Common Themes Of Zen Buddhism

Zen Buddhism can be fairly confusing to the average person; the teachings and stories may come across as arbitrary or nonsensical. However, do not let that deter you from getting to experience a religion that offers a highly different perspective of the world. The focus will be on analyzing some of the common themes of Zen Buddhism that comprises the Zen Slogan (associated with the First Patriarch). The phrase is: “a special transmission outside of the teachings not established upon words and letters; it directly points to the human mind and seeing one’s Nature one becomes a Buddha.” The goal is to explore the meanings that each of these lines convey, and how they might have been shaped by the previous ideologies of Indian Buddhism and Daoism.

This is best evident in the Yogacara School, “All dharmas are preceded by mind (manas), chieftained by mind, made of mind” (Robinson 92). The mind is the birthplace of reality; however, this reality is hidden from the naked eye due to our attached and egotistic thinking. Undoubtedly, we all think of ourselves having ownership of property, money, cars, and whatever else. Once, these links are established they cause us to crave even more, and these material items began to have control of our lives. The mind is the locus of understanding, so having a clear mind uncontaminated by worldly desires allows one to see true reality (Nirvana). These transmissions are all within the mind like all phenomena. At this point, readers might be stumped by the abstractness of the teachings of this religion. Keep in mind that people spend years trying to understand the profundity these messages entail and don’t always succeed. Hopefully Mazu (a great Chan Master) can elaborate more on this, “The principle and phenomena are not different; everything is wonderful function and there is no other principle. They all come from the mind.” (Foster and Shoemaker 45). As we mentioned before, these transmissions are unique because they are not rationally passed down. The variety of these tactics are used to break into the actual mind (the one not clouded by your

To clarify, the true nature of our mind is that of a Buddha. Yet again, we see these Chan teachings relating to those of Indian Buddhism, “The new term Tathagata-garbha makes the concept more explicit. In the second sense, the womb of Tathagatahood is the embryonic Buddha consisting of the pure dharmas in a person's store-consciousness.” (Robinson 94). All sentient (living) beings possess the qualities that are of a buddha, they just have not been expressed. No matter the bad actions or thoughts you have done there is a buddha that is in you. Why have we not expressed these qualities? Because of our own attachments to the world. Huangpo of the Linji school provides a great analysis on this topic, “all wriggling beings possessed of sentient life and all the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas are of this one substance and do not differ. Differences arise from wrong-thinking only and lead to the creation of kinds of karma” (Foster and Shoemaker 92). This further relates to that break in ordinary thought we mentioned earlier. Once, we bust through the barriers of ordinary thinking, we will be able to live without suffering. This clarity is your own buddha nature illuminating throughout your body. Although, both traditions of Buddhism emphasize this teaching, Chan Buddhist argue that seeing this own nature can happen suddenly. Juxtaposed to Indian Buddhism, enlightenment is supposed to be a long process that