The prehistory of zen

Squelette d'un homme en position de zazen, découvert dans les fouilles de Lepenski Vir,
en Yougoslavie, datation : 6000 ans avant J-C.

The prehistory of zen

Zazen in prehistory. Master Deshimaru was teaching, "zen is zazen". That is to say that, etymologically "the absorption"; the concentration absorption (Jhana, in pali) is linked to the posture in which Buddha is generally represented.

History recalls that it is in this posture that Buddha reached awakening some 2600 years ago. Posture, existence and vacuity (Ku) are linked together. However this posture of ecstasy ("ekstasis", position outside one's self, distant from the self, beyond the self, "ek" outside, beyond and "stasis" stillness, substance), comes back to much more ancient times than the one of the historical Buddha.

From the moment where we know well the zazen posture, according to the precise teaching of Master Deshimaru, it is possible to find back its evident traces in other ancient cultures and moreover in the protohistorical statues. Master Deshimaru himself had brought the attention of his students on some characters sculpted in the 11th century A.C., in the Fermanagh County, in Ireland, of which the position of the head, the chin pulled back, and the position of the hands evoked evidently zazen although the legs were not represented. However, these statues allowed supposing that other characters in a full posture could be rediscovered in Europe. So, a character used as a handle of a bucket, "the bucket of Oseberg", in Norway, from the first century A.C., shows the same position of the head and moreover he has the legs perfectly crossed like in zazen and wears on his chest a kind of "rakusu".

However, the archeologist E. Esperandieu who started first, from 1907 to 1947, a systematic research on the Gallic statues gave us the most important information. E. Esperandieu puts in evidence the great number of statues of "gods sitting in the Buddhist posture", following his expression, in the entire France, from the North to the South and from East to West, with a concentration of those in the Central massif.

According to the specialists of his team, these statues come back at least from the 5th century B.C. (that is to say that they are at least contemporary with the historical Buddha or even older). Some of them are more recent. Their production stops however with the supremacy of Christianity in Europe. Most of the ones that have been found have been intentionally mutilated. The majority of these have been destroyed. Effectively, "the destruction of the stone idols" has been proclaimed, let us recall, from the first Christian Councils. When in 496 Clovis, king of the Franks, first king of our history, got baptized as a Christian, in Reims, "with three thousands of his warriors", the bishop of Saint Remi told him these famous words, recalled by Gregoire de Tours and Michelet: "Bend down, proud Sicambre, burn what you have adored, and adore what you have burned". "Adore what you have burned" is however related to the god Cernunos, the "god of the prosperity and abundance", generally represented, as the archeologists tell us, sitting cross-legged in the Buddha posture. Cernunos, as Cesar recalls in his "Comments about the Gaullist war" (1st century B.C.) "was the most revered god of the Gauls" (VI, 17).

At the entrance of the cathedral in Reims, sculpted on the pediment of the main door, one can see a character cross-legged bent down by the weight of a Christian who crushes his back. In the basement of Notre-Dame in Paris, one discovered a large stone on which the name "Cernunos" was engraved. It is kept in the museum of Cluny. The reason is, like most of the churches in France, that Notre-Dame has been built on the area of a Gallic temple. On a Gallic coin of the Remes, Gallic population of Belgium (coin of the Catalauni), discovered in the proximity of Reims and coming from the 2nd or 5th century A.C., one can see a woman sitting in zazen posture holding a necklace in one hand and a tress in the other (Museum of the coins). Her posture strangely recalls the character of the bucket of Gundestrup, in Denmark, from the 1st century who holds also a necklace in one hand and a snake in the other. In France we can see in the museum in Saint Germain en Laye the beautiful posture of the "sitting god" (so called), discovered in Bouray near La Ferte-Alais. One find also the small statue in brass so called from Autun, coming from Curgy (Saone et Loire), representing a character so-called in "Buddhist posture" embraced by two snakes with a ram head.

 

In the museum Borrely in Marseille one can see characters, however mutilated, which recalls perfectly the zazen posture, although both legs are not tully crossed. They are coming from the excavations of La Roquepertuse and are dated from the 5th century A.C. But the statue of a naked woman, discovered in Etaules, Quarre les Tombes (Yonne), from the 5th century B.C., has the legs perfectly crossed in zazen (when the author of this article showed her to Master Deshimaru few days before his death, he cried out: "Now I know why I came to France to teach zazen!").

Chaudron de Gundestrup, Danemark,1er siècle.

In ancient India, the civilization of Harrapa (2700 years B.C.), a bucket has been found showing a character with three heads, with a hard-on, surrounded with animals, in zazen posture. At the museum of Fine Arts of Belgrade, the skeleton of a man in zazen posture is exposed, discovered in the excavations of Lepenski Vir, in Yugoslavia, date: 6000 years B.C.

Statues celtiques, Irlande, IXème siècle après J-C.

In Greece, in the art of the Cyclades (4000 years B.C.), there is a woman cross-legged in zazen. Moreover, the small statues, which were placed in the tombs, also recall the zazen posture in a very refined style characteristic of the art of the Cyclades. A small ceramic character of Cato, in the East of Crete, shows also a zazen posture, it is dated front the Neolithic (4000 years B.C.). Numerous elegant small statues found in South Turkmenistan and dated from the 3rd millennium B.C., show also a zazen posture, in the museum of the Hermitage, in Leningrad. There are also small alabaster statues of the same inspiration, discovered in the North of the Caucasian mountain dated from the 2nd millennium B.C.

Buddha reached the awakening 2600 years ago, in zazen posture, below a fig tree. Well before his time, tradition recalls that Siva, the god of the yoga and dance, was sitting in the same posture below a fig tree. Bodhidarma, founder of zen, introduced the posture in China in the 6th century A.C. Dogen did it in Japan in the 13th century. Deshimaru made it known in Europe in the 20th century. In order to notice the existence of this posture in other civilizations, in time and space, it is necessary to know it by having practiced it under the directives of Master Deshimaru. No doubt that the practitioners of zazen, present or futures, will be able to complete and enrich the information, which we presented here.
Guy Massat

NB: The documents cited for France are coming from the catalog of E. Esperandieu (Bibliotheque Nationale). For Greece, museum Goulandris (Athens). For Russia, museum of Ermitage (Leningrad).

Illustrations:

Statue de bronze dite "d'Autun" dieu dans la pose bouddhique,
enlacé avec deux serpents à tête de bèlier.

Statue d'une femme nue, découverte à Etaules, Quarré-les-Tombes (Yonne) et datée du Vème siècle avant J-C.
Elle se présente avec les jambes parfaitement croisées en zazen. (Quand l'auteur de cet article la fit connaître à Maître Deshimaru quelques jours avant sa mort , il s'exclama : " Maintenant je sais pourquoi je suis venu en France enseigner le zazen ! " ).

Statues du "dieu assis" trouvées dans les fouilles de Roquepertuse,
Vème siècle avant J-C., musée archéologique de Marseille.

"Le seau de Oseberg", Norvège, 1er siècle, se présente avec le même port de tête; de plus, il a les jambes parfaitement croisées à la manière de zazen et porte sur la poitrine une sorte de "rakuzu"

Statue gallo-romaine