The history of zen, from the Buddha to the modern world

Zen means contemplation, absorption, meditation. Zen buddhism is an ancient current of buddhism that originated with the Buddha Shakyamuni in the 5^th century BC.

A pure form that primarily emphasizes meditation, the heart of buddhism, this practice has been transmitted from master to disciple from the Buddha to the present day. First in India, then in China in the 6^th century, in Japan in the 13^th century and then in the West in the 20^th century.

The Buddha and early buddhism in India

The Buddha (563 - 483 BC) was a crown prince of the Shakya clan. As he was destined to occupy an important place in society, his educators and family made sure that he lacked nothing, far from the suffering of the world.

However, one day, upon leaving his palace, he was struck by the encounter with dying people. He became aware of old age, sickness and death – in other words, with the suffering inherent in life.

From there, he began a spiritual search and decided to abandon the life of an heir to which he was destined. His life was now dedicated to finding the origin of suffering and the cure to achieve peace.

At that time, there was no shortage of religious and spiritual movements in India. He studied with various schools, even engaging in rigorous ascetic practice.

After an extreme fast that left him almost dead, he understood that the solution did not come from mortification practices and decided to simply sit in a seated posture, cross-legged under a tree, in zazen.

He vowed not to move until he had solved the problem of life and death, found the answer to the great question of humanity.

It is said that it was after 49 days of meditation, having crossed all the layers of illusion, that he found awakening within himself. It was from this moment that he was called Buddha, the awakened one.

From this experience, he drew his teaching for all human beings, the dharma, and promulgated it to his disciples so that they in turn could realize awakening and transmit it.

His first successor was Mahakashyapa, then Ananda, and so on, forming an uninterrupted master-to-disciple transmission to the present day.

Chan buddhism in China

In the 6^th century AD, the famous Indian master Bodhidharma arrived in China to bring this seed which gave chan buddhism (from the Sanskrit dhyana which would give zen in Japan).

The teachings tell us that Bodhidharma spent many years in zazen in a cave and that he trained disciples, the most famous of whom is Eka. This meditation and the teachings were also transmitted from master to disciple.

At that time, the core remained the same, zen meditation (zazen), but inevitably, this practice – this movement – adapted to the context of the time and was enriched with teachings and practice places with their rules.

It was for example in China that the first zen monasteries appeared, notably with the practice of activity in the present moment (samu).

It was also in China that certain important texts of zen buddhism were written, notably the Sandokai and the Hokyo Zanmai (see book The practice of zen).

Also during this period, various currents formed within zen, in particular Soto zen and Rinzai zen, which still endure today.

Even if zen meditation (zazen) is one, the core, the teachings around it can more or less have differences. Like the tree which naturally has several branches, but a common trunk.

Rinzai is particularly known for its use of koans, short riddles that cannot be understood with the mind, for example Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?

Zen buddhism in Japan

Buddhism already existed in Japan, but it was with master Dogen in the 13^th century that Soto zen buddhism experienced a strong impulse in the country.

Master Dogen received this transmission during a trip to China with master Nyojo, the practice of direct zen meditation (zazen), without frills or dogma.

In Japan, the name of master Dogen has been known ever since, and even today, one of the temples he founded, Eihei-ji, is among the most important temples in Japan of Soto zen buddhism.

In continuity since the Buddha, zen was transmitted through the centuries in Japan until the 20^th century when the West discovered this practice.

Arrival in the West

Already in the 19^th century, then especially in the 20^th, the West became interested in buddhism. However, this fresh practice of zen meditation was still missing and it was not until the arrival of master Taisen Deshimaru in France that it was implemented in Europe, and even in North America.

In Japan, at the end of the 1930s, master Kodo Sawaki had a young disciple, Taisen Deshimaru. In 1965, upon his death, he finally gave Taisen Deshimaru monk ordination and invited him to transmit zen in Europe.

Taisen Deshimaru then went to France in 1967 and practiced zen meditation (zazen) in the back room of a health food store. To make a living, he gave shiatsu massages.

Little by little, people were attracted to this practice and began to become his disciples to learn to meditate. Taisen Deshimaru then organized practice sessions and founded the first zen dojo in Paris.

In Japan, he made a great impression with the development of his mission and was then called the Bodhidharma of modern times.

Over the years, more and more disciples surrounded master Deshimaru, including the young Stéphane Thibaut who would become master Kosen. Many practice places were created, in France and throughout Europe.

He died in 1982 and three of these close disciples received the transmission from master Niwa Zenji (abbot of the Eihei-ji temple): Stéphane Kosen Thibaut, Étienne Mokusho Zeisler and Roland Yuno Rech.

From there, zen buddhism, always with zazen meditation at its heart, continued to flourish in Europe, but also in Latin America, under the impulse of master Kosen, who founded the first zen temple in Argentina (Shobogenji) and many dojos on the continent.

You can learn more about master Deshimaru and master Kosen.

Before the historical Buddha, the prehistory of zen

By Guy Massat, zen monk disciple of master Deshimaru.

The posture of zazen did not begin with the Buddha Shakyamuni. Indeed, archaeological traces give us clues about this practice which dates back to the dawn of time.

Zen is zazen, taught master Deshimaru. That is to say that zen, etymologically absorption, concentrative absorption (Jhana, in Pali), is linked to the posture in which the Buddha is generally represented.

History reports that it was in this posture that the Buddha attained awakening some 2,600 years ago. Position, existence and emptiness (ku) are tied together. However, this posture of ex stasis (ecstasy, position outside oneself, at a distance from oneself, beyond oneself: ex outside of, beyond; stasis, immobility, substance), dates back to times much older than that of the historical Buddha.

