Zen expected to become familiar with the classics of the Zen canon". A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Zen masters clearly reveals that they were well versed in numerous Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras, including Madhyamaka. Especially the Lotus Sutra played a large role in the development of East Asian Buddhism, including Zen. Nevertheless, Zen is often pictured as anti-intellectual. This picture of Zen emerged during the Song Dynasty (960–1297), when Chán became the dominant form of Buddhism in China, and gained great popularity among the educated and literary classes of Chinese society. The use of koans, which
A National Strategic Narrative A National Strategic Narrative A National Strategic Narrative is a United States strategy document. In 2009, during a strategy brief to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Captain Wayne Porter (US Navy) noted the lack of a United States grand strategy, which could act as a guide or inspiration for all strategies of the US government. Admiral Michael Mullen, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, charged Captain Porter with writing such a grand strategy. Concurrently, Colonel Mark "Puck" Mykleby (US Marine Corps) and the strategy team at USSOCOM were developing some of the baseline concepts that are reflected in