Zen pearls

Striving to improve ourselves,
we have destroyed ourselves.
Our greatest enemy is any thought that promises to improve ourselves,
Following a promise to improve ourselves
is a sheer disrespect for what we are.
Every thought is a distraction from what we are.
And so are the circumstances and characters we meet and the substances we use.
We are already Buddhas.
That´s why
Zen master says
"If you meet the Buddha on the way, kill him."

-Dosti Regmi

 

2 principles: Chittamatra (it's all about mind... ) and beyond it, there is a Buddhahood, we all have a Buddha nature- Tathagata-garbha.

Living an ordinary life is more beautiful.

You know that you need anything but yourself. Your body to sit on, your lungs to breathe, and your mind to flow in its own, unique way.

Once, a disciple asked a Zen monk. " Please teach me everything about Zen Buddhism."
The master asked," Did you have your meal ?"
The disciple answered, " Yes."
Master replied, " Then wash your dishes."

Unlike Buddhism, Zen has more focus on the personhood and the ordinary.

"In zazen, leave your front door and your back door open. Let thoughts come and go. Don't just serve the tea."- Shunryu Suzuki

"The mind is like a clear mirror, reflecting everything, but not clinging to anything." - Ryokan Taigu.

"Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine." - Suzuki

The river never flows. Bridges flow.

“We cannot expect any ecstasy greater than right here, right now-our everyday lives.” - Ocumura

Purposeless purpose.

Zen is the Buddhism that unloaded its burden of karma and reincarnation. Master Hakka was once asked what happens to a Zen master after he dies. He responded, " Why are you asking me?" Because you are a Zen master. "Yes, but not a dead one", he replied. Zen masters also burned Buddha's idol to keep themselves warm in the cold.

Zen even seems antireligious. " If you meet the Buddha on the way, kill him."

Our thoughts interfere with our understanding and perception.

"To study Buddhism is to study yourself. To study yourself is to forget yourself. To forget yourself is to realize your intimacy with all things." - Hadouken 

Meditation does not lead you to enlightenment, but it makes you enlightenment-prone.

When I look inside and see that I am nothing, that's wisdom. When I look outside and see that I am everything, that's love. Between these two, my life flows. - Nisargadutta Maharaj

Wisdom and compassion: Om mani padme hum.

Zen teaches us to get some comfort in not knowing. If you are comfortable enough in not knowing, then you have the stability to be present with some curiosity and wonder.

Our desire to solve problems to be happy, and seek pleasure to be happy, we are stuck in our conceptual thinking. But when we solve one problem, the next pops up. Excitement is followed by weariness.

Dojen Zenji( 13th century monk, founder of Soto in Japan):

His question was: If we all have Dharma-nature. We are already enlightened. What is the purpose of practice?

Zazen is simply sitting and expecting nothing.

It's a Zen mode, a monk mode in daily life.

Now is the time to zazen.

Practice is enlightenment. They are not separate.

The Buddha meditated for 6 years, and Bodhidharma meditated for 9 years. The practise of meditation is not a method for the attainment of realization. It is enlightenment itself.

Some main principles of Zen philosophy are the denial of the ego, the focus on interconnectedness in the universe, the recognition of attachment as a source of suffering, and the realization that human perception is faulty.

 

Observe silence. Language is a tool that can cause distortions in reality and offset balance.

Focus on the process, not the results. Atiśa said: "the greatest effort is not concerned with results."

  
Do not rush. Do things thoroughly and completely. Have a space between things.

Be minimalist. Show restraint.

"Rather than being your emotions and thoughts, be the awareness behind them." - Eckhart Tolle.

Anatta: 

"To study Zen is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be awakened by all things." - Dogen

The separation between self and others is just an illusion that disappears when we are awakened.

It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not." - Tich Nhat Hanh.

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic philosophy that finds beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness.

mono no aware referring to the bittersweet awareness / melancholic appreciation that all the beautiful things around us are short-lived; perfectly exemplified by the two-week cherry blossom season.

Emptiness:

This principle is called "wu" in Chinese "ku" in Japanese shunyata in Sanskrit. Emptiness does not mean nothing exists, it means nothing exists on its own, as everything exists relative to other things that constantly change. Emptiness is actually the middle state between absence and existence. Zen monks consider emptiness as the awakening stage when people feel boundless unity with the universe, also symbolized with the zen circle showing that inside and outside of the circle are one.

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves." - Nagarjuna.

Attachment is the cause of suffering:

You only lose what you cling to” - Buddha
"Knowledge is learning something every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day." - Zen proverb.

Our Logic is misleading. Appearances are faulty. 

Zen is a form of non-rational experience of the universe. The dualistic perception that separates the perceiver from the perceived or mind from body or subject from object or background from the foreground is wrong.

Gratitude:

"When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you” - Lao Tse

Be non-judgemental:

The zen teaching is a) we are not the center of the universe, so we should not think that the things happening around us happening for us b) things that are happening are just natural phenomena happening for natural reasons and they don’t have negative intentions to harm us. 

"The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence." - Jiddu Krishnamurti

"Wise men don’t judge, they seek to understand." - Wei Wu Wei

"Do not seek to be understood, Understand." - Jesus

Do not seek scholastic enlightenment:

It so happens a monk was with his master and said one day I have lived here for a very long time and you have not given me one instruction. Today you must, then the master says, " well, " then have you eaten your breakfast fast, " and he says yes. Then go wash the bowl. The monk was awakened.

Lankavatara Sutra:

Teachings within the sutra cover a wide range of Mahayana concepts cast within a Yogacara (“mind-only”) and tathagata-garbha (buddha-nature) context.

Diamond Sutra:

Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra). The Buddha said this Sutra may be known as “The Diamond that Cuts through Illusion.”

Thus shall you think of all this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightening in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.

The Platform Sutra:

The text centers on teachings and stories ascribed to the sixth Chan patriarch Huineng.  

‘The body is a bodhi tree, the mind is like a standing mirror, always try to keep it clean, don’t let it gather dust.’

vs

‘Bodhi doesn’t have any trees. This mirror doesn’t have a stand, our buddha nature is forever pure, where do you get this dust?’

Zen Buddhism: History, Philosophy, Masters, and the Practice of Awakening

Zen Buddhism is one of the most striking and paradoxical traditions in the history of spiritual thought. It is simple yet profound, austere yet poetic, and deeply philosophical while often appearing anti-intellectual. Zen speaks in riddles, silence, gestures, and moments of sudden insight. At its heart lies a radical claim: the deepest truth of life cannot be grasped by thinking about it. It must be experienced directly.

Zen is not primarily a system of belief but a way of seeing—a way of encountering reality without the filters of habit, ego, and conceptual thinking. The tradition developed across centuries, beginning in India, flourishing in China, refining itself in Japan, and eventually spreading to the modern world. Understanding Zen requires exploring its historical roots, philosophical ideas, influential masters, and the simple yet demanding practices through which it is lived.

 
The Roots: From the Buddha to the Birth of Zen

The story of Zen begins with the historical Buddha who lived in northern India around the 5th century BCE. After years of searching, the Buddha awakened to the nature of suffering and liberation beneath the Bodhi tree. His teaching centered on the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and the deep insight that all impermanence, non-self, and emptiness of all phenomena.

Meditation was central to the Buddha’s path. Through disciplined attention and insight, practitioners could see reality as it truly is and free themselves from suffering. Zen later presented itself as a tradition that preserved this direct experiential core of the Buddha’s awakening.

A famous Zen legend illustrates this idea of direct transmission. According to tradition, the Buddha once held up a flower before an assembly of monks. No one spoke. Only the disciple  Mahakasyapa smiled. The Buddha then declared that the essence of his teaching had been transmitted beyond words. This story symbolizes what Zen calls “a special transmission outside the scriptures.”


