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Touya's Scroll into the heart of his soul


Ice Master- Touya
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3 comments
Log #4
What is Zen?





User Comments: [3]
Night Windspirit
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comment Commented on: Tue Oct 12, 2004 @ 06:22am
interesting... lol i dont' have a clue on this one


comment Commented on: Mon May 19, 2008 @ 09:18pm
Your journal is all colorless Bae. And I have no idea. ^_^



Arella Aria
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erratiquemoon
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comment Commented on: Sun May 25, 2008 @ 11:02pm
Zen teachings and practices

Basis

The Sixth Patriarch Tearing Up a Sutra by Liáng KǎiZen asserts, as do other schools in Mahayana Buddhism, that all sentient beings have Buddha-nature, the universal nature of inherent wisdom (Sanskrit prajna) and virtue, and emphasizes that Buddha-nature is nothing other than the nature of the mind itself. The aim of Zen practice is to discover this Buddha-nature within each person, through meditation and mindfulness of daily experiences. Zen practitioners believe that this provides new perspectives and insights on existence, which ultimately lead to enlightenment.

In distinction to many other Buddhist sects, Zen de-emphasizes reliance on religious texts and verbal discourse on metaphysical questions. Zen holds that these things lead the practitioner to seek external answers, rather than searching within their own minds for the direct intuitive apperception of Buddha-nature. This search within goes under various terms such as “introspection,” “a backward step,” “turning-about,” or “turning the eye inward.”

In this sense, Zen, as a means to deepen the practice and in contrast to many other religions, could be seen as fiercely anti-philosophical, iconoclastic, anti-prescriptive and anti-theoretical. The importance of Zen's non-reliance on written words is often misunderstood as being against the use of words. However, Zen is deeply rooted in both the scriptural teachings of the Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama and in Mahāyāna Buddhist thought and philosophy. What Zen emphasizes is that the awakening taught by the Buddha came through his meditation practice, not from any words that he read or discovered, and so it is primarily through meditation that others too may awaken to the same insights as the Buddha.


User Comments: [3]
 
 
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