An attempt to explain women should be freed from demands and expectations, because every attempt to write about a woman is limited by rational discourse. To truly learn something about a woman and have a direct benefit from it in our life, we must empty our minds and be open to the new, as in the famous Zen story, where we must empty our cup in order to fill it with new content. Learning is an important process connected with acquiring experience, changing character and views of the world, but it is only possible if we are aware of our ignorance. We must never forget Socrates! All attempts to rationally determine the meaning of women have not resulted in a final definition, while teachers of women have described a woman as ‘a finger pointing at the Moon’, as ‘something round, rolling, slippery and smooth’… This is because Zen is not transmitted through words, but directly from teacher to student, and personal experience is key. The teacher can only show the way, and the rest depends on the student’s personal experience. If that experience is not… From the perspective of the student himself, external knowledge has no real value. The teacher is powerless if the student is not ready from within. That is why Zen does not waste time trying to prove anything; it only suggests or points out, not because it wants to be vague, but because it is truly the only thing that can be done. We can only discover the truth if we start to seriously explore, stop imitating, and never give up on seeking answers to fundamental life questions and challenges
We can only discover the truth if we start to seriously explore, stop imitating, and never give up on seeking answers to fundamental life questions and challenges.
A great Japanese Zen teacher, Hakuin (1685 – 1768), had a student come to him and ask for instruction; he pushed him to the ground, plunging his head into the water, and when the student almost drowned, he pulled him out and said: “When Zen becomes as important to you as air is for breathing right now, then come to me again.” Even when he literally throws his student to the ground, his good intention is unquestionable. He is simply waiting for the moment when his student’s mind matures and awakens.
A great Zen connoisseur, the Japanese D.T. Suzuki, who popularized Zen, In the West, it is said: Zen is a life without hesitation. Many years, deep dedication, and humility are required to adopt Zen, but at the same time, a single moment of intuition is enough to understand it, and then the disciple uncovers satori – a deep insight described by those who have experienced it as if the bottom of the barrel had fallen out…
This state, “the bottom of the barrel has fallen out,” would mean that we have transcended old, limiting patterns of thinking and that our old mental preconceptions have collapsed. D.T. Suzuki says: Without achieving satori, no one can penetrate the secret of Zen. Satori is an intuitive insight into the essence of things as opposed to their rational understanding. Practically, it means opening up a new world that we did not perceive until the moment of satori. The world for those who have attained satori is no longer the same as it once was. It is a turning point in a person’s life that opens the mind to a broader and deeper world. Its effects on a person’s moral and spiritual life are revolutionary: uplifting and purifying.
History Woman
Zen Buddhism traces its origins back to the pre-historical founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni (Buddha), and his doctrine of the heart (buddhahridaya). During one sermon, when Buddha showed a flower to the audience and asked them about the essence of the flower, his disciple Kasyapa, who rejected rational or metaphysical speculations, bowed to the “mystery that transcends him” and thus became the first patriarch of Zen.
Buddha’s teachings were brought from India to China in 520 BCE by Bodhidharma, the twenty-eighth patriarch of Buddhism and the first patriarch of Zen in China, and it was given the name “chan,” according to the Indian concept of dhyana, which means meditation.
From the famous Shaolin Monastery, known today for martial arts, founded by Bodhidharma himself, Zen spread throughout China over several centuries, intertwining with Taoism and Confucianism. During the Chinese Tang and Song dynasties (7th – 12th centuries), Zen underwent significant changes, evolving from an Indian, meditative practice to a more practical and worldly-oriented approach. With an inherent simplicity and depth colored by a certain attitude towards human beings and the world.
The height of Zen in China comes with its sixth and final patriarch, Hui Neng (638-713), who went from being a simple kitchen assistant to the successor of the fifth patriarch. He responded to the poem by monk Shen Hsiao with verses in which the fifth patriarch recognizes his deeper understanding of Zen:
Shen Hsiao:
This body is the bodhi tree
And the soul is like a shining mirror
We diligently clean them hour by hour
So that no dust may fall upon them.
Hui Neng:
There is neither the bodhi tree
Nor the shining mirror
Where could dust alight
Since there is nothing from the very beginning?
The seed of Zen planted in India grew into a vast tree in China and blossomed in Japan in the 14th century in all spheres of life. The final seal was given to Japanese Zen by Shintoism with its ideals of simplicity and purity.
Principles and Doctrine
In contrast to many other Buddhist schools, Zen does not rely on sacred texts and metaphysical debates. awaits. In that sense, Zen is anti-philosophical and anti-theoretical. This importance of not relying on written words is often misinterpreted as Zen’s aversion to sacred scriptures. Zen is rooted in the teachings of Buddha and Mahayana Buddhism and is deeply inspired by the life of Siddhartha Gautama – a prince who, in his internal unrest, abandons wealth and becomes an ascetic, but later gives up on that as well, yet never gives up on the search for answers, even at the cost of his own life. The Buddha’s four noble truths: the truth of suffering, its cause, the possibility of ending suffering, and the noble eightfold path leading to it, are fundamental to the life of Zen practitioners.