Zen Emerges in China
 
Buddhism entered China during the first centuries of the Common Era, where it encountered a culture shaped by Taoism and Confucian ethics. Chinese thinkers were deeply interested in harmony with nature, spontaneity, and the effortless unfolding of life. When Buddhist meditation traditions met Daoist sensibilities, something new emerged.

This fusion produced Chan Buddhism—the Chinese precursor of Zen. The word “Chan” derives from the Sanskrit dhyāna, meaning meditation.

The founding figure of this new tradition is the enigmatic monk Bodhidharma who arrived in China around the 5th or 6th century. Zen tradition remembers him as a fierce and uncompromising teacher who taught that awakening does not depend on scriptures or rituals but on directly seeing one’s true nature.
 
Bodhidharma described Zen in four famous lines:
 
A special transmission outside the scriptures.
Not dependent on words and letters.
Directly pointing to the human mind.
Seeing one’s nature and becoming Buddha.

Legend says he meditated for nine years facing a wall at the Shaolin Monastery symbolizing the uncompromising intensity of early Zen practice.

 
The Great Turning Point: Huineng

 
Zen history reached a decisive turning point with the appearance of Huineng who lived in the 7th century. Huineng’s story is remarkable. He was an illiterate woodcutter who awakened upon hearing a line from a Buddhist scripture. Later he became recognized as the Sixth Patriarch of Zen.

His teachings are preserved in the Platform Sutra, the only Chinese Buddhist text honored with the title of “sutra.”

A famous episode captures the philosophical revolution he represented. In a poetry contest about enlightenment, a senior monk wrote:

The body is a Bodhi tree,
The mind a mirror bright.
Carefully wipe it moment by moment,
Let no dust alight.

Huineng responded with a verse that overturned this view:

Bodhi originally has no tree.
The mirror also has no stand.
Buddha-nature is always pure and clear.
Where can dust alight?

This shift emphasized sudden enlightenment—the realization that awakening is not something gradually constructed but something directly recognized.

The Formation of Zen Schools

After Huineng, Chan Buddhism diversified into several lineages. Two became historically dominant.


One was the Rinzai tradition, founded by Linji. Rinzai Zen emphasizes dramatic teaching methods and the use of paradoxical questions known as koans. These puzzles are not meant to be solved logically but to exhaust conceptual thinking and provoke a breakthrough experience of insight. he alo emphasized ordinary living:

“When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep.”

The other major lineage was the Caodong school in China, later transmitted to Japan as Soto Zen. This tradition was established by Dongshan Liangjie and later revitalized in Japan by Dogen Zenji. 

While Rinzai often emphasizes sudden awakening experiences, Soto Zen focuses on silent sitting meditation, known as shikantaza—“just sitting.” “Practice and enlightenment are one.” In this practice, there is no attempt to achieve enlightenment because sitting itself is seen as the expression of awakening.

 

Dogen expressed this beautifully:

“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self.
To study the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.”


Zen in Japan and Beyond

Zen entered Japan in the 12th century through figures such as Eisai, who established the Rinzai school. Zen soon influenced Japanese culture profoundly—shaping the tea ceremony, martial arts, poetry, calligraphy, and landscape gardening.

Later masters refined Zen practice further. Hakuin Ekaku revitalized koan practice in the 18th century and emphasized integrating meditation with everyday life.

Another remarkable teacher was Bankei Yotaku, who spoke about the “Unborn Mind.” He insisted that the natural mind is already free if we simply stop interfering with it.
 
In the modern era, Zen spread to the West through teachers such as  Shunryu Suzuki ( with Charlotte Joko Beck cofounded Zen center in San Francisco) and Thich Nhat Hanh. Their teachings helped introduce meditation and mindfulness to a global audience.

