From the Buddha to the present day

In summary

Zen dates back to the experience of the Buddha Shakyamuni, who achieved enlightenment in the dhyana posture (zazen, Zen meditation) in India in the 5th century BC. This experience has been passed down uninterruptedly from master to disciple ever since, forming the lineage of Zen Buddhism.

After Buddhism had been established in India for almost a thousand years, the monk Bodhidharma transmitted this teaching to China in the 6th century AD. Zen, under the name of Ch'an, found fertile ground for its development and flourished in this country. During this period, practitioners were able to experience its originality, its simplicity and the purity of its practice.

In the 13th century, the Japanese monk Dôgen, after a stay in China, established Sôtô Zen in Japan. The founder of this school, Master Dôgen, is also considered one of the greatest Buddhist philosophers. Since then, Zen has had a profound influence on Japanese culture. Today, more than 20,000 temples bear witness to its remarkable influence.

In the 20th century, the West began to take an interest in Zen in its philosophical aspect, while at the same time in Japan, Master Kodo Sawaki, who was part of a reformist current of Zen, gave new impetus to the practice of simple sitting, particularly outside the temples. At the end of the sixties, it was one of his successors, Taisen Deshimaru, who brought the essence of this teaching to Europe, as Bodhidharma had done in China fifteen hundred years earlier.

To learn more

• I/ Origins of Zen Buddhism
• II/ Buddhism Ch'an in China
• III/ Zen in Japan
• IV/ The arrival of Zen in Europe with Master Deshimaru

I/ The origins of Zen Buddhism

Buddha was an ordinary man but of high extraction since he was the son of the chief of the Shakya clan, and therefore a Kshatriya (warrior caste). He was born 2,600 years ago in a small kingdom in northern India at the foot of the Himalayas. He received a good intellectual, physical and artistic education, a training designed to make him a perfect ‘gentleman’. He married, had a son, and enjoyed everything that life had to offer.

During an outing from his palace, he had three encounters and became aware of the illness, old age and death associated with the human condition. Then, inspired by an encounter with a monk, Shakyamuni (Siddhārtha Gautama) turned to the philosophical and religious schools, which were numerous in the India of his time. He left his family and his palace, lived in the forest with ascetics and decided to devote himself to finding the origin of suffering and its remedy in order to attain peace.

He studied and practised the various philosophical currents of his time but none of them fulfilled his expectations. Finally, disappointed by these schools but still full of determination, he sat down in the dhyâna (zazen) posture, determined not to move until he had solved the problem of life and death.

After having gone through all the infernal states of ignorance, greed and aversion, and then having overcome all his illusions, he found supreme and eternal peace within himself. He had reached his heart and his original nature, empty of all form. From that moment on, he was called Buddha, the Awakened One, ‘Shakyamuni’, the Sage of the Shakya clan.

Image

He continued to practise sitting, clarifying the problem of suffering in order to better understand how it appears, how it develops and how to free oneself from it. It was then that he established the foundations of the teaching that he expounded throughout his life to his disciples, inviting them to free themselves from illusions.

His teachings would form the sutras, the Buddhist canon. However, it was by sitting simply, completely still, without recourse to scriptures, that he became enlightened.

Among those who gathered around him and became his disciples, Mahakashyapa was appointed his successor and in turn passed on the essence of the teaching to Ananda. This transmission from person to person, from master to disciple, has continued uninterrupted from that time to the present day.

Thus, we, as practitioners of Zen, are direct disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha: we hear his teachings and follow his practice.

A text written by Master Jean-Pierre Taiun Faure

II/ Ch'an Buddhism

To understand the current developments in Sôtô Zen, it is interesting to delve into its origins, studying in particular one of the richest periods of Buddhism, that of the spread of Ch'an in China from the 6th to the 13th century. Buddhism arrived in China in a land that was already culturally rich. Two major schools of thought had enriched it for several centuries: Taoism and Confucianism. When it was established in China, the expression of the Buddha's message became steeped in the culture of that country, while retaining its authenticity.

The seven centuries of Zen's presence in China can be divided into three main periods.

First period (6th - 7th century)

Ch'an developed from the arrival of the Indian monk Bodhidharma in the 6th century. This was the era of the founding patriarchs: Bodhidharma, Eka, Sôsan, Dôshin and Kônin, culminating in the sixth patriarch, Daikan Enô. He had two main successors: Nangaku Ejo and Seigen Gyoshi, who were at the origin of all the great lineages that followed.

Second period (7th - 10th century), the golden age of Chan

Numerous lineages appear in the transmission of Ch'an. Many will die out later, but others will be at the origin of the five great schools that will appear later. It was during the time of Hyakujô (9th century) that the first Ch'an monasteries appeared, with their own rules. Dôshin had already laid the foundations for a work that Hyakujô continued by instituting the famous rule: ‘No work, no eating.’ This was the birth of samu.

This was the era of the first founding texts of Sôtô Zen, such as the Sandokai and the Hōkyō Zanmai. An extraordinary creativity manifested itself and renowned masters such as Nangaku, Sekito, Tokusan, Basô, Yakusan, Tôzan, Hyakujô, Seppô, Rinzai, Nansen and Joshu, who belonged to different lineages, each developed an original teaching with their own formulation.

Image

Tôzan and Sôzan, for example, considered to be the founders of the Sôtô school, created a large number of famous formulas such as the five degrees (go i), the three paths, the three falls, the three escapes, etc. All these formulas and expressions are intended to enable disciples to avoid the traps of intellectual understanding by taking them out of the rut of their previous knowledge and awakening them to the reality of the Buddha's path.

Some of these masters are at the head of very large communities, sometimes comprising more than a thousand monks, and have a large number of successors in the Dharma. Thus, Seppô gives the official transmission - the shihō - to around fifty of his disciples.

This period is called the golden age of Ch'an. It was during this period that the five schools or five houses appeared: Hôgen, Ummon, Igyô, Sôtô and Rinzai. The stories and anecdotes concerning the patriarchs of these schools became references for the students and are at the origin of what are called the koans, small stories that are apparently absurd or enigmatic and cannot be resolved by ordinary logic.

Third period (10th-13th century)

It was in this particularly rich and prolific context that the third period of expansion of the Ch'an (Song dynasty) began. It saw the emergence of increasingly refined literature and schools that established their specificity with such rigour that the remedies themselves produced new diseases. Thus, it was in the 12th century that the famous (true-false) controversy took place between Wanshi Sogaku of the Sôtô lineage and Daie Sôkô, who wrote the Hekiganroku, a collection and commentary on koans of the Rinzai lineage.

Wanshi Sogaku (1091-1157) is considered the patriarch who revived a moribund Sôtô lineage by restoring the true meaning to the practice of shikantaza, or simple sitting. In his time, zazen had become a quietist practice devoid of any spirit of enlightenment, during which the monks dozed more than they meditated. Thus, by dint of being absorbed in a state close to mental emptiness, the monks could no longer meet the demands of daily life, particularly in their relations with lay people.

It was in response to the criticism and disapproval of many masters, particularly Dai'e Soko, that Wanshi wrote his most profound texts, such as Mokushoka (Song of Silent Enlightenment), in which the practice of shikantaza regains its full dimension and mystery.

It is this pure shikantaza that Tendo Nyojo will pass on to the young Dôgen who has come from Japan in search of the authentic Dharma.

A text written by Master Olivier Reigen Wang-Genh

III/ Zen in Japan

Buddhism was introduced in Japan around the 5th century AD. Various schools of Korean or Chinese origin quickly developed alongside the indigenous religion, Shinto (the ‘way of the gods’).

Around the 13th century, Japanese Buddhism, which had become prosperous, was thoroughly renewed by several exceptional reformers. One of them, Master Dôgen (1200-1253), introduced the Sôtô branch (in Chinese, Caodong) of Chinese Zen Buddhism (ch'an) to the country. The Way he had received from his Master Nyojô (Rujing in Chinese) centred on shikantaza, ‘simply sitting’, zazen practised under the direction of a master and understood not as a gradual process of liberation from illusions, but as immediate and universal access to the Awakening of the Buddha and the patriarchs.

Image

Master Dôgen is considered one of the most profound and original thinkers that Japan has ever known. His major work, the Shôbôgenzo (The Treasury of the Eye of the True Law), brings together 95 instalments written at various periods of his life and for various audiences. His enlightenment is also expressed in the rules he wrote for his monastic community (Eihei Shingi, the Pure Rule of the Temple of Eternal Peace).

One of his major innovations was to propose the same precepts for lay people, monks and nuns and to reduce them to 16 (instead of 350 for nuns, 250 for monks and 48 for lay people). In addition to his teaching work, he founded two temples, including the Eihei-ji, Temple of Eternal Peace, which is today one of the two main Sôtô Zen temples in Japan.

While Master Dogen is considered the ‘father’ of the Sôtô school, Master Keizan (1264-1325) is its ‘mother’. The Sôtô school unanimously considers him to be the person who spread Master Dogen's teachings in Japan and ensured the school's longevity in that country. His major work, the Denkôroku, ‘Recueil de la transmission de la lumière’ (Collection of the transmission of light), defined the genealogy of the masters of Sôtô Zen, establishing Master Dôgen as the 51st successor of Buddha Shakyamuni.

