Zen And Buddhism
...as a distinct school in China (as Cha'an) and spread to Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and, in modern times, the rest of the world. The common English name derives from the school's name in Japanese, zen (禅).
History
Traditionally, Zen traces its roots back to Indian Buddhism; it takes its name from the Sanskrit term, dhyāna, which means meditative concentration (zen is short for the rarely-used form zenna). According to traditional accounts, Chinese Zen was established in approximately 500 CE by an Indian monk named Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma is said to have been the twenty-eighth patriarch of Zen and the last Indian successor in a line begun by the Buddha's disciple Mahakaśyapa.
An early Zen text, the Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, describes Bodhidharma travelling by sea, circa 520, to the territory of the Liang Dynasty in southern China. There, in a famous exchange with Emperor Wu, he explained that good deeds done with selfish intention were useless for gaining enlightenment. This argument having met with imperial disapproval, Bodhidharma travelled north to Shaolin Temple near the Song Mountains, where he established himself as a teacher. Martial arts legend also states that kung fu was also taught by Bodhidharma at Shaolin.
Shortly before his death, Bodhidharma appointed his disciple Huike to succeed him, making Huike the first Chinese patriarch and the second patriarch of Zen in China. The transmission then passed to the second, third, and fourth patriarchs, of whom little is known beyond their names. The sixth and last patriarch, Huineng (638-713), was one of the giants of Zen history, and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor. However, the dramatic story of Huineng's life tells that there was a controversy over his claim to the title of patriarch: after being chosen by the Hongren, the fifth patriarch, he had...
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