To: talk.religion.buddhism
From: bobg@teleport.com (Robert Greer)
Subject: Re: Zen in China
Date: 28 Dec 1994 22:43:38 GMT
Quoting: |prinet@nimbus.inria.fr (Véronique Prinet) says:

|The Zen came from India, moved to China, then to Japan. I'd like to know 
|if in China, there are still places where Chineese practice Zazen. Is 
|there in Pekin some temple Zen ? What is the official religion in 
|Chineese ? Does any one know ?

I understand that Zen did not originate in India or move to China.  Zen
inherited some religious traditions and information from people in those
countries, however, and now represents (so I hear) a "stronghold" for 
them.  (Although I am personally more impressed with the "high church"
Indian Hindus that I have talked with, than with modern proponents of
Zen that I have heard.)

Historically, the sect you are interested in might be "Ch'an" (which is
the Chinese equivalent of Sanskrit "Dhyana" and means, roughly, meditation).
It started around 440 A.D. with students who studied Gunabhadra's 
Chinese translation of the "Lankavatara Sutra."  Another *early* source
is "Hsin Hsin Ming" (On believing in mind) by Seng-A'sau (around year
606).

I suspect that the "core" of Zen derives, fairly directly, from the 
Madhyamika buddhism of Nagarjuna.  His "Garland of Advice for the King"
is an excellent introduction to the philosophy because it avoids hard-to-
translate philosophical jargon. (Although the anti-sex sentiment was
probably added later, by the Tantrics who preserved the document.)
Actually, a lot of his stuff was well preserved by the Tantic Buddhists
in China, because they are heavily tradionalist and tended to leave
documents unchanged.  (More so than other sects, anyway.)  The Tibetan
Tantrics are pretty good librarians, but they were cruel overlords of
their territory, where they still encourage (very un-Madhyamika-like)
superstitions in the population.  So wear gloves if you shop there. :)