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From: Kevin Quillen <kevin_quillen@valpak.com>
Newsgroups: alt.philosophy.zen,alt.zen,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.religion,alt.religion.buddhism,talk.religion.buddhism,alt.consciousness,alt.philosophy.taoism
Subject: Re: SOsborne: Re: Origins of Zen
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1996 13:40:18 -0500
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To: Scott R Osborne <sro25064@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu>
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nagasiva wrote:
> 
> [from alt.philosophy.zen: sro25064@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu (Scott R Osborne)]
> 
> DR Faust (p2101536@csdvax.csd.unsw.edu.au) wrote:
> : Can someone enlighten me on the origins of zen. Is it true that it has
> : historically evolved out of a mixture of taoism and hinduism????
> 
> While Buddhism as a whole can be seen as a reaction to certain aspects of
> the Hindu religious and social traditions of Siddhartha Gautama's (the
> historical Buddha's) day, Zen is actually a conglomeration of Mahayana
> Buddhist (the later, northern developments) and Taoism.  Zen draws
> strongly upon a number of Mahayana sutras (such as the Prajnaparamita,
> Avatamsaka, Vimalakirti, and Lankavatara) and concepts, such as
> _shunyata_ ("emptiness"), the interconnection and interdependence of all
> things, Vimalakirti's silent answer, a deep turning in the seat of
> consciousness on awakening, etc.
> 
> (Cribbed liberally from Heinrich Dumoulin's _Zen Enlightenment: Origins
> and Meaning_.  Most general histories of Buddhism or Zen will give you
> similar info.)
> 
> +==========================================================================+
> | Scott Osborne sro25064@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu  University of Central Florida |
> |                     http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~sro25064                  |
> |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
> |                 Entering the realm of the Buddha is easy;                |
> |                entering the realm of the devil is difficult.             |
> |                                                           --Ikkyu        |
> +==========================================================================+
I have been lurking and silent, but I am compelled in my understanding 
to respond to the origin of Zen.  I have read that Zen came from the 
non-iconic Chinese Chan Buddhism in the Shaolin temples (Linguists show 
the phonic connection in progress DJANA > CHAN > ZEN) which was a 
Hinayana sect.  The Mahayana aspect is imbued in the ritual (bowing to 
Buddha at meditation time), but the real Theraveda Buddist knows that 
he/she is self-enlightnened, not saved by the mention of Amida or other 
Buddha worship.

Thank you for reading.

Q