Zen personal trouble or crisis. Though Zen-narrative states that it is a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words", Zen does have a rich doctrinal background, which is firmly grounded in the Buddhist tradition. It was thoroughly influenced by the Chinese understanding of Yogacara and the Buddha-nature doctrine, Zen integrates both Yogacara and Madhyamaka and the influence of Madhyamaka can be discerned in the stress on non-conceptual insight and the paradoxical language of the koans. Most essential are "the most fundamental teaching that we are already originally enlightened", and the Bodhisattva ideal, which supplements insight with Karuṇā, compassion
Buddhism in Japan movement to eradicate Buddhism and bring Shinto to ascendancy arose throughout the country due to the strong connections of Buddhism to the Shōguns. During the Meiji period (1868–1912), after a coup in 1868, Japan abandoned its feudal system and opened up to Western modernism. Shinto became the state religion. Within the Buddhist establishment the Western world was seen as a threat as well as a challenge to stand up to. Buddhist institutions had a simple choice: adapt or perish. Rinzai and Soto Zen chose to adapt, trying to modernize Zen in accord with Western insights, while simultaneously maintaining a Japanese