In addition, Master Keizan played a major role in establishing the rites of the school, a work with profound and multiple implications. By establishing a liturgical calendar, he made a concrete link between Master Dôgen's ‘continuous practice’ and the cyclical movement of the universe (the passing of days, months and years). By developing or introducing rites that did not only concern the monastic community, he promoted closer ties between Zen monks and the rest of society. Even today, the Japanese population's most frequent contact with Zen is through funeral ceremonies.

Master Keizan founded several temples, including Sôji-ji, the second most important Sôtô Zen temple in Japan. He had many disciples, some of great merit.

On the strength of this dual heritage, the Sôtô school subsequently developed extensively, reaching all sections of the Japanese population. Nowadays, it has 15,000 temples and 30,000 monks and nuns in Japan. The latter have the right to marry and start a family. Many of them, after their training, leave the monastery to join a smaller temple. A certain number teach Buddhism and have lay people practise zazen.

A text written by Master Laurent Genshin Strim

IV/ The arrival of Zen in Europe with Master Deshimaru

Buddhism was discovered by the West in the 19th century and aroused great interest from that time onwards: this was the birth of Buddhist studies, giving rise to the first translations and sparking the enthusiasm of certain intellectual circles. The Zen tradition became known a little later through the works of Daisetz Suzuki, which had a great influence before and after the Second World War. However, this is essentially an intellectual approach that is more relevant to the Rinzai school. The practice of Sôtô Zen spread in the West from the 1960s onwards, first in the USA and then in Europe with the arrival in Paris in 1967 of Master Taisen Deshimaru.

Reverend Taisen Deshimaru (whose given name was Yasuo) was born in Japan in 1914 near the town of Saga on the island of Kyushu. His father was a merchant and a notable figure. His mother was a fervent follower of Jôdô ShinshuBuddhism (Pure Land school) founded by Shinran. She passed on to him her faith in the teachings of this school. He was also influenced by the spirit of bushido that reigned in Japan at the time, particularly in the city of Saga, a Mecca of the samurai spirit.

In the late 1930s, while studying economics in Yokohama, he began practising Sôtô Zen with Kôdô Sawaki Rôshi, one of the great Zen masters of the 20th century, who was then godo (instructor of the monks in the dojo) of the Soji-ji temple, one of the two main temples of the Sôtô school. Master Deshimaru wanted to become a monk but Sawaki encouraged him to practise while continuing a secular life, which he did for the next thirty years. During the war, he was discharged from the army because of his myopia and sent to Indonesia to manage a mining operation, remaining in contact with his master. After the war, he became a businessman, although he was in fact more concerned with the Way and still followed Sawaki Rôshi.

In 1965, before he died, Kôdô Sawaki agreed to ordain him as a monk. Taisen Deshimaru felt that he had then resolved the contradictions he felt between the material and spiritual aspects of life, and between the teachings of Jôdô Shinshu and Zen.

In 1967, after being invited by a group of French followers of macrobiotics, he settled in France where he devoted himself entirely to teaching zazen and the Zen tradition. He arrived at a favourable moment and his mission quickly received a great response. In the space of a few years, he organised a growing number of conferences and practice sessions, translated the fundamental texts of Zen, published works and created the Association Zen d'Europe (which became the Association Zen Internationale, AZI).

The number of his disciples continued to grow and he founded numerous places of practice. As Zen grew in France and Europe, his activity also gained recognition in Japan. He received the transmission of the Dharma - the shihō of Yamada Reirin Rôshi in the 1970s and was appointed Kaikyo-sokan (superior of missionary activities) for Europe in 1976.

Image

His work then expanded and culminated in the creation of the temple of La Gendronnière in 1979. The growing number of his disciples, the work of establishing and adapting the tradition and the management of all the activities required ever greater efforts. Taisen Deshimaru planned to bring in other Japanese teachers to assist him, but he fell ill in 1981 and died of cancer on 30 April 1982 in Tokyo.

Endowed with exceptional energy, Taisen Deshimaru Rôshi was driven by an unshakeable faith in the practice of zazen, in the pure teaching of the Buddhas and patriarchs of Zen, and in the importance of this practice and teaching for the civilisation to come. Although he did not appoint a direct successor or give an official transmission (shihō) to disciples who were still too young in the practice, he passed on this faith to many practitioners he had trained, some of whom had been designated to become future masters.

As the founder of Zen in Europe, Taisen Deshimaru thus firmly established the living tradition of Zen in a new land.

A text written by Master Pierre Dôkan Crépon