Zen Buddhism and Harmony with Nature

Antariksa

Zen as one of the religious sect has reverberation in every corner. Which philosophy has been transformed from Indian Buddhism into Zen Buddhism. The meaning of Zen itself is extremely difficult to understand, as religion or philosophy. Zen is not important for words, but certain in reality which always reveals to death them from reality and turn to conception literary. In fact philosophy and Zen possession by a spirit entered in architecture, garden, art painting, etc. clearly can enter to the human daily life and certainly in meditation.

The outline of main elements of Mahayana attempted in the previous chapter should help us place Zen, Mahayana�s meditation school, in its wider context. In stressing the independent development of Zen, Suzuki has to admit that �undoubtly the main ideas of Zen are derived from Buddhism, and we cannot but consider it a legitimate development of the latter (Dumoulin 1988b). In reality Dhyana (meditation) Buddhism are source from Zen Buddhism which is spread to China in the sixth century and Japan in the latter of thirteenth century. This sect emerges in India as a faith which is derived from the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. All the phase in the development of Zen Buddhism is constitute form permeated of the Mahayana philosophy.

Zen is a Japanese word that derives from Chinese pronunciation and come from Sanskrit �dhyana�, that means illumined trance. That word was mentioned written in Japanese with Chinese character included to the concept. (Figure 1) But to the reality the word Zen has already spread to become a certain meaning for explain spiritual transcendence outside all distinction, and also constitute enter to an unspecified substance from outside that is the world, which only in the illusion. Besides that, according to Legget (1989) it is said that Zen-written as they think it is by combining the character for �garment� and �single� just that. They believe that Zen monks of India in the mountains practiced special austerities, and even in winter wore only one cotton robe, and that the name of the sect arose from this (Dumoulin 1988a).

Figure 1. The left-hand side constitutes old character; and the right-hand side is called character as to say that Zen means wearing a single garment which uses up to know.

Zen (Chin., Ch�an, an abbreviation of ch�an-an, which transliterates the Sanskrit term dhyana or its Pali cognate jhana, terms meaning �meditation�) is the name of a Mahayana Buddhist school of meditation originating in China and characterized by the practice of meditation in the lotus position (Jpn., zazen; Chin., tso-ch�an) and the use of koan (Chin., kung-an), as well as by the enlightenment experience satori (Dumoulin 1988a). When then is Zen? Franck (1973:9) described about Zen, as follow:

Zen is: being in touch with the inner workings of life.

Zen is: life that knows it is living.

Zen is: this moment speaking as time and as eternity.

Zen is: seeing in to the nature of things, inside and outside my self.

Zen is: when all living things of the Earth open their eyes wide and look me in the eye��

The other meaning described, as (The Guide Book of Ryoan-ji Temple):

Zen is religion without personal God.

Zen is a religion without an idol to worship.

Zen is a religion of self-cultivation.

Zen is a religion by which man intuits his own nature, that is to say, a religion of Satori-enlightenment.

Zen is religion of �Nothingness�, �Selflessness� and �Mindlessness.�

Zen is a living religion of work and action.

Zen is religion in which man realize that �The place where he stands is at once the Pure Land, and he himself is no other than Buddha�.

Zen is religion whereby man identifies himself with everything, creases to exist and relinquishes his individual existence.

Thus, the two mentioned above give deep meanings for Zen itself. Zen it is not one of the Buddhist sect. It may be thought full of mystery and abstruseness. However, it is not so mysterious or abstruse but even practical. Zen, which restores humanity taken away by the marvelously developed mechanical civilization of the modern society, attracts us for its own self-centered essential quality. Finally Zen is not a religion, but a human ideal of self-education by Spartan means (Gropius 1962:4).

Syncretism Religions in Zen Buddhism

If we return to the beginning of Zen Buddhism introduced to China in the sixth century. Apparently in the process of spreading of Zen Buddhism there was an experience of influences by two Chinese great religions, Tao and Confucian. In fact it can be said syncretism religions between Zen from India with Tao and Confucian from China. This third doctrine which is influential into Zen Buddhism included philosophy, architecture, religion whether human daily life. Okakura (1964:24) has explained: The Sung allegory of the Three Vinegar Tasters explains admirably the trend of the three doctrines. Sakyamuni, Confucius[1], and Lao Tzu[2] once stood a jar of vinegar, -the emblem of life, -and each dipped in his finger to taste the brew. The matter-of-act Confucius found it sour, the Buddha called it bitter, and Lao Tzu pronounced it sweet. In reality the Zen architecture in Japan is appearance influenced by Taoism and Confucianism. As which Gropius (1962:4) has said: The Japanese architects have been deeply influenced by the Zen sect, which started in China as a Buddhist sect and was influenced by Confucianism and Taoism, creeds which overlap in Asiatic countries without creating much antagonism to each other. It appears many things which was development from the third above mention and lastly passed on from in one combination. Architecture which emerges from art, religion and philosophy, was influenced very deeply. It seems that Lao Tzu given one illustrates by his favorite metaphor of the vacuum. He claimed that only in vacuum lay the truly essential. The reality of room, for instance, was to be found in the vacant space enclosed by the roof and walls themselves (Okakura 1964:24). Basically the Zen architecture in Japan as tea room and meditation hall has a basis like that. In another part it mention that the introduce of Zen Buddhism enter to China did not replace the two earlier Chinese religions (Taoism and Confucianism) but, rather provided an alternative spiritual frame work wherein the Chinese, structured, Confucianist bent of mind could be merged with their Taoist yearning for mystical philosophy to produce a native religion at once formal and introspective. If a question is asked concerning Zen Buddhism which entered and developed in Japan, it can be said that Zen is a combination or syncretism from Taoism and Confucianism. This is which Muso Soseki (1275-1351) says, he established the precedent for doctrinal flexibility which allowed Zen to survive while emperors and Shoguns came and went (Hover 1989:73):

Clear-sighted masters of the Zen sect do not have a fixed doctrine which is to be held to at any and all times. They offer whatever teaching the occasion demands and preach as the spirit moves them, whit no fixed course to guide them. If we asked what Zen is, they may answer in the words of Confucius, Mencius, Lao Tzu or Chuang Tzu, or else in terms of the doctrine of the various sects and dominations, and also by using popular proverbs.

