Zen History: Simple questions and facts

Lots of people have gotten their ideas about Zen from Buddhist churches, or people who were "taught" at Buddhist churches or Buddhist church schools. Some of these ideas fall apart right away when you ask some simple questions...

Zongmi, Tsungmi - Not a Zen Master?

1. There are no dialogues associated with Zongmi's "teaching".
2. There aren't any students or a teacher who have dialogues with Zongmi.
3. Zongmi is not found at all in the writings of Zen Masters.
4. Three different generations explicitly rejected Zongmi's "Five Kinds of Zen" claim
5. Japanese Buddhists have been more interested in Zongmi than anyone else, ever.

The Lankavatara Sutra - Not related to Zen?

1. Not older than Zen: lIkely written between 400-500 by an unknown author, during the lifetime of Bodhidharma's teacher.
2. The Lanka was collected from unknown sources, possibly including Bodhidharma's own lineage's writings.
3. Bodhidharma's Lanka (supposedly) did not contain all the chapters of modern versions.
4. Few Zen Masters ever quote the Lanka... when they do, it's stuff like "Mind is Buddha".

Koans - No Riddles, No Paradoxes?

1. The Koans of Zen Masters are very much sutras, records of teachings.
   
2. Zen Masters quote koans to people as a challenge of explanation.
3. It wasn't until Japanese Dogen evangelist Hakuin that koans were seen as "riddles"...
   • Hakuin also believed he knew the possible answers for all the koans.
     
   • Hakuin recorded his answers to declare which of his followers were enlightened.

Zen is not Mahayana, because Mahayana was originally not a religion

1. Modern Mahayana Churches use the name to distinguish themselves from Theravada
   • But not by much: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_points_unifying_Therav%C4%81da_and_Mah%C4%81y%C4%81na
2. Mahayana appears in very old texts, but is never defined as a term.
3. Many texts considered "mahayana" now do not mention mahayana anywhere in them.
4. Mahayana was originally not a vehicle (or church) at all.

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µ ^Yo͞ok  Welcome! ^{Meet me}  My comment: Lots of self taught people who read books written in the 60's come into this forum making claims about Zen history that are completely untrue.

Simple questions like "how do you know?" and "what evidence is there of that?" will destroy these people right away... just ask... you can watch them fall apart very... suddenly.

Submitted February 15, 2023 at 05:24PM by ewk https://ift.tt/qRFtY16