ate reality. . . .
"It can be organized. I'll have to ask the head monk to find a suitable date for the ceremony" (Van de Wetering, 1973, pp. 138-9).
The monk's attitude influenced Van de Wetering not to go through with the ceremony. Why? Because the ceremony was not transcendent, therefore not important. One does not "become" a Zen Buddhist in a ceremony, for a ceremony does not enlighten. This leads to the idea that in Buddhism, a bodhi (enlightenment) is important. Bodhi comes out of unity between conduct and absence of grasping. It is a result of long study and contemplation plus realization that existence (world reality, including ceremony) is itself illusory (empty). One who is enlightened is a bodhisattva, and the enlightenment is that reality itself is emptiness. Nirvana therefore is unity with emptiness.
Indian Buddhism first spread into primitive parts of Asia, where no system of writing existed. Mahayanan Buddhism includes doctrine of sudden and not gradual enlightenment came into China. This developed into Ch'an or Zen Buddhism, and it was this
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