Zen

School·Founded 520 CE·several million worldwide

Vedic Religion → Buddhism → Mahāyāna → Zen → 3 branches

Branch

Core Tenets

5 — a sample of the center, never the sum Part of Belief →
The shared center — held across the tradition
Awakening is sudden, not gradual. Satori breaks in all at once; practice prepares the ground but cannot manufacture it. Go deeper — context & 1 source →
The teaching passes mind to mind, outside the scriptures. Lineage over literature: realization is transmitted teacher to student, face to face. Go deeper — context & 1 source →
Sitting is itself enlightenment, not a means to it. Zazen is not a technique aimed at a result; the sitting itself is the realized state. Go deeper — context & 1 source →
Ordinary mind is the way. No special state to attain — walking, eating, chopping wood are the way itself. Go deeper — context & 1 source →
Words point at the moon. Do not mistake the finger for it. Doctrine — including this list — is a pointer. Useful, and not the thing. Go deeper — context & 1 source →
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