Joanna van der Hoeven - Pagan Portal-Zen Druidry: Living a Natural Life, with Full Awareness

A Short History of Zen Buddhism

Zen doesnt have to relate to any religion at all. However, its origins are in the Eastern religion of Buddhism, and so we will start by looking at the history of Zen Buddhism.

The first thing that must be made clear is that the Buddha is not a god. Buddha was a man of the noble/warrior class in India, named Siddhartha Gautama. Siddharthas father wanted him to become a great warrior leader, and not to pursue spiritual matters. He believed that if he could shield his son from any suffering, he would not need to turn to spirituality and therefore become a great warrior leader. Siddhartha was cut off from all contact with the outside world.

He grew up in the royal palace, never knowing or seeing anything of the outside world. He even married and had a child, still with no knowledge whatsoever of any external relationships. He never saw sickness in anything, be it person, plant or animal these were carefully hidden from him. Flowers were not allowed to wither and die in the royal gardens, old age was hidden from him, death was a complete unknown to him. Eventually, he craved to know what life was like outside the palace, and snuck out in disguise for four nights with a single servant. What he learned shocked him to the core.

The first night he came across a very old man, and Siddhartha asked his servant why the man was so wrinkled and weary. His servant answered that the man was simply old, and that this is what happened to all men and women. On the second night, Siddhartha encountered someone who was lying sick in the road, and queried his servant on this. The servant replied that the man had an illness, and that all men and women were susceptible to disease. The third night, Siddhartha saw a dead body for the first time, and asked his servant why that person wasnt moving was he asleep? The servant answered him no, and that the person was dead all men and women would one day die. On the fourth and final night, Siddhartha saw a monk, travelling in search of truth, living in poverty but with a serene and fulfilled look on his face. Siddhartha again queried his servant, asking what was wrong with that man, as he had never known such a thing. The servant answered that the monk was searching for enlightenment, for the spiritual truth which would ease all suffering, and in doing so had forsaken all his material possessions.

Siddhartha was overwhelmed. Growing up as he had, with no knowledge of suffering, upon seeing the suffering in the real world it threw him into a spiritual turmoil. It was like standing under a waterfall, with all the pain of the human condition falling upon his head. He then vowed that he would find an answer to the suffering, and left the palace and his family to search out the truth.

Siddharthas search lasted for six years. He began in poverty, and nearly starved to death. He studied many religions, with their adherents to the life of an ascetic, and discovered that was not the way to spiritual growth. He found that the path of moderation led to the most practical road in his quest to answer why all things suffered. Still he had not reached that answer, and one day, coming across a lovely bodhi tree (a fig tree) he sat down and vowed that he would not leave until he had gained the knowledge of why people suffered, the truth in all existence and the nature of the pure mind.

Siddhartha sat under the bodhi tree all night. The first thing he realised was the law of karma, of how all things are subject to a cause and an effect. The second thing he realised was how all things are related, and how there really was no separation. The third thing he realised was the true nature of suffering, and then how to alleviate suffering. As the sun rose he had attained enlightenment, reached nirvana and was a Buddha. He had discovered the dharma, or the truth of all things.

For forty more years up until his death he taught the dharma. He found and taught compassion for all things, and that all living things had a Buddha nature. Now the dharma is the teacher for Buddhism, flowing from teacher to student, from master to monk throughout the world.

Buddhism spread from India to China through a man called Bodhidharma. He went to China to teach the dharma, and went to meet with the emperor. The Emperor Wu of Liang was unimpressed, and turned him away. Bodhidharma then went to a monastery high in the mountains and found a cave where he sat and meditated, facing a wall, for nine years. He became the first of six patriarchs in Buddhism (those who have superior understanding and enlightenment).