Hmmm
Grand Ultimate Pole - Fist.
Re: Zen/Chan/Wuji
Originally posted by YiLiJingLei
Hi, Nexus,
For the sake of literal translation, please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t “Zen” Japanese for “meditation”, and “Chan” Mandarin for “meditation”? ‘Meditation’ meaning quiet contemplation? Just trying to cut to the “nuts & bolts” direct meaning. In Sanskrit it is dhyana, right? The idea is to realize truth, essential, simple truth, to grasp what seems intangible, isn’t it?
So, Zen, or Chan, (meditation) is kind of, the conscious act of letting go of thinking of this or that (polarity) to just “be”; isn’t that what Wuji is? Being without extremity? So, Zen/Chan is a method, or Road (“Tao”) to percieve or realize Wuji/non-extremity/void?
Or something like that. Maybe I’m just clapping myself with one hand…hmm, what does that sound like…;)…heehee
YiLiJingLei,
You have the concept well understood. Zen means meditation in some translations, although it does not mean the “formal” meditation most people think of.
As I said, it means Direct Seeing of reality or seeing the simple truth as you called it. We can say for instance that as the “here and now” is all that exists, Zen would be meditating on the here and now.
Fu-Pow,
I would agree that your questions are definetely pointing at something you are looking towards understanding. I have seen countless questions asked by you on this forum that show a honest display of what is called “Beginners Mind” or open-mindedness. This is the mind that one should keep as a treasure, as it will allow for you to learn without hindrance because you are open to all possibilities and do not limit yourself by egotistical tendencies. In the t’ai chi classes I have taught and participated in, often peoples thoughts of “what a good question would be” keep them from asking questions they want answered. They worry over what others will think or are afraid of what answers will be given if they ask. There is a great quote that says, “Judge a man by his questions and not by his answers.”
You will find what you are looking for, all you must do is look. As it has been said, when you see the finger pointing at the moon, do not confuse the finger for the moon.
Take care.
Not at the moon, just in it’s general direction.
And what direction is that?
Up.
Don’t forget to look where you are walking.
SSgungfu
How can you say that Chan is Taoism and Zen mixed up when Chan came before Zen? Chan Buddhism was Chinese whereas the when it traversed over to Japan it became named Zen. I think you ought to read up on all three because your comments were a touch generalised. Taoism has a distinctive character as does Zen. It would be easy to tell two practitioners of each apart.
I thought that Ch’an (Zen) buddhism was a mix of Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism as well as Confucianism. It was eventually transported to Japan. What is interesting to me about Taiji is that the Buddhist influence seems to be left out of the history. Why is this? Is it because Buddhism is considered “foreign” in the Culture?
The point you make about “foreign to the culture” is not without merit. There are well reasoned writings that advance that same notion as the main differnce between labeling a martial art as internal (i.e. derived from chinese teachings, as in taoism) and “external” (Derived from outside sources, think shaolin buddhist influenced).
Walter
p.s. I’ll find the link if you like, but last time I did that I was accused of being superficial. lol
Walter-
I’ve heard the internal/external, taoist/buddhist connection before. I’d never given it much merit, but the more I read about Zen (buddhist) meditation I can’t help but see the connections between Taiji and Buddhism.
buddhist taiji?
hi all…
Im pretty sure taiji is practiced by a great many buddhists, but it would strike me that philosophically it is a goal of buddhism to ‘transcend’ the dualistic or binary nature of reality and a goal of the taoist to understand and work with that nature, so to speak. Even in Wuji, 0, there exhists the yin/-1 and the yang/+1. As taiji embodies these basic taoist notions in the opening and closing movements of the body, as well as in fighting strategy, I would think that Taiji would remain ‘of a foreign culture’ to most buddhists…Except maybe for those who may have been influenced by the range of chinese philosophies such as in Zen Buddhism…where this all started.
Anyone know of any books or sources for information comparing/contrasting the spread of Martial Arts with the spread of religious/ideological/philosophical systems of thought and belief? That’d be pretty interesting methinks…
Whether in stillness or in motion it is still motion.
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