[net.religion] Zen--reading and practice

ellis (04/19/83)

    As a person with essentially no Zen credentials or training, I was
    confused by pegasus!pete's remark:

"Zen is, above all else, the physical and mental activity of sitting
 zen meditation (zazen)."

    This seems somehow in contradiction to other views on the subject:

"to concentrate the mind on quietness is a disease of the mind, and not
 Zen at all"
							- Eno
"how can you become a buddha by doing zazen?"
							- Nangaku

    It seems that a few of the most revered Zen masters felt a profound
    aversion to meditation (zazen).

pete (04/20/83)

Yes, some of the Zen masters had an aversion to Zazen, after they had used
it as tool. 
My point is that Zen is a practice, and that discusions about Zen or reading
of Zen masters often can miss the point.
Zen masters are famed for their pardoxical methods of arguement, the
same master who disparages Zazen may in another writing praise its virtues.
If to practice Zen is to learn to avoid attachements, then an attachment to 
Zazen, which is a tool, can leave a student stuck in the same bind as before.
However no Zen master that I know of recommends talking or reading too much
about Zen as part of the practice.