ZEN SOTO
29 août 2010 Laisser un commentaire
Have you ever spent motionless hours sitting on a round cushion facing a wall? Do you have a penchant for just, wholehearted, exact sitting(shikantaza)? Do you sometimes spend more time chanting about your meal than you do eating it? Or perhaps you just enjoy a little zazen from time to time – You might be a Soto Zen Practitioner !
Zen has its origins in 6th century BC India with Shakyamuni Buddha, It came to China with the semi-mythical ancestor Bodhidharma where it flourished as Chan. Then, with the teachings of the 9th century monks Tozan and Sozan, began to take on it’s unique Soto Zen flavour before being brought to Japan in the 13th century by Eihei Dogen. Dogen was a Japanese Buddhist Priest who travelled to China with the question “if everybody is already Buddha, already inherently Enlightened, then why must we bother to practise” . When, upon his return to Japan, he was asked what he discovered – he responded in standard enigmatic zen fashion when he said simply “Eyes horizontal, nose vertical, essence of Buddhism”.
