Sōtō and Rinzai Zen Practice
January 19, 2022 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197573686.003.0022 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Key points | The chapter argues that Sōtō and Rinzai meditation methods, though rooted in a twelfth-century dispute between Dahui's kōan practice and Caodong "silent illumination," are distinct yet compatible. It presents Dōgen's "just sitting" and "non-thinking" as awakening to nondual awareness, and Hakuin's kōan practice as a means to trigger and test kenshō, or "seeing into one's true nature." |
Abstract
Abstract This chapter explains the differences between the meditation methods of the Sōtō and Rinzai schools of Zen. It begins by tracing the methodological disputes between these two schools back to the twelfth century, when the Linji (Japanese: Rinzai) master Dahui, who advocated the use of kōans, criticized the “silent illumination” taught by Caodong (Japanese: Sōtō) masters such as Hongzhi. The chapter presents these methods as distinct yet compatible. It explains Dōgen’s Sōtō Zen practice of “just sitting” and “non-thinking” as a matter of awakening to an open field of nondual awareness. The latter sections of the chapter discuss the Rinzai Zen practice taught by Hakuin of working with kōans, the enigmatic stories, dialogues, sayings, or questions assigned as topics of meditation and used to trigger and test a student’s awakening experience of kenshō or “seeing into one’s true nature.”
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |