Quote:
Originally Posted by Hologram8
is Zen the same thing as Chan ?
|
Chan is the originating tradition of Zen Buddhism (the Japanese name, which is the most commonly used name for the school in English). Chan Buddhism spread from China south to Vietnam as Thiền and north to Korea as Seon, and, in the 13th century, east to Japan as Japanese Zen.
In Zen, practitioners keep their mind on the void.
That's an interesting saying. What is the void? Well the answer is not a
thing. What's a thing? We are experiencing things all the time. But, are they experienced as things? What is this now? Is it a thing? It's not something other than what it is, what it is before a thought forms
about it. But it is not
an it either... void..... thing..... it..... these all come about when a thought comes to divide me from
this as it is... ah and it's not a this...."it's" everything and nothing, it's pre-verbal, form is adding a structure, a concept, a direction, it is being without form... that's the void.... and one does not keep their mind on it, there is no mind apart from me.... I keep myself here now as it is without me adding to it, without interpreting or commenting on it... in anyway...
that's zen or chan or just reality as it is with and without "me"
there are empty green fields under the sun and moon, a cool breeze blowing, not a living being anywhere close... then a zen monk appears, nothing has changed