Zen Buddhism Enlightenment Through Experience

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Zen BuddhismEnlightenment Through Experience
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Zen Stress on Meditation

• Is one of the schools in Mahayana.
• It takes its name from the seventh step of the
  Eight Fold Path--Meditation dhyana.
• In Chinese this word is chan in Japanese, zen
• The Chan movement preferred Siddharthas
  technique of attaining enlightenment through
  seated meditation.

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Schools Within the School

• Within Chan (Chinese) Buddhism there were two
  schools Northern and Southern.
• Northern School taught gradual enlightenment.
• Southern School taught advocated sudden
  enlightenment.
• The northern school died out.
• Two main schools, Rinzai and Soto, in Zen
  (Japanese) today are descendents of the southern
  school.

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Enlightenment

• The enlightenment experience call satori brings
  an awareness of the unity oneself with the rest
  of the universe.
• Zazen or sitting meditation is the basic way in
  which enlightenment is achieved.

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The Technique

• The meditation involves sitting in silence with
  ones back straight and centered, keeping the
  body still, and taking deep and regular breaths.
• It is demonstrated by the following site.
• The site

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Techniques continued

• Another technique for attaining enlightenment is
  called a koan.
• The name is from the Chinese gong-an (kung-an)
  and is translated as public discussion. It
  demands that a person think or ponder
• Manual labor also helps one to focus and
  concentrate and so many of the Zen monastery do
  various tasks such as kitchen cleaning, minor
  repairs, etc.