{"id":686,"date":"2009-06-25T09:31:41","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T09:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/treeleafzen\/2009\/06\/there-is-no-zen-sect.html"},"modified":"2009-06-25T09:31:41","modified_gmt":"2009-06-25T09:31:41","slug":"there-is-no-zen-sect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/treeleafzen\/2009\/06\/there-is-no-zen-sect.html","title":{"rendered":"There Is No ‘Zen Sect’ !!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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(BENDOWA XXXV)<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

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We have been looking in recent days at the “Perfections of the Bodhisattva” … one of which is said to be “meditation<\/i>” (along with practicing charity, keeping the Precepts etc.). <\/div>\n

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“So<\/i>“, the questioner asks, “since all Buddhists traditionally practice ‘concentration’ and ‘meditation’ as just one of many important practices, why so do you, Dogen, push Zazen as something special among those that is at the core of …. that is the very heart of … the Buddha’s teaching?<\/i>” <\/p>\n

Dogen answers by first saying that, when Master Bodhidharma first brought his teachings to China, the Buddhist clergy there was so shocked at how he was sitting Zazen<\/i> … that they actually called him the founder of the “‘Zazen<\/i>‘ or ‘Zen<\/i>‘ Sect”. That shows how much the clergy in China at the time had forgotten about, or were not practicing, “Zazen<\/i>“.<\/p>\n

Anyway, says Dogen, Zazen<\/i> is rather different from mere practices of “concentration<\/i>” or “meditation<\/i>” as those words are usually used in Buddhist philosophy … (a subject we shall discuss tomorrow<\/i><\/b>) … <\/div>\n

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