Japanese Zen expressions of this selfless existence. Zen emphasizes zazen, meditation c.q. dhyana in astting position. In Soto, the emphasis is on shikantaza, 'just sitting', while Rinzai also uses koans to train the mind. In alternation with zazen, there is walking meditation, "kinhin", in which one walks with full attention. To facilitate insight, a Zen teacher can assign a kōan. This is a short anecdote, which seems irrational, but contains subtle references to the Buddhist teachings. An example of a kōan is Joshu's 'Mu': "A monk asked: "Does a dog have buddha-nature?" Joshu responded: "Mu!"" Zen-meditation aims at "non-thinking," in Japanese "fu
The Tao of Zen to do in this book is vindicate the importance of Taoist thought in the Chinese religious history and displace the notion of Zen Buddhism as a coherent whole. To him, these are very different spiritual systems that only coexist today because of the almost wholly unacknowledged lingering of the original Buddhist colonization of Taoist China. The popularity of Zen today owes much more to its persistent Taoist origins than to Buddhist doctrine. The Tao of Zen The Tao of Zen is a nonfiction book by Ray Grigg, published by Charles E. Tuttle Company in 1994, and reprinted by Alva Press