 
Suzuki Roshi summarized the spirit of Zen beautifully:

“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind, there are few.”

Charlotte Joko Beck offered a wonderfully practical and down-to-earth approach to Zen, focused less on exotic ideals and more on the raw material of our everyday lives—our emotions, relationships, and annoyances. Here are some of her core teachings, illustrated by her own powerful words.

 Life Itself is the Teacher: Joko Beck taught that enlightenment isn't found in a monastery, but in the thick of life. Every moment—including traffic jams, difficult people, and illness—is our "guru" . True practice is about turning toward discomfort, not escaping it.

Working with Thought and Emotion: She emphasized seeing thoughts as just "energy fragments," not absolute reality . Instead of getting lost in the drama of a feeling like loneliness, she encouraged sitting with the raw physical sensation of it—the contraction in your chest, the trembling jaw—until it dissolves.

The Trap of "If Only": Joko Beck observed that we spend our lives chasing "if onlies" ("If only I had this partner, this job, this enlightenment..."). This is seeking happiness, which always has an opposite.  

Nothing Special: Her most radical teaching is that Zen is "life itself, nothing added". It's not about achieving a special state, but about paying total attention to the ordinary—how you brush your teeth or hold your chopsticks .

 "Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light..." 

"Enlightenment is not something you achieve. It is the absence of something. All your life you have been going forward after something... Enlightenment is dropping all that." 

"Joy is being willing for things to be as they are." 

"Most of our difficulties, our hopes, and our worries are empty fantasies. Nothing has ever existed except this moment." 

The Philosophy of Zen

Despite its reputation for simplicity, Zen contains profound philosophical insights.

One of its central teachings is emptiness, a concept deeply influenced by the philosopher Nagarjuna. Emptiness does not mean nothingness but rather the absence of fixed, independent identity. Everything exists through relationships and conditions.

Another core idea is Buddha-nature, the belief that all beings already possess the potential for awakening.

Zen also emphasizes non-duality. The apparent separation between self and world, subject and object, is seen as a conceptual construction. When this illusion dissolves, reality reveals itself as a seamless whole.

 One of Zen’s most famous teaching methods is the koan. These paradoxical questions or stories are meant to short-circuit logical reasoning and open a deeper mode of awareness.

A classic example:

A monk asked him: “Does a dog have Buddha-nature?”
Joshu replied: “Mu.”

The word Mu does not simply mean “no.” It points beyond yes and no entirely. Practitioners meditate on this question until the ordinary thinking mind collapses and a deeper understanding emerges.


Practicing Zen

 
Zen practice is simple in structure but profound in its implications. The central discipline is zazen, or seated meditation. Practitioners sit upright, often facing a wall, observing the breath and the flow of awareness. Thoughts are not suppressed but allowed to arise and pass naturally.

In Soto Zen, the practice of shikantaza invites practitioners to simply sit without striving for any particular experience. In Rinzai Zen, students may contemplate a koan under the guidance of a teacher.

Zen also emphasizes mindfulness in ordinary life. Walking, cooking, washing dishes, or drinking tea can become forms of meditation when done with complete attention.

The ultimate aim of Zen is not mystical experience but a transformation in how we encounter life. Instead of being trapped in conceptual thinking, we begin to experience reality directly and simply.

Zen often reminds practitioners that awakening is not somewhere else. It is present in the ordinary moments of daily life.

As Dogen Zenji once wrote:

“The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one drop of dew on the grass.”

Zen invites us to rediscover this immediacy—the quiet miracle of existence itself.
 
In the end, Zen does not attempt to explain the world. It invites us to wake up to it.

Zen Buddhism, the self-inquiry teaching of Ramana Maharshi and modern mindfulness practice arise from different traditions, yet they converge remarkably in their direct exploration of consciousness and the nature of the self. All three emphasize experiential realization rather than intellectual belief, encouraging the practitioner to look inward and examine the nature of awareness itself.

