Zen Buddhism in Japan

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Sōtōmönk in Arashiyama , Kyoto

The Zen Buddhism or shortly Zen ( Jap. :禅- Zen ) originated in China from the 5th century as Chan and came from the 12th century to Japan , where he was given a new expression, which then in modern times in the Came west . The terms used in Zen therefore mostly come from Japanese .

history

Despite the great importance of Zen (Chan) in China and the closeness to the government of many monasteries there, no Zen tradition line was brought to Japan as a school during the Nara period (710–794). Still there were influences. Dōshō (629-700) built a hall for Zen meditation, according to tradition, after he made a pilgrimage to China in 653 . Because the Empress had invited him, the Chinese Rinzai master Yikong (Japanese Giku) came to Japan around 810 . A monastery was built for him, but it was hardly popular. Finally, in 1171 , Kakua went to China to study Rinzai, but this venture, too, had no historical consequences.

The term Zenji (Zen master) also appeared in the first writings as early as the Nara period : it mostly describes practitioners of Buddhist rituals (mostly in the mountainous wilderness of ascetic practices, meditation, recitations, etc.) who were not authorized by the imperial government and were not officially ordained .). It was believed that through these rituals, practitioners acquired great but ambivalent powers.

During the Kamakura period , Myôan Eisai (probably spoken Yōsai at the time) (1141-1215), a monk of the Tendai school, traveled to China in 1168 and 1187 . After he had studied Zen there for several years, the honor of a Zen master was it the Oryo given -line of Linji (Rinzai). After returning to Japan, he founded the first Rinzai monastery in his homeland. The special oryo line of Rinzai-Zen was already extinct in Japan after a few generations. Eisai apparently never considered himself the founder of a new Buddhist school in Japan; he continued to consider himself belonging to the Tendai.

Dōgen Kigen (1200-1253) was also a Tendai monk. At the age of 13 he entered the order on Mount Hiei as a novice and later studied from 1217 (two years after Eisai's death) under Eisai's Dharma successor Myōzen . Together with this Dōgen traveled to China and learned under Rujing (Japanese Tendo Nyojo) (1163-1228). It was later written that he had obtained both unusually deep insight and enlightenment there. Little is known about his activities after his return to Japan in 1227 , but a few years later he took over a temple remote from the capital (which he later called Kōshō-ji ) and set up a meditation hall there based on the latest song- time Chinese model that he brought more and more visitors and students. In his writings from this time on, the peculiarities of his practice and teaching become apparent: Shikantaza (“just sitting”), Hishiryō (“the immeasurable for thinking”), Shoshin Tanza (“regular practice”) and Shinjin datsuraku (“stripping off body and mind "). He also equated the practice of zazen with Buddhahood. Dōgen only refers to Myōzen (who died in China) and Rujing as his "senshi" (former teacher) in his writings. In 1244 Dōgen left the Kōshō-ji and moved to the secluded Echizen at the invitation of a local warrior noble family . The monastery that he took over and expanded there he called Eihei-ji . In addition to the hall for zazen, Dōgen also took over other components of the monastery structure and the monastic organization from Song China. Following the Chinese model, he ordered rites for supernatural beings in the monastery.

The fact that the establishment of new Buddhist schools and groups could quickly be viewed as heretics by established circles shows the fate of the Daruma-shū founded by Nōnin (not dated). Their monastery was destroyed by Sōhei (monk warriors). Some of the dispersed Daruma monks later joined dōgen and thus stood in two Dharma lines of tradition. Keizan Jōkin , who is considered the second patriarch of the Japanese Sōtō and later founded the most important head temple, Sōji-ji , also learned from some of these direct students of Dōgens .

Sōtō spread very widely in the following centuries, often by occupying vacant temples and shrines, exorcising local kami , spirits and other beings or converting them to the Dharma . With the exception of a few elite monks and monasteries, the practices soon hardly differed from those of other Buddhist schools. A wide variety of supernatural beings were worshiped by the population in the monasteries, the monks performed various rituals (zazen, recitations, Mikkyō practices, etc.) in order to transfer Genze riyaku , this worldly benefits, to the laity and the monastic world. Burials were also the main task of the monasteries. The lay supporters of the Sōtō were mostly the local warrior nobility in more remote areas, but also the local population. Accordingly, the monasteries are permeated by local influences.

