I have tried throughout this book to
draw a distinction between Zen Buddhism - monkish, rather ascetic, and
sometimes strait-laced - and zen
itself, which is unpredictable, unfathomable and ubiquitous.
(Robert
Allen)
Zen & tao
Zen and Zen Buddhism are not the same thing, any more than tao and taoism
are.
You do not need to go on retreat to study zen.
The dangers with monasteries and retreats is that they serve to
formalise something that is inherently informal.
Pageantry
There tends to be a lot of pageantry and ritual practiced in certain
approaches to Buddhism.
This kind of thing has nothing whatsoever to do with zen.
It is important to see that Buddhism and zen are not the same thing.
Zen is pared down to the essentials. No extra baggage and pretentiousness is
required or desired.
You can study zen without being a Buddhist.
If you are interested in zen, there is no reason why you should become a
Buddhist.
Unless, of course, you want to.
Freedom from the known
If you are training tai chi, then zen is very relevant to your study.
The perceptions and insights offered by zen will help you to become one with tai
chi.
Zen is all about shedding preconceptions, losing the ego, as well as discarding
your conditioning and opinions.
If you try and learn tai chi without letting-go of your existing notions, then
you will simply see what you want to see.
You will engage the art from your current standpoint. You will miss the depth of
the system.
Page created 2 December 1998