From the moment one knows well, according to the teaching transmitted by master Deshimaru, the posture of zazen, it is possible to find obvious traces of it in other ancient cultures, and in particular in protohistoric statuary.

Master Deshimaru had himself drawn the attention of his students to characters sculpted in the 9^th century AD, in County Fermanagh, Ireland, whose head carriage, tucked-in chin and hand position clearly evoked zazen, although the legs are not represented. However, these statues suggested that one could find characters in the entire posture in Europe.

Thus, a character serving as a handle for a bucket, the Oseberg bucket, in Norway, dating from the 1st century, presents itself with the same head carriage; moreover, he has his legs perfectly crossed in the manner of zazen and wears a kind of rakusu on his chest.

However, it is to the archaeologist E. Espérandieu who first undertook, from 1907 to 1947, a systematic research on Gallic statuary that we owe the most important information. E. Espérandieu highlighted the profusion of statues of gods seated in the Buddhist pose according to his expression, throughout France, from north to south and from east to west, with a concentration in the Massif Central.

According to the specialists of his team, these statues date at least from the 5^th century BC (that is to say that they are at least contemporary or that they precede the existence of the historical Buddha). Some are more recent. Their production stopped however with the domination of Christianity in Europe. Most of those that have been found were deliberately mutilated.

The greatest number was destroyed. Indeed, the destruction of stone idols was proclaimed, let us remember, from the first Christian councils. When in 496 Clovis, king of the Franks, first king of our history, was baptized Christian in Reims, with 3,000 of his warriors, the bishop Saint Remi said to him these famous words, reported by Gregory of Tours and taken up by Michelet: Bow down, proud Sicambrian, burn what you have worshipped, and worship what you have burned.

Worship what you have burned refers to the Christian churches and abbeys that the Sicambrian hordes regularly pillaged. Burn what you have worshipped refers, on the other hand, to the god Cernunnos, the god of wealth and abundance, generally represented – archaeologists tell us – seated cross-legged in the posture of the Buddha. Cernunnos, Julius Caesar reports to us in his Commentaries on the Gallic War (1st century BC), ** was the most venerated god of the Gauls** (VI, 17).

At the entrance of Reims Cathedral, sculpted on the pediment of the main door, one can see a character, cross-legged, bent under the weight of a Christian who is crushing his back. In the foundations of Notre-Dame de Paris, a large stone was found on which the name Cernunnos was engraved. It is kept at the Cluny museum. This is because, like most churches in France, Notre-Dame de Paris was built on the site of a Gallic temple.

On a Gallic coin of the Remi, a Gallic people of Belgium (coin of the Catalauni), found in the Reims region and dating from the 2nd or 5^th century AD, one can see a woman in zazen posture holding a torque in one hand and a braid in the other (Museum of Coins). Her posture clearly recalls the character of the Gundestrup cauldron, in Denmark, dating from the 1st century who also holds a torque in one hand and a snake in the other. In France, we can see at the Saint-Germain-en-Laye museum the beautiful posture of the squatting god (so called) found in Bouray, near La Ferté-Alais.

There is also the bronze statuette known as the Autun statuette from Curgy (Saône-et-Loire) representing a character said to be in a Buddhist pose entwined by two ram-headed snakes.

At the Borrely museum in Marseille, one can see characters, mutilated certainly, but which perfectly evoke the posture of zazen, although the two legs are not completely crossed. They come from the excavations of La Roquepertuse and are dated to the 5^th century BC.

On the other hand, the statue of a naked woman, discovered in Étaules, Quarré-les-Tombes (Yonne), and dated to the 5^th century BC, presents itself with the legs perfectly crossed in zazen. (When the author of this article made it known to master Deshimaru, it was a few days before his death, he exclaimed: Now I know why I came to France to teach zazen!).

In pre-Vedic India, Harappan civilization (2,700 BC), there is a seal representing a triple-headed, ithyphallic character, surrounded by animals, in zazen posture.

At the Museum of Fine Arts in Belgrade, one can see the skeleton of a man in zazen posture, discovered in the excavations of Lepenski Vir, in Yugoslavia, dating: 6,000 BC.

In Greece, in Cycladic art (4,000 BC), there is a woman with her legs crossed in zazen. Furthermore, the statuettes that were placed in tombs also evoke the posture of zazen in the very refined style characteristic of Cycladic art. A terracotta figurine from Kato, eastern Crete, also presents itself in zazen posture, it is also dated to the Neolithic (4,000 BC). Many elegant clay statuettes found in southern Turkmenia and dated to the third millennium BC also evoke the posture of zazen, at the Hermitage Museum, in Leningrad. One can also see alabaster statuettes of the same inspiration, discovered in the North Caucasus and dated to the second millennium BC.

Then we arrive at the Buddha attained Awakening under a fig tree, in zazen posture, 2,600 years ago, but long before him, tradition reports that Shiva, the god of Yoga and dance, practiced the same posture under a fig tree.

Then as seen at the beginning of this page, this practice was transmitted to China, Japan and the West.

To notice the existence of this posture in other civilizations, in time and space, it is necessary to know it by having practiced it according to the directives transmitted by master Deshimaru.

There is no doubt that zazen practitioners, present or future, will be able to complete and enrich the information we have presented here.

NB: The documents cited come from: for France, the catalog of E. Espérandieu (National Library); for Greece, the Goulandris museum (Athens); for Russia, the Hermitage museum (Leningrad).

Learn more about the history of zen

We recommend the book L’univers du zen for a complete and detailed view of the history of zen. You can also consult Les maîtres zen by the same author for a complete view of the main zen masters.

You can also find the complete biographies and stories of the various masters cited such as Bodhidharma, Dogen and others on Wikipedia, YouTube and others.