{"id":106932,"date":"2023-07-03T14:52:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T18:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=106932"},"modified":"2023-07-05T09:54:45","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T13:54:45","slug":"how-is-zen-buddhism-different-from-traditional-buddhism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-is-zen-buddhism-different-from-traditional-buddhism\/","title":{"rendered":"How Is Zen Buddhism Different From Traditional Buddhism?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How is Zen Buddhism different from traditional Buddhism? How does it view awakening and meditation<\/a>? What are wu-hsin and dhyana?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zen borrowed several concepts from earlier traditions, and it developed some of its own philosophies. That makes it a unique offering in Eastern thought. Alan Watts explores the ideas that differentiate Zen from other schools of Buddhism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading to learn about the three primary distinctions of Zen Buddhism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How Is Zen Buddhism Different?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While Zen was built on what came before, it\u2019s a unique school of Mahayana Buddhism with many original ideas<\/a>. How is Zen Buddhism different from traditional Buddhism? The most important differences are its directness (in awakening and in teaching), its stance on meditation, and its principles about how you should use your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awakening Is Direct and Instantaneous<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The first idea unique to Zen is its understanding of the nature of awakening. In other schools of Buddhism, you might have to work a lifetime to achieve awakening. But in Zen, awakening is immediate and can happen anytime<\/strong>. Watts explains that you don\u2019t have to pass through a sequence of spiritual stages or spend your days in meditation to get there. Instead, awakening can occur instantaneously, an experience called satori<\/em>. Zen teaches that you can experience awakening in everyday activities like working, creating art, and appreciating the natural world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point of Zen is not to experience awakening or to attain Buddhahood because you are already a Buddha<\/a> by nature<\/strong>. To try to become a Buddha is to deny that you already are a Buddha. Additionally, Watts writes that you can develop prajna<\/em>, a kind of direct knowledge or wisdom. The principle of prajna<\/em> is that by seeing the relativity of everything (including the futility of the pursuit of goals<\/a>), we come to know the truth of the world by not knowing it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Though Watts may make it sounds like satori<\/em> happens without effort, that\u2019s not how everyone interprets the principle. Novelist and Zen teacher Peter Matthiessen\u2014who studied Rinzai Zen, the school of Zen that emphasizes sudden awakening, and wrote Zen-inflected books<\/a> such as The Snow Leopard<\/em><\/a>\u2014explains that the heart of Zen is za-zen<\/em>, a meditation practice<\/a> in which you sit in silence and bring your attention to the present moment<\/a>, often by focusing in on your breath. Similarly, Buddhist teacher Andy Karr writes that sudden enlightenment typically comes after a long journey<\/a>; for most people, the process of developing prajna<\/em> requires studying, contemplating, and meditating on Buddhist teachings.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zen Can Be Communicated Directly, Without Symbols<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The second concept unique to Zen is its directness. Watts writes that Zen is unusually direct in the way it teaches and communicates<\/strong>. The Zen method of instruction, called wen-ta<\/em> or the \u201cZen story,\u201d typically takes the form of an anecdote where a question is asked and then answered. These stories aim to point the listener toward a realization, but they aren\u2019t symbolic: The characters don\u2019t represent something else, and there\u2019s no metaphor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: The directness of Zen contrasts with the abstraction we\u2019ve become accustomed to using when we experience the world. Pico Iyer, the author of The Lady and the Monk<\/em><\/a>, writes that because of its directness in thought and teaching, Zen Buddhism is known for \u201cslicing with a clean sword through all the Gordian knots invented by the mind<\/a>.\u201d But while directness can sound appealing, it can also make Zen very counterintuitive. A saying attributed to Bodhidharma suggests that the teachings of Zen are independent of language and instead point directly to the human mind<\/a>. Therefore, you can perceive your true nature and Buddhahood not through studying Zen, but by experiencing the true nature of the world in meditation.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watts explains that the directness of a Zen story is typical of Zen\u2019s directness in communication<\/strong>. A method of conveying insight called \u201cdirect pointing\u201d involves demonstrating a Zen principle through words or actions that don\u2019t overtly comment on the question in the story. For example, Watts explains that according to Zen tradition, the Buddha simply held up a flower to communicate awakening to his disciple Mahakasyapa\u2014a famous example of direct pointing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: The idea of nonsymbolic communication sounds paradoxical. In Pointing at the Moon<\/em><\/a>, Mario D\u2019Amato writes the Buddha is thought not to have used language in the way it\u2019s ordinarily used: The enlightened use of language involves \u201cuse,\u201d but not \u201creference<\/a>.\u201d Zen Buddhist priest Norman Fischer writes that the Buddha holding up a flower \u201cwould be enough to evoke all teachings, all truths<\/a>\u201d to transmit nirvana\u2014because there\u2019s nothing to transmit.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You Don\u2019t Have to Control or Empty Your Mind<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A third idea core to Zen\u2019s teachings is the principle of wu-hsin<\/em>, or \u201cno-mind.\u201d Building on the Taoist philosophy<\/a> of naturalness, the principle of wu-hsin<\/em> suggests that, instead of trying to still, empty, or purify your mind<\/a>, you should let go of your control of the mind itself<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watts writes that, when you combine wu-hsin<\/em>, or \u201cno mind,\u201d with wu-nien<\/em>, or \u201cno thought,\u201d you free your mind to act while thinking, without trying to second-guess or control it. The point of this un-self-consciousness is not to be unaware of what\u2019s happening around you or within you, but to shift your attention away from conscious cognitive processes and toward a spontaneous and creative state<\/strong>. This involves just observing thoughts come and go, without suppressing them, holding onto them, or trying to interfere with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Much of Western thinking<\/a> about mindfulness, including its emphasis on observing but not controlling your thoughts<\/a>, is derived from Zen Buddhism and the concepts of wu-hsin<\/em> and wu-nien<\/em>. In Wherever You Go, There You Are<\/em><\/a>, Jon Kabat-Zinn draws a distinction between thinking and the awareness required in mindfulness<\/a>. He explains that thinking involves actively engaging with the flow of feelings and thoughts you experience, while mindfulness requires stepping back from those thoughts and feelings<\/a> to simply observe them.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Watts, Zen became a new school of Buddhism because it took a new and unique view of dhyana<\/em>, a concept that Watts notes is often but inadequately translated as \u201cmeditation.\u201d He explains that dhyana<\/em> might be better understood as a state of awareness that\u2019s focused on the present and unconstrained by false boundaries between \u201cthe knower, the knowing, and the known<\/strong>.\u201d In other words, Zen teaches that, when we enter a state of dhyana<\/em>, we look beyond conventional separations to see the world for what it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Does Science Interpret the Experience of Dhyana?<\/strong>

Scholars, including scientists, offer multiple ways to interpret dhyana<\/em>. Tim Lott writes that this Sanskrit word signifies emptiness<\/a>. He explains that the basis of Zen is the idea that all of existence has a kind of \u201cdynamic emptiness,\u201d where matter and energy are the same and objects aren\u2019t so much things that exist as events that happen. Lott points out that this squares with a modern scientific understanding of quantum physics (which some experts say posits a kind of emptiness<\/a> where objects and events are just temporary and quantum particles blink in and out of existence, only manifesting in space-time when there\u2019s an observer).

Watts\u2019s explanation of dhyana<\/em> as a state of awareness unconstrained by boundaries might also call to mind phenomena explored in neuroscience. The experience of dhyana<\/em> he describes in some ways parallels the experiences of people who have undergone brain traumas localized to one hemisphere of the brain<\/a>. In My Stroke of Insight<\/em><\/a>, Jill Bolte Taylor writes that when she had a stroke in her left hemisphere, her left brain\u2019s capacity for logic and judgment was silenced while her right brain\u2019s capacity for empathy and stillness was heightened.

Taylor explains that, to the right brain, there\u2019s no sense of time<\/a>, there aren\u2019t boundaries but relationships to observe, and there are no value judgments to dismiss new experiences. The right brain perceives itself and the world as on a continuum, rather than composed of separate entities (just as Watts writes that dhyana does away with the boundaries among the knower, the knowing, and the known). Taylor concludes that we all have the brain circuits to feel the sense of connection<\/a> she experienced\u2014which may be something like dhyana<\/em>.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How is Zen Buddhism different from traditional Buddhism? How does it view awakening and meditation? What are wu-hsin and dhyana? Zen borrowed several concepts from earlier traditions, and it developed some of its own philosophies. That makes it a unique offering in Eastern thought. Alan Watts explores the ideas that differentiate Zen from other schools of Buddhism. Continue reading to learn about the three primary distinctions of Zen Buddhism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":18027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,9,6],"tags":[1085],"class_list":["post-106932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-psychology","category-spiritual","tag-the-way-of-zen","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Is Zen Buddhism Different From Traditional Buddhism? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How is Zen Buddhism different from traditional Buddhism? While Zen was built on what came before, it\u2019s a unique school of thought. 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