Most Zen centers are run like a typical Christian church or community. There is the Zen preacher and the congregation. The former ministers to the congregation while the latter try to be good followers. What makes the Zen center a novelty is its use of Japanese and Chinese religious art.
Thus, is formed a modern bustling Zen community that scarcely has anything to do with Bodhidharma's Zen which made up the early Lanka School; which, I hasten to add, is the very heart of Zen. We know this because we have documents that were discovered in a sealed cave-library in the desert region of Tun-huang in modern northwestern Kansu Province, China.
From these early documents, Zen makes its presence known publicly when in 700 CE Empress Wu invited a Zen monk of the Lanka School to her court in the city of Chan-gan. The name of the monk she invited was Shên-hsiu who at the time was probably over 90 years old; who lived in the hilly retreat of the Wu-tang mountains. It took him about a year to walk to the capitol arriving in 701. He taught in the court of the Empress for four years then died in 705.
From these same documents, the so-called genealogical line that Shên-hsiu came from began with Bodhidharma who transmitted the Lankavataa Sutra. It should be noted that there is no list going back to the Buddha, such a list being unknown even in Indian Buddhism.
As would be expected, the list that began with Bodhidharma ended with Shên-hsiu. We know this because the a relative of the Empress wrote down the genealogy for a monument. Moreover, the list purported to go back to the time of the Buddha (there are several) is not connected with the Lanka School. And where Bodhidharma's name appears in another list, viz., The Ch'an Ching (The Zen Sutra), linking him with the Buddha, it was cleverly added by the Zen monk Shen-hui (670–762 CE). This is why we sometimes see Bodhidharma listed as Bodhidharmatrata because the last person on the list was not Bodhidharma but Dharmatrata! Shen-hui simply added ‘Bodhi’ to Dharmatrata.
The original Lanka School was not noted for seated meditation. The heart of the Lankavatara Sutra does not take up formal zazen, i.e., sitting meditation, as a means to enlightenment. Its key focus is the positive realization of pure Mind—seeing it completely devoid of subtle convolutions and imagery. By analogy, instead of being mesmerized by the images one sees in the mirror, the illuminating surface of the mirror is seen, only. This is what is termed in the Lankavatara Sutra as the field without appearance (nirabhasa-gocara). In other words, one directly apperceives Mind—Mind as immaculate (vimalacitta).
Hardly required, is evidence that the modern practice of Zen has all but forgotten its esoteric roots which mark the pages of the Lankavatara Sutra. Modern Zen is like the empty shell of a beautiful, vibrant blue dragonfly—its life departed. There is nothing left of it except a somber nostalgia for the past. And if a Bodhidharma were suddenly to make his entrance in some modern Zen temple in California, he would no doubt be asked to leave. Such is the state of Zen these days.
How true! In one thought, one steps back into the court at Empress Wu's palace and meet that charming old monk and perhaps, one can penetrate into the meaning of the utter words "No Merit Whatsoever", then the whole universe can be placed on a single tip of a sword:).
Other than that, these modernized Zen followers and their establishments are following ghost shadow of their own stupidity, LOL.
Bodhiratna
Posted by: Bodhiratna | July 11, 2008 at 12:17 PM