* Bodhidharma ( c. 440 – 528 CE ), founder of the Zen school of Buddhism

By the time of the Tang Dynasty five-hundred years after Buddhisms arrival into China, it had transformed into a thoroughly Chinese religious philosophy dominated by the school of Zen Buddhism.

The religion has been likened to Zen, based on similarities with absurdist interpretations of the Rinzai school, as well as Taoist philosophy.

A graduate of Bao Quoc Buddhist Academy in Central Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh received training in Zen and the Mahayana school of Buddhism and was ordained as a monk in 1949.

* 1253 – September 22 – Dōgen Zenji, founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism in Japan and author of the Shōbōgenzō and other important works ( b. 1200 )

* January 19 – Dogen, Japanese founder of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism

一行 ), was a member of the Zen school.

In such a way, in Chinese Buddhism there was no major distinction between exoteric and esoteric practices, and the northern school of Zen Buddhism even became known for its esoteric practices of dhāraṇīs and mantras.

Liang is credited with inventing the Zen school of Chinese art.

He founded the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan after travelling to China and training under Rujing, a master of the Chinese Caodong lineage.

The concept of oneness of practice-enlightenment is considered so fundamental to Dōgen's variety of Zen — and, consequently, to the Sōtō school as a whole — that it formed the basis for the work Shushō-gi ( 修證儀 ), which was compiled in 1890 by Takiya Takushū ( 滝谷卓洲 ) of Eihei-ji and Azegami Baisen ( 畔上楳仙 ) of Sōji-ji as an introductory and prescriptive abstract of Dōgen's massive work, the Shōbōgenzō (" Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma ").

In Buddhist societies, a religious order is one of the number of monastic orders of monks and nuns, many of which follow under a different school of teaching, such as Zen.

Lu Yu's life had been heavily influenced by Buddhism, particularly the Zen – Chán school.

This ceremony, more Chinese in style, was introduced to Japan in the 17th century by Ingen, the founder of the Ōbaku school of Zen Buddhism, which is in general more Chinese in style than earlier schools.

The Japanese Zen sect known as the Rinzai school is a branch of the lineage Linji founded.

The smaller Japanese Obaku school came to Japan in the 17th century as a separate Linji lineage and existed in Japan for many years as a culturally Ming Dynasty Chinese Zen within Japan.

In his book Three Pillars of Zen, Philip Kapleau says that practitioners in the Rinzai school face in, towards each other with their backs to the wall, and in the Soto school, practitioners face the wall or a curtain.

It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of.

Statistics published by the Sōtō school state that 80 percent of Sōtō laymen visit their temple only for reasons having to do with funerals and death, while only 17 percent visit for spiritual reasons and a mere 3 percent visit a Zen priest at a time of personal trouble or crisis.

In the Soto school of Zen, Shikantaza, meditation with no objects, anchors, or content, is the primary form of practice.

Some teachers of Zen would say that the reason why it was called " farmer Zen " was because of its down-to-earth approach, while the Rinzai school was often called " samurai Zen " because of the larger samurai following.

Zen is influenced in large part by the Yogacara school of philosophy as well as the Huayan school.

In addition, they have been converted to Zen Buddhism, with its glorification of all that is `` natural '' and mysteriously alive, the sense that everything in the world is flowing.

And Zen Buddhism, though it is extremely difficult to understand how these internal contradictions are reconciled, helps them in their struggle to achieve personal salvation through sexual release.

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.

This is well evidenced by the Quietist doctrines carried over in Zen: the idea of the inward turning of thought, the enjoinder to put aside desires and perturbations so that a return to purity, peace, and stillness -- a union with the Infinite, with the Tao -- could be effected.

It is important for an understanding of Zen to realize that the esoteric preoccupations of the select few cannot be the doctrine of the common man.

To the Zen monk the universe is still populated with `` spiritual beings '' who have to be appeased.

Modern Zen presentation to the West insists on the anti-authoritarian, highly pragmatic nature of the Zen belief -- scriptures are burned to make fire, action is based on direct self-confidence, and so on.

In the Zen tradition, Ananda is considered to be the second Indian patriarch.

All Japanese Kamakura sects of Buddhism ( Zen, Nichiren, Jodo ) have relaxed Mahayana vinaya, and as a consequence, vegetarianism is rare.

In traditions such as classical Hinduism, Zen Buddhism or Islamic Sufism, a key to enlightenment is " transcending " this sort of dualistic thinking, without merely substituting dualism with monism or pluralism.

A ; ; ; ) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement, which is used in Zen-practice to provoke the " great doubt ", and test a student's progress in Zen practice.

In Soto Zen teaching, it is said that " All is One and All is Different.

All discussion of this teaching by Soto Zen masters falls under the Buddhist concept of skill in means, which is to say, not literally correct, but suitable for leading others to the Truth.

Shih-t ' ou Hsi-ch ' ien's poem " The Harmony of Difference and Sameness " Sandokai is an important early expression of Zen Buddhism and is chanted in Sōtō temples to this day.

This education is possibly the basis for Yoshikawa Eiji's fictional education of Musashi by the historical Zen monk Takuan.

The core philosophy of the language is summarized by the document " PEP 20 ( The Zen of Python )".

Robert Maynard Pirsig ( born September 6, 1928 ) is an American writer and philosopher, and author of the philosophical novels Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values ( 1974 ) and Lila: An Inquiry into Morals ( 1991 ).

* Photographs from Pirsig's 1968 trip upon which Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is based

Here is the account from Irmgard Schloegl's " The Zen Teaching of Rinzai ".