In Zen Buddhism, rooted in the teachings of Buddha, the central practice is zazen, or seated meditation. Through quiet sitting and observing the mind, the practitioner gradually recognizes that thoughts, emotions, and sensations arise and pass within awareness. Zen masters often challenge students with questions that cut through conceptual thinking, such as the koan practice popularized by Hakuin. The aim is not philosophical speculation but direct realization of one’s true nature, sometimes described as kensho or seeing one’s original mind.

The path taught by Ramana Maharshi in Advaita Vedanta approaches the same insight through a different method known as self-inquiry (ātma-vichāra). Instead of simply observing thoughts, the practitioner repeatedly asks “Who am I?” and turns attention toward the sense of “I” itself. Ramana suggested that if one traces the origin of the “I-thought,” it dissolves into pure awareness. His famous instruction is: “Investigate who is the one who has these thoughts.” This method closely parallels Zen’s inquiry into the “original face before you were born,” a famous Zen question used to point toward the same fundamental awareness beyond personal identity.

Modern mindfulness practice, especially as derived from the Satipaṭṭhāna tradition of early Buddhism and later adapted in programs such as MBSR, focuses on non-judgmental awareness of present-moment experience. Practitioners observe breathing, body sensations, thoughts, and emotions without attachment. Over time, this reveals a crucial insight: thoughts are events in consciousness, not the self. This experiential realization echoes both Zen’s teaching of no-self (anatta) and Ramana’s investigation into the illusory nature of the ego.

Despite their different language, these traditions share several profound correlations:

1. Direct Experience Over Belief

All three emphasize personal realization rather than dogma. Zen teachers often say awakening cannot be transmitted through scriptures. Similarly, Ramana Maharshi discouraged intellectual speculation and directed students toward immediate self-observation.

2. Examination of the Self

Zen koans like “What was your face before you were born?” and Ramana’s inquiry “Who am I?” both dismantle the assumption of a fixed ego. Mindfulness practice achieves a similar insight by repeatedly observing that the self is a changing process rather than a permanent entity.

3. Awareness as the Ground

In Zen, this is sometimes called Buddha-nature. In Advaita, it is pure consciousness (Atman/Brahman). In mindfulness traditions, it appears as bare awareness or witnessing consciousness. Though described differently, each points toward a fundamental awareness underlying experience.

4. Simplicity of Practice

All three traditions rely on deceptively simple practices:

• Zen: sit quietly and observe the mind.

• Ramana: trace the sense of “I” to its source.

• Mindfulness: observe breath, body, and thoughts.

 5. Integration into Daily Life

True practice extends beyond formal meditation. Zen masters emphasize mindful action in everyday tasks. Ramana Maharshi advised maintaining self-awareness even while working or speaking. Mindfulness similarly encourages awareness in ordinary activities such as walking, eating, or listening.

 Ramana Maharshi said: “When the ‘I’ disappears, the Self alone remains.”

In essence, Zen meditation dissolves the self through silent observation, self-inquiry dissolves it through investigation, and mindfulness dissolves it through clear awareness of mental processes. Each method gradually reveals a common insight: the separate ego is a construct of thought, while awareness itself is spacious, silent, and fundamentally free.

For someone integrating these approaches, a practical synthesis might look like this: begin with mindfulness of breath to stabilize attention, deepen into Zen-style silent sitting, and occasionally turn awareness toward the question “Who is aware?” in the spirit of Ramana’s self-inquiry. Over time, the boundary between observer and experience softens, revealing the same insight that all three traditions ultimately point toward.

Personally, I think in Buddhism and Self inquiry of Ramana Maharshi is all about getting rid of the scriptures of Buddhism and Hinduism respectively, and knowing truth through direct investigation and immediacy. Mindfulness is the combination. It starts with the Satipathana Sutta engaged in daily life, zazen-style sitting meditation, ultimately arriving at the bare awareness of Self as described by Ramana Maharshi.