Tag: Manjushri

Mahayana Buddhism expounds that all beings are potential Buddhas and Bodhisattva. In the Zen school, which is a branch of the Mahayana, adherents strive to realize Buddhahood or live as a Bodhisattva in this lifetime as Zen claims to be both the historical descendent school of Venerable Sakyamuni Buddha and vehicle to Prajna Wisdom in this lifetime, freeing the devotee of Zen from ignorance. Therefore, Manjusri  Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, may be seen as a tutelary example of how Zen Buddhists should strive in their training to open the Dharma’s eye. In the West, Zen is often portrayed as people in black sitting doing zazen in white rooms and not much more. Often in the West, Zen Buddhism is portrayed in the popular as an Eastern form of Stoicism, which it shares near principles with. Or it is sometimes imagined as a Protestant Buddhism’, simple and without symbolism. Thousands of books are now in publication in Western Countries in English, French, German and other languages, and it’s been estimated in the United States that more than 60% of Buddhists are practising Zen, but this is not the complