According to tradition Zen Buddhism was brought from India to
China in the 6th century A.D. by Bodhidarma and eventually reached Japan in
the 12th century. Bodhidarma taught that Zen was:
A special transmission outside the Scriptures;
No dependence upon words and letters;
Direct pointing to reality;
Seeing into one's own nature and realizing Buddhahood.
The great Zen masters were famous for their riddle-like sayings and unusual yet insightful question-and-answer exchanges with disciples. The enigmatic nature of Zen and the non-intellectual expression of the experience of enlightenment has challenged and sometimes baffled seekers for countless centuries.
Words!
The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is
no yesterday
no tommorow
no today.- Sengstan
Do not permit the events of your daily lives
to bind you, but never withdraw yourself
from them.- Huang Po
No snowflake falls in an inappropriate place.- Zen saying
The foolish reject what they see, not what they think;
The wise reject what they think, not what they see.- Huang Po
Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.- Zenrin
When the 'ten thousand things' are viewed in their
one-ness we return to the Origin and remain
where we have always been.- Sengstan
Zen is to have the heart and soul of a little child.- Takuan
The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflection;
The water has no mind to receive their image.- Zenrin
While alive be a dead man, thoroughly dead;
And act as you will, and all is good.- Bunan
Before enlightenment,
chopping wood and carrying water;
After enlightenment,
chopping wood and carrying water.- Zen saying