The position of the Dharma lineage was probably the most important factor in the identity of the Sōtō school. Important, from today's point of view, central texts (including Kōan and Dōgens work), like other status objects (robes, Shari relics of deceased masters, many statues) were increasingly kept secret and only passed on directly. The school’s own publications state that training centers for zazen exist in only about 30 of around 15,000 monasteries today. During the entire history of Japan, zazen was also seen as a powerful ritual for the accumulation of spiritual forces: The three bitt temples, where the Japanese ask for this worldly benefits, are among the few training centers for zazen.

The Rinzai school did not spread as far as Sōtō. It flourished in the environment of the powerful in Kyōtō and Kamakura and was thus close to the politics of the Japanese Middle Ages, especially the warrior nobility of the Bushi (the system of the Go-zan , five mountains). Rinzai offered them not only a distance to the equally powerful established schools (Tendai, Shingon and the Nara schools under the protection of the Fujiwara), but also a connection to China. Studying Rinzai meant attaining passive and active mastery in Chinese. In addition, the government and the aristocrats of Japan were able to participate in the latest culture of the time from mainland China via Rinzai, which greatly influenced Japanese culture. In addition to bringing about benefits and burials for their lay patrons, cultural promotion resulted in the association of Rinzai with a number of different disciplines that became known as the ways ( Dō ) of Zen:

  • Sadō - the path of the tea ceremony (tea path)
  • Shodō - the way of writing
  • Kado - the way of the flower arrangement (also: Ikebana )
  • Suizen - the artful game of the Shakuhachi bamboo flute
  • Zen garden - the art of garden design
  • Budō - the way of the warrior, cf. Budo is also part of these approaches

When, after the Meiji Restoration, Buddhism was briefly pursued in Japan and abandoned by the new policy in favor of a renativistic Shinto as the religion of those in power, the Zen schools were also affected. In the times of ever more rapid social, cultural and social change, the Shin-bukkyō , the new Buddhism, emerged. B. was socially active. The seclusion of the monasteries also relaxed, so lay groups were taught zazen and the teaching of Zen. A number of early intellectuals of the Meiji period , who strove for the essence of Japan in order to see the country as equal or superior to the more modern West, wrote influential but also very problematic writings to this day. So the Buddhism of the Tokugawa period (1600–1868) was denigrated mostly as decadent and deviated from the true doctrine. In order to stand against the new Shinto as a promoted national belief, Buddhism was redefined taking into account Western Buddhism research (at that time mainly occupied with a reconstruction of a "true" "original Buddhism" without including ethnographic observations). Zen is likely to be the most successful and found its way into Western culture and literature in this form. In Japan itself, such views of Zen have not become so prevalent (most younger Japanese do not know which Buddhist school they belong to), although the orthodox opinions of the schools have shifted in the same direction.

In the pre-war period, Zen was associated with other terms that should be classified as the rather unscientific Nihonjinron , Japan theory today . This includes B. Bushidō , which also appears as a term around the Meiji Restoration. However, this also gave rise to connections to Japanese nationalism and ideological propaganda, which were criticized by Zen itself after the Second World War .

See also

literature

Introductions

  • Robert Aitken: Zen as a life practice. 5th edition Diederichs, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-424-00928-8
  • Steve Hagen: Buddhism in everyday life. Find freedom beyond all dogmas. Goldmann, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-442-21695-8
  • Adelheid Meutes-Wilsing, Judith Bossert: Zen for every day. Herder, Freiburg 2001, ISBN 3-451-05124-9
  • Jiho Sargent: Zen - what is it? 108 replies. Barth, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-502-61106-8
  • Alan Watts: From the Spirit of Zen . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-518-37788-4
  • Zensho W. Kopp: The great Zen way: The way to enlightenment in the middle of life. 1st edition Schirner Verlag 2004, ISBN 3-89767-408-4

Modern classics

  • Shunryu Suzuki: Zen Mind - Beginner Mind. 11th edition Theseus, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89620-131-X
  • Philip Kapleau: The Three Pillars of Zen. Teaching - practice - enlightenment. 14th edition. Barth, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-502-61132-7
  • Daisetz T. Suzuki: The Great Liberation: Introduction to Zen Buddhism. 20th edition Barth, Munich a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-502-67594-5
  • Taisen Deshimaru-Roshi: Za-Zen. The practice of zen. 5th edition Kristkeitz, Leimen 1991, ISBN 3-932337-11-5

Scientific literature and resources

Web links

General

Other links