Buddhism Zen Buddhism is divided into two main schools: Rinzai (臨済宗) and Sōtō (曹洞宗), the former greatly favouring the use in meditation on the koan (公案, a meditative riddle or puzzle) as a device for spiritual break-through, and the latter (while certainly employing koans) focusing more on "shikantaza" or "just sitting". Zen Buddhism is primarily found in Japan, with some presence in South Korea and Vietnam. The scholars of Japanese Soto Zen tradition in recent times have critiqued the mainstream Japanese Buddhism for "dhatu-vada", that is assuming things have substantiality, a view they assert to be non-Buddhist and "out of tune
Japanese Zen dharma heirs, such as Joko Beck, Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, and especially Dennis Merzel, who has appointed more than a dozen dharma heirs. The FAS Society is a non-sectarian organization, founded by Shin'ichi Hisamatsu. Its aim is to modernize Zen and adapt it to the modern world. In Europe it is influential through such teachers as Jeff Shore and Ton Lathouwers. Although it is difficult to trace when the West first became aware of Zen as a distinct form of Buddhism, the visit of Soyen Shaku, a Japanese Zen monk, to Chicago during the World Parliament of Religions in 1893 is