Essential Zen
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Zen is short for Zen Buddhism. It is often referred to as a religion while also being called a philosophy. A true practitioners of Zen would tell you to choose whichever term you like, that it does not matter. Zen Buddhism originated with the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, a young prince in India who renounced his life of privilege to find understanding. After six years of asceticism he reached enlightenment and was afterwards known as Buddha. Essential Zen by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Tensho David Schneider attempts to offer a variety of stories, sayings, poems and thoughts that strike at the essence of Zen. After reading the book, one might say the best answer regarding what is the essence of Zen would be practice. For words and sentences have little meaning in Zen because they are viewed as having now fixed meaning. Logic is irrelevant. The principles of Zen are very applicable to modern society, including modern western society. If we examine some of the offerings in Essential Zen we can get an understanding of the core principles of Zen while also seeing their applicability and usefulness to modern American life. If we look at Christianity, we trace a code of principles of living back to the Ten Commandments. However, the code of conduct practiced through Zen is much more about the internal being and its connection to the external environment, both that of others, nature and the universe. Looking at some of the “Sayings of a Zen Ma
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philosophy and concept of Zen. In fact, one of the sayings that is offered by the authors in Essential Zen, by Robert Aitken, has a direct relation to environmental preservation and activism, “With tropical forests in danger/I vow with all beings/to raise hell with the people responsible/and slash my consumption of trees” (Tanahashi et al., 125). There are other examples of the interconnectedness of all beings in the offerings in Essential Zen. Unlike many in our modern world who continue to add to the destruction of the environment, those who adopt the practice of Zen are aware of the interconnectedness of all beings. They have an awareness that their children and their children will inherit what they leave behind (or become part of) and the necessity of preserving the environment in which we exist, “Trees let us/always return to trees/for our children’s sake to know/how to love them let them grow/as they come & let them go/a brief moment presently” (Tanahashi et al., 95).
There is really no end objective to Zen because there is no absolute answer to the question of “What am I?” or “What is the meaning of life?” Instead, Zen is about opening the mind and body to exploration and continual searching. This inability to ar
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Approximate Word count = 2405
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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