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This, in brief, was the historical background out of which Zen emerged.

Promoters of Zen to the West record its ancestry, and recognize that Zen grew out of a combination of Taoism and Indian Mahayana Buddhism.

But the `` marvelous person '' that is supposed to result from Zen exhibits more Chinese practicality than Indian speculation -- he possesses magical powers, and can use them to order nature and to redeem souls.

Proponents of Zen to the West emphasize disproportionately the amount of Mahayana Buddhism in Zen, probably in order to dignify the indisputably magical Taoist ideas with more respectable Buddhist metaphysic.

But in the Chinese mind, there was little difference between the two -- the bonzes were no more metaphysical than a magician has to be.