Zen Buddhism

Zen Buddhism

Zen is a fusion of Mahayana Buddhism with Taoist principles. Bodhidharma was 
a semilegendary Indian monk who traveled to China in the 5th century. There, 
at the Shaolin temple, he began the Ch'an school of Buddhism, known in Japan 
and in the West as Zen Buddhism. Zen philosophy places emphasis on existing 
in the moment, right now. Zen teaches that the entire universe is one's mind, 
and if one cannot realize enlightenment in one's own mind now, one cannot 
ever achieve enlightenment.

Zen practitioners engage in zazen (just sitting) meditation. Several schools 
of Zen have developed various other techniques for provoking satori, or 
enlightenment, ranging from whacking acolytes with a stick to shock them into 
the present moment to koans, Zen riddles designed to force the student to 
abandon futile attempts to understand the nature of the universe through 
logic.