This expression above has given one meaning very deeply about Zen. Which inside this is contained the doctrine from Tao and Confucius, which in their developing more characteristic of philosophy than religious. It could be said that, they adopted the philosophy of Lao Tzu and ritual of the Buddhist, with the idea of increasing the significance and sanction of the popular notions. On its philosophical side Buddhism was received with open arms by Laoist, who found it an advance on their own philosophy (Okakura 1985:58-59).

Indeed, there are many Zen masters who are studies about Confucian and unite with Zen Buddhism. The Zen masters of the �Five Mountains�, mention may be made of Muso the National Teacher, Genye (1269-1352), Kokwan Shiren (1278-1346), Chugan Yangetsu (1300-1375), Gido Shushin (1321-1388), and others, all of whom furthered the study of the Confucian classic in accordance with the spirit of Zen Buddhism. Besides those when these monks came to Japan, they bring both of Zen and Confucianism. The Japanese monks who went over to China to study Zen brought back the same; that is, together with their own Zen books they filled their traveling cases with books on Confucianism and Taoism (Suzuki 1988:43). It is clear that Zen which enters into Japan is a form of syncretism with pure process absorbed into the Japanese culture.

In the Confucius also emphasizes existence elements of the natural world. As heaven, earth, sun, moon, stars, hills, rivers-indeed. Attuning to Heaven came from harmony with nature, obedience to elders brought harmony of the family, therefore, it could be said that the most important of Confucius�s teachings, which also influenced architecture was harmony (Liu 1989:19). This harmony is also influenced into Zen Architecture in Japan, it can be said that harmony with nature. Confucius also have relations in every aspect and human activity to the words �rite� or �reason� (in Chinese, pronounced �Li�) which already presented the moral ideas arrange category from daily life, regulating court ritual directing art, literature and architecture. On the contrary, in China Confucianism was already influential to several aspects, as temples which are integrated into the garden. It was during the next dynasty, the Song (960-1279 AD), that Buddhism, Daoism and even Confucianism gradually merged in ideology. As the Buddhist sects absorbed the Daoist �fairly land� concept, they began to choose mountains sites, integrating temples with landscape and even developing more formally planed, attached gardens (Liu 1989: 148). In other part, between the Taoism and Confucianism have different emphasizes with relation to the nature and architecture. The other aspect of Chinese religion and philosophy, Taoism, is instead responsible for the ecological sensibility by which Chinese architecture is related to nature and the surroundings wall follow the contours of hills. Actually, Confucian pragmatism is directly responsible for the rigid standard of axiality and symmetry that made it possible to arrive is a graduated and hierarchical order in the city. As which Anesaki (1983:15) explains: Yet we must remember that the temple and palace buildings, symmetrical as they are, are always to be looked at with their natural background and foreground. �� Even this noble group, an expression of the harmony between national unity and the religions ideal, is so placed and distributed that the background of hills and the interference of trees breaks up the regularity of the architecture. (Figure 2)

Figure 2. The famous painting which was entitled �Tofuku-ji garan zu� it was painted by Sesshu sixteenth century. Such forms harmonize well with the hills and trees, and such buildings become a part of the landscape instead of appearing like gigantic and laborious constructions built in defiance of nature. (Susumu 1988)

References

Anesaki, M. 1983. Art, Life, and Nature in Japan. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle.

Dumoulin, H. 1988a. Zen Buddhism: A History, India and China. Vol 1, Translated by James W. Heisig and Paul Knitter. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

Dumoulin, H. 1988b. Zen Buddhism: A History, Japan. Vol 2, Translated by James W. Heisig and Paul Knitter. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

Franck, F. 1973. The Zen of Seeing, Seeng/Drawing as meditation. London: Vintage Books Edition.

Gropius, W., Tange, K., & Ishimoto, Y. 1962. Katsura Tradition and Creation in Japanese Architecture. Tokyo: Zokeisha Publication Ltd.

Hover, T. 1989. Zen Culture. Tokyo: Arkana.

Legget, T. 1989. Zen and the Ways. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle.

Liu, L.G. 1989. Chinese Architecture. New York: Rizzoli.

Okakura, K. 1964. The Book of Tea. Edited and Introduced by Everett F. Bleiler. New York: Dover Publication, Inc.

Okakura, K. 1985. The Ideals of The East. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle.

Susumu, M. 1988. Zusetsu Nihon no Bukkyo 4, Kamakura Bukkyo. Tokyo: Shinchosa.

Suzuki, D.T. 1988. Zen and Japanese Culture. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle.

The Guide Book of Ryoan-ji Temple.

Williams, C.A.S. 1988. Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifes. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle.

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[1] A native of Ch�ueh-li, a hamlet of Ch�ang-p�ing in Shantung. He lived 551-479 B.C. His style was Chung-ni and he is known as Confucius-the Latinished from of Kung Fu Tzu, the philosopher K�ung. (Williams 1988:84).

[2] The reputed founder of Taoism was born in Hoan in 604 B.C. The legend is that he was carried eighty years before birth, and was therefore born with white hair; hence the name Lao Tzu �old boy�. Latinised Laocius (William 1988:251).

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