Hello Deborah,
Thank you for your question. Perhaps you noticed that I usually just
say what Chan is, and avoided to compare Chan with Zen.
Though some of my posts are being labeled as illusory, I had not done so
on the contrary, because Chan taught me that Chan includes everything,
including Zen. Chan is all. If I had not heard of a Zen post, then I
should learn about it. That's why I join this forum six or seven years
ago -- to learn.
The Tao influence in Chan is quite evident. If we read the Xin-Xin-Ming
by the third patriarch, it almost sounded like Tao-Te-Jing. However,
the Tao influence to Chan is more so in the practice - the sitting and
the motion chan. Sitting is the Ying and Motion Chan is the Yang.
Tao is really not dualistic in the Chan sense. Tao merely laid out the
path from TaiChi to the rest of the manifestation of all the forms,
through Ying-Yang, the two to the four to the Eight, etc. It just
illustrated the continuous division of the One. That's all.
Now back to what is Chan. Chan is really just a nick name for our
universe. Academically, a comprehensive term for everything, those we
know and we don't know, visible and invisible, permanent and
impermanent, static and dynamic, etc. etc.
While most of the teachings tried to rationalize the form, Chan's focus
is on the formless, or simply the life's energy and its wisdom, because
everything is manifested by this energy and the wisdom. It is the
dharma and the ultimate truth.
The only way to get to it, is to sync to it by first rejuvenating our
physical body to be a baby, then open up our heart like a baby.
Because, baby state is our closest state to our birth, and to our
creator, the universe.
Somehow, the most important part of the practice, cultivating our chi,
is not quite evident in Zen, which is the most natural and effortless
way to sync up to the universal wisdom.
JM
Be Enlightened In This Life - We ALL Can
http://chanjmjm.blogspot.com
http://www.heartchan.org
On 1/5/2011 5:55 PM, Deborah Mingins wrote:
To Jue Miao Jing Ming- It seems you feel there is not much difference
between Chan and Zen, whereas in my humble experience they are quite
different. Zen is obsessed with the moment and staying in it whereas
Chan is a gentler just being. One thing I cannot understand with Chan,
considering it's having been so influenced by Taoism, is how it
doesn't believe in duality, where Taoism definitely does. I would
appreciate your thoughts on these things, as you have made alot of
sense to me, and have had accurate information and good
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