigious failure to communicate.
In Asia, lineages through the generations tended to be separate and usually of opposing congregations. Thankfully, in the West there is now much more sharing between the various lineages.
In recent years in America, two organizations have been created to promote warm communication between the Zen lineages: the American Zen Teachers Association, which includes teachers from all lineages, and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, which is made up of teachers of the various lineages of Soto Zen, the largest Zen tradition in the West. A Zen wave broke on North American shores in the middle of the twentieth century. Instead it was bringing large-scale suffering and dehumanization.
What was the alternative? Alan Watts , whose popular books on Zen were hugely influential, was there. Cage influenced Merce Cunningham, the dancer-choreographer, who in turn influenced many others in the performance art field. The Zen-derived notion of spontaneous improvisation became the essence of bebop, the post-war jazz movement.
For Allen Ginsberg , Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen and the other Beat-generation poets, Zen was a primary source, a sharp tool for prying the lid off literary culture as they knew it.
Within ten years, lively Japanese Zen masters were coming to America to settle. The first Zen centers in America were bursting with students willing to make serious commitments right away. It was an exciting and confusing time, perhaps unprecedented in the history of world religions. In the West, however, most Zen practitioners are not monastics. Unlike Zen laypeople in Asia, whose main practice is often to support the monastic establishment, Western Zen lay practitioners wish to practice it, regardless of what their life circumstances may be.
All of them do some form of monastic-style training within the context of their lay lives: they sit meditation regularly, either at home or at a local temple, attend retreats and live their daily lives with full attention or at least coming as close to this as they possibly can. They take lay or priest vows, and even sometimes enter monastic training at one or more Zen centers for periods of time.
While there is a great deal of variety among the many American Zen centers, in general their programs are open to the public, encouraging all who want to practice Zen at whatever level they wish to practice, but emphasizing committed, ongoing practice — gradually entered into — as the main road.
For someone who is interested in taking up Zen practice in America, the approach is not difficult: surf the web or the phone book, find the location and schedule of the Zen establishment nearest to you, show up, and keep showing up as long as it suits you.
Eventually you will learn the formalities of the local Zen meditation hall most groups offer special instruction for beginners , and if you feel comfortable you will continue to attend meditation when you can. This week's headlines about Osama bin Laden reminds us all of the terrible cost of misunderstanding, prejudice and hatred.
The hatred and the killing will not end -- in fact, given our human propensity for demonizing those who do not believe as we do, such things may always be with us. But we must never stop trying to counter prejudice with efforts to find common ground. That was what I was trying to do on the radio show, and what I am trying to do here by writing about it.
News U. Politics Joe Biden Congress Extremism. Special Projects Highline. HuffPost Personal Video Horoscopes. Follow Us. Terms Privacy Policy. Part of HuffPost Religion. All rights reserved. Lewis Richmond, Contributor. Suggest a correction. Money is a tool meant to be used, not to be used by. You live your life normally, you work, you eat, you kiss your children before bed, you do whatever you like, but to it mindfully.
You don't have to change for Zen; Zen will change you, unconsciously, automatically, naturally. Zazen will make you concentrate on each act of everyday life, so when you are in bed with your wife, you will concentrate on her, not on work.
You will harmonize with the people around you and in return, naturally, they will harmonize with you! Zazen will make you calm and unshakable.
Buddhists accepts Karma and Samsara or rebirth but does not care too much about the afterlife, as what matters is the present moment, here and now. Buddhism is very tolerant towards other Religions and generally agrees with their moral teachings.
Some traditional religions are growing weak because they are no more than mere decorations, relying too much on imagination dogmas , ceremonies and texts. Zazen makes you cut away the decorations and look for what is the core of Religion. Mindfulness is actually a Buddhist practice that dates back years ago. It's the essence of the Buddha's philosophy and at the center of Zen as well.
The law of attraction is actually a Buddhist concept that we call Karma. Karma is not a reward nor a punishment system; its is simply a universal law that says that whatever you send out in the Universe, you will receive back. If you send out love, you'll receive love. If you send out hate, you'll receive hate. If you send out scarcity, you'll receive scarcity. For example, Buddha himself began life as a Hindu, as did many other early Buddhists. Incorporating the practices of other religions does not necessarily conflict with Buddhism, as long as one focuses primarily on the Buddhist principles.
Tibetan Buddhism, in particular, is associated with many types of gods and demi-gods. However, these are not believed to be all-powerful beings like the monotheistic god. These gods may be included in Buddhist prayers and in shrines where offerings are made. However, they are not worshipped in the sense of adoration, since practitioners focus is still on the Buddha and his teachings on the method of achieving enlightenment.
Modern practitioners especially may think of them more as reminders of positive qualities than as literal beings.
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