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 A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Zen masters clearly reveals that they were well versed in numerous Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras, including Madhyamaka.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
Buddhism in Costa Rica José (Karma Kagyu lineage) and a Lingmincha Center of the Nyingma-Bon tradition. The Casa Zen of Costa Rica center is located in Santo Domingo, Heredia. There are also temples of Theravada, Shaolin and a Chinese Buddhism Pagoda. Buddhism in Costa Rica Costa Rica has more Buddhists than the other countries in Central America with almost 100,000 (2.34% of total population), followed closely by Panama, with almost 70,000 (2.1% of total population). Buddhism was introduced in the country for the first time by Chinese immigrants during the early 19th and 20th century, but an important part of these migrants later became