What Zen emphasizes is that the Buddha attained enlightenment through meditation (zazen) and contemplation, not through what he read, and that, like the Buddha, through meditation one can awaken their own Buddha nature and perceive the true nature of reality. Zen practice involves sitting in meditation, as well as incorporating mindfulness and awareness into everyday activities, to cultivate a deep understanding of the present moment and ultimately awaken to one’s innate wisdom and compassion. Enlightenment can be achieved through mindful and conscious attention. Zen equally emphasizes the importance of non-attachment, both to sacred texts and meditation. This is well illustrated by a Chinese Zen teacher who describes meditation as a literal path to wisdom, saying: Sitting on one’s behind and breathing is not the path to enlightenment. Another teacher said it is akin to trying to make a mirror out of a brick through prolonged ironing.
Zen is also not anti-intellectual or contrary to reason, as it is often portrayed, but rather aware of its limitations and places it in its natural place and function. Through questions and answers on koans, the student is compelled to delve deep into themselves and employ their intuition to satisfactorily respond to the teacher. Hui Neng remarks during a debate among monks about whether it is the flag or the wind that is moving, noting that neither the wind nor the flag are moving, but rather it is their minds that move.
The word koan is used in Zen to mean “impassable passage,” something that can only be overcome through will, hope, and deep introspection. By transcending the current state of consciousness through an intuitive breakthrough of perception, i.e., enlightenment to a new level of experience. The student can only pass through the insurmountable passage by awakening their intuition. Intellect is unnecessary here, as in the story of a blind man who walks the familiar path at night with a lamp, but does not notice that it has gone out until someone bumps into him in the dark. Through the answers to koans, teachers systematically monitor the progress in the spiritual awakening of their students. All the koans posed by Zen teachers are only illogical variations of the most rational and important questions of all: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?
We will mention some well-known Zen stories that well characterize the Zen mentality.
Once, Buddha asked his disciples to stand barefoot on the ground and describe what they feel. The disciples described the earth, sand, leaves…
“What?”, Buddha exclaimed, “Hasn’t anyone felt their own foot?”
The famous Zen master Entzu went to visit his friend in Kyoto, but being absent-minded, he forgot the address. However, he wandered around the city, smelling the flowers and enjoying the breeze, until he stumbled upon his friend’s house by chance. He did not give up, but went from door to door asking: “Does the man whom Entzu needs to visit live here?”
The apprenticeship of swordsman Mata-yuroa Yagyu with a Zen master unfolded for him completely unexpectedly. For years, he had been doing ordinary servant jobs and had never even seen a sword when one day his teacher unexpectedly hit him with a stick on the back. This painful experience and its unpredictability made him extremely alert and attentive. Everything else was just technique that he easily mastered, and soon he became the shogun’s teacher.
Alertness in everyday life is precisely the essence of Zen; it is by no means a technique, dogma, or template, as technique is opposed to nature and a sign of weakening human vitality. Zen implies an active life integrated into human society and connected to nature, where the fundamental concern is what is common and beneficial to all.
A well-known Zen teacher was once asked:
– Do you ever make any effort to learn the truth?
– Yes, I do.
– How do you practice?
– When I… I eat when I’m hungry, I sleep when I’m tired.
– That’s how everyone does it. Can we say they also practice in the same way?
– No.
– Why not?
– Because when they eat, they don’t really eat, but instead think about various other things. It disturbs them. When they sleep, they don’t really sleep, but dream about a thousand and one things. That’s why they’re not like me.
Joshu responds: I eat when I’m hungry, I sleep when I’m tired… because he does it completely authentically, he lives in the present in his entirety humanity. In this way, life becomes like a ceremony for him, and he always has a prepared heart to meet with the great truths of existence.
Satori, as the highest expression of Zen, opens the heart and mind to a broader and deeper insight, and various Zen arts are just different expressions of that experience. In haiku poetry, it is the removal of everything unnecessary. In sumi-e painting, it is the mere suggestion of characters, humans integrated into the landscape and nature. In tea ceremonies, the fundamental aspiration is detachment from worldliness. In calligraphy, everything is captured in a single stroke, capturing a moment of eternity, there is no repetition. Whispering. In landscape design, minimalism expresses the essential, there are no waterfalls because water naturally flows downwards, not upwards. The relationship with nature is natural and infused with respect for life as a unity in everything. No-drama indicates the need for humans to symbolically elevate themselves to higher dimensions, higher states of consciousness in order to be involved in a deeper level of life. Zen is so present at the root of Japanese culture as an extract and preserver of its vitality and authenticity.
Our materialistic-positivist view of the world has turned us into frightened observers and actors of life, and thus lobotomized us from the spirit of true adventure that is connected to a deeper experience of reality and the desire for self-knowledge, which is fundamental in Zen. By devoting ourselves to the world of facts and events, to terms of measurement rather than caring about the content being measured, Westerners separate themselves from direct contact with nature and reality, and are drawn into a network of relativism, completely weak and unable to escape the trap of spiritual materialism. The dragon that turned him into a well-nourished slave without roots and without meaning in a world dominated by hedonism and vulgar materialism as a surrogate for freedom. That’s why it is crucial for a woman to understand the concept of freedom; it primarily means self-control, inner freedom, unrestricted authenticity, and integration into the nature and entirety of life and death.