Zen

A transliteration of the Sanskrit word dhyāna. It is also said to be a corrupted version of the colloquial jhāna. It means quiet contemplation, or meditative practice. In ancient India, the meditation method known as yoga was adopted by Buddhism as a method of unifying the mind, and was refined to an extreme degree in China and Japan in particular, where it developed into a unique philosophy. In contrast to modern European science and technology, it is receiving new recognition as the core of Asian spiritual civilization.

The origin of yoga is known from the fact that some of the coins from the ruins of the Indus Valley dating back to 2000 BC depict a divine beast sitting cross-legged. The later Upanishads also teach that one should keep both legs horizontal, stand upright, and calmly regulate one's breathing, and this is also quoted in the Bhagavad Gita, so we can see that the method of zazen taught in Zen temples today has remained almost unchanged for several thousand years. The reason why all the Buddha statues from the 2nd century AD are in the form of zazen is because people sought the ideal of Buddhism in them. The Chinese character for Zen originally meant Zen, which was the Chinese word for emperor worshiping the gods in ancient China, and was originally written as Zenna, a transliteration of dhyāna, but gradually the single character Zen came to be preferred, giving rise to the words zazen and zenjo. Zazen means to sit and contemplate, and zenjo comes from samadhi, which means an even deeper level of meditation than Zen, and is translated as jo.

In Indian meditation thought, there are four stages of Zen and four stages of concentration, and the four meditations and eight concentration stages are considered together, and supernatural powers are preached as the result of these, and they are linked to the belief in mystical ascension after death and supernatural powers. In China, such stage-based thinking and the practice of Zen with the goal of supernatural powers are disliked, and the tendency towards sudden enlightenment (all at once enlightenment) and this-worldly is strengthened, so the Zen sect founded by Bodhidharma arose, and the creation of its doctrines and history is an outcome unique to Chinese Buddhism. In Zen Buddhism, Zen is not just about zazen and concentration. Rather, they rejected quietism, which is bound by zazen and meditation, and proclaimed that "practice is Zen, sitting is Zen, silence, movement, and body are at peace." They affirmed the daily life of work, saying, "If you don't work one day, you don't eat one day." They believed that the highest divine powers were at work in the act of defecation, urination, clothing, and eating, and therefore the highest and broadest freedom of the mind was called Zen. Therefore, Zen is no longer limited to Buddhism, but was actively incorporated into Confucianism, Taoism, literature, and the arts, and became the basis for a reform movement that reexamined existing doctrines and forms. The performing arts that were born in our medieval Zen temples, such as ink painting, calligraphy, linked verse, Noh, and tea ceremony, are all expressions of new Zen Buddhism that did not exist in India or China in the past. The fact that the same Zen thinking was at work in the acceptance of European thought and technology after the Meiji period is most evident in Nishida philosophy, which is considered to be uniquely Japanese.

[Yanagida Seizan]

"Kusugaya Kaiten's 'History of Zen Thought', 2 volumes (1923, 25, Genkosha)" ▽ "Suzuki Daisetsu's 'Studies in the History of Zen Thought', 4 volumes (1943-67, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "Yanagida Seizan's 'The Search for Nothingness' (included in 'Buddhist Thought, Volume 7', 1969, Kadokawa Shoten)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

サンスクリット語ディヤーナdhyānaの音写。口語のジャーナjhānaが訛(なま)ったものともいう。静かに考えること、思惟修(しゆいしゅ)の意。古代インドで、ヨーガとよばれた瞑想(めいそう)法のうち、精神統一の部分が仏教に取り入れられ、とくに中国と日本で極度に洗練され、独自の思想として発展したもの。近代ヨーロッパの科学技術に対し、アジア精神文明の核として、新しい評価を受けている。

　ヨーガの発生は、紀元前2000年というインダスの遺構から出た古銭のうちに、脚を組んで坐(すわ)る神獣を描くものがあるのによって知られる。後期ウパニシャッドのうちにも、両脚を水平に保ち、背筋をまっすぐに立て、静かに呼吸を整えよと説くのが確認され、バガバッド・ギーターにも引かれているから、今日の禅院で教える坐禅(ざぜん)法は、数千年の昔からほとんど不変であることがわかる。紀元2世紀という仏像がすべて坐禅の形をとるのも、人々がそこに仏教の理想を求めたためである。禅という漢字は、古代中国で天子が神を祀(まつ)った封禅の意味をもつのを受け、当初はdhyānaの音写として禅那(ぜんな)とも書かれたが、しだいに禅の一字が好まれて、坐禅や禅定(ぜんじょう)の語を生むようになる。坐禅は、坐って思惟(しゆい)する意、禅定は、禅よりもさらに深層の瞑想を意味する三昧(さんまい)、すなわちサマーディsamādhiを定(じょう)と訳したのによる。

　インドの禅定思想では、禅に四段階、定に四段階があるとし、あわせて四禅八定を考え、その成果としての神通力(じんずうりき)を説き、神秘な死後昇天信仰や、超能力と結び合う。中国ではそうした段階的発想や、神通力を目的とする習禅を嫌い、頓悟(とんご)（一挙に悟る）的・現世的傾向を強めるので、達磨(だるま)を祖とする禅宗がおこり、教義と歴史をつくるのも、中国仏教独自の成果である。禅宗では、坐禅や禅定だけが禅ではない。むしろ、坐禅や禅定に縛られるキエティスム（静寂(せいじゃく)主義）を退け、「行(ぎょう)も亦(ま)た禅、坐も亦た禅、語黙動静体安然」とうたい、「一日作(な)さざれば一日食らわず」という、日常の労働生活を肯定し、屙屎送尿(あしそうにょう)、着衣喫飯(きっぱん)のところに最上の神通が働くとするので、もっとも高く広い精神の自由を、禅の名でよぶこととなる。したがって、禅はもはや仏教に限らず、儒教や道教、文学や芸術のうちに積極的に取り込まれて、既成の教義や形式を洗い直す革新運動の根拠となる。水墨や書跡、連歌(れんが)、能楽、茶道など、わが中世禅院に生まれる芸能は、いずれもかつてのインドにも中国にもなかった新しい禅仏教の表現である。明治以後、ヨーロッパの思想と技術を受容するのに、同じ禅の思考が働いていることは、日本独自の哲学とされる西田哲学にもっとも顕著である。

［柳田聖山］

『忽滑谷快天著『禅学思想史』二巻（1923、25・玄黄社）』▽『鈴木大拙著『禅思想史研究』四巻（1943～67・岩波書店）』▽『柳田聖山著『無の探究』（『仏教の思想　七巻』所収・1969・角川書店）』

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