Zen Buddhism

Firstly, I wish to declare that I’m not a practising Buddhist, nor is it ever the intention of the unscripted self to proselytise or attempt to convert. However, there is much in Buddhist philosophy that is very beautiful, rich and is geared towards awakening (the word Buddha means the ‘awakened one’.) So indulge me!

Background to Zen Buddhism

Theravada Buddhism believed only Buddhist monks could achieve enlightenment. It emphasised strict ascetic practices to attain this, including vipassana (insight) meditation. Mahayana Buddhism, known as the great vehicle, placed more emphasis on compassion than wisdom. Here supposedly the idea of the Bodhisattva arose (this is where an enlightened soul refuses to enter Nirvana until all souls are enlightened, choosing instead to return to earth to teach others; the bodhisattva is widely considered today to be a metaphor.)

Zen Buddhism, however, went even further declaring enlightenment was for everyone, not only monks, and that Buddhism was an experiential, not a theoretical way of living.

Zen Buddhism asserts that there is nothing to learn or nothing to do, that we all know the truth already. Enlightenment is the natural (and only) state for everyone. They urge you not to seek, but to awaken to this reality in you. The uss has a lot of time for Zen! They introduced zazen, sitting meditation, and kinhin, walking meditation. Two prominent schools of Zen were, Soto, which declared that one awakens gradually, and Rinzai, which says awakening comes instantaneously.

Zen and the paradox of all things

Zen Buddhism is an excellent tool for looking at paradoxes. And it is about a particular paradox I want to talk about today. The paradox that we create our own reality.

Our senses tell us the world is outside of us, somewhere ‘out there’, that we were born into this thing we call ‘life’, and things just ‘happen’ to us, if we’re lucky good things will happen, if we’re unlucky bad things. Of course, anyone with any level of awakening, and that certainly includes you, will recognize this to be a false premise. In truth we create our own reality, and we do so based on deep needs and desires, largely unconscious.

To me this idea of creating our own reality is central to all discourse on awakening. You can only assume responsibility for your life by accepting you created it. There is really no way around this. Recently, on this subject, I got to thinking about illness. Why do we create so much sickness, terminal illnesses, trouble for ourselves? And following from that I realized how easy it is to fall into the trap of blame and guilt. If I created this disease then it must be my fault, therefore I need to be punished. Perhaps the disease itself is the punishment. I start thinking maybe it’s something in my past lives, or something to do with all these negative thoughts I’ve been having, (in fact a lot of new age theory has people genuinely concerned about their negative thoughts. In other words, they’re generating negative thoughts about the negative thoughts!)

No Blame! Only Gain!

Now it’s really important to get blame out of the picture. There are many reasons why people manifest illness. Some take on the karma of those they love, others genuinely believe suffering is a path to salvation. It can also be an ancestral things. Bert Hellinger speaks of how we take on the wounds of our ancestors. Jesus said people reincarnate with illnesses to demonstrate the glory of God. Hardly a good reason for pointing the finger.

And remember, just because all sickness originates in the mind does not create a pretext for cutting back on medical services. Certain political ideologies would love to manipulate this philosophy to their own short-sighted ends.


The Zen part opens the paradox of how beings with infinite power of creation end up manifesting results that don’t benefit, even harm them; sickness, poverty, loss, and a host of others.

The Buddhism part provides the answer. Compassion.

This was the Buddha’s response to illness. That we have compassion for all people and all beings, because while they suffer they have not found enlightenment, not yet. But they will. All creatures are destined to do so.

How to live in compassion

The way to exercise this compassion is to experience it in our hearts, without becoming attached to the actual suffering. If we become attached we end up ‘in’ suffering ourselves, which is not the purpose of compassion, and is no good to the person who needs our help. If your friend breaks her leg you can’t help her by breaking yours too. You only add to the total amount of suffering. On a physical level of course nobody would do that, but we do it at a psychological level all the time. We support people in being victims, we align with their feelings of unfairness, we become entangled in their pain.

Every illness answers a need that the person has, either on a physical or a soul level. By judging another’s illness we are added to it. We are creating more of that illness. Instead let us view their suffering as the vehicle they’ve chosen to bring them to a greater reality. Maybe they could have made a more intelligent choice and achieved the same end. That’s not for us to decide. They did what they did for a reason only they know at a very high level. Respect that choice. That’s compassion too.

Zen Buddhism and A Course in Miracles

No illness is ever wrong. But all illness is a mistake. A Course in Miracles, which is very similar to Zen Buddhism, speaks of this too, and says that everything that happens to us happens because we called for it. At some level we request, or manifest, all the things that happen in our life, including illness. If we can find the need that created the illness, and then find another way to meet this need, we can in theory eliminate all suffering.

Work with compassion begins at home. That means having compassion for ourselves. Be tolerant of your feelings of anger, envy, resentment. Realize you’re not a bad person because you have these feelings, but neither are they really you. Too often we deny we have certain feelings, especially around a close relative. We declare, ‘I know I love my parents so that rage I’ve just felt must be nothing’. When we deny feelings to ourselves we put them (including all the hurt and anger) into our bodies. When we vent them we try to foist them onto others.

If we do not feel compassion for our own perceived weaknesses we will be less equipped to feel it for others. Often we secretly dislike ourselves for our illnesses. We betray this in our language, ‘my back’s playing up again’ as if it’s out to get you, punish you somehow. When you speak like that there is someone trying to punish you – you! We need to have compassion for how we talk to ourselves, for the thoughts we have that aren’t always what we imagine an enlightened person’s are supposed to be.

If you have any illness acknowledge that you created it, know that a higher part of you can let it go. Accept it, without becoming attached to the fact of its being there. Learn to like yourself without liking your illness. If you had a cold you’d know it would pass and you wouldn’t make too much of it. Treat all sicknesses thus.

Seeing through the eyes of Zen Buddhism

Zen Buddhism is a good way of looking at this. When Buddhism is filtered through the western mind often confusion comes out the other end. It mistakes Nirvana for nihilism, and the mind for the brain. Zen Buddhism teaches the mind is not the brain. The brain is a collection of neurons and wires that controls the movement of the body, that’s all. The mind is something far greater. Indeed Buddhists tend to locate the mind in the heart, and view it as a sixth sense. In Zen Buddhism the mind is a way of understanding, of knowing at a deeper level. Not the kind of knowing that tells you two plus two makes four (that’s the brain) but the knowing of the self, its purpose, and the connection of all things. It could be said to be wisdom rather than knowing. It speaks to the part of you that knows there is no ‘out there’ even though your eyes patently tell you there is, and it sheds light on the deeper truths that argument and logic claim to defeat. It speaks of the paradox of how life is contained in death.

Zen Buddhism often conveys these paradoxes in the form of koans. A koan is a question or statement that defies a ready answer. Examples are, ‘what is the sound of one hand clapping?’, or ‘when a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound?’ It is you who bring the answer, as it is you who supply the question. Often we see intelligence in a very narrow, left brain orientation. Intelligence can seem to be about understanding something, and then applying what you know to some area of your life. But this is instruction, not intelligence. To the Zen master intelligence is something very different. It is rooted in intuition. He looks into his heart to find the knowledge required in any given situation. There he knows is the seat of all wisdom. But it can only be accessed by compassion.

The following two pieces I wrote throw more light on this subject. One deals with the idea of the four noble truths, the cornerstone of general Buddhist and Zen Buddhist thinking. The other discusses the nature of reality, as taught by the Buddha. They can be read in any order.

I hope you find them helpful

The Four Noble Truths


Rupa, Karma and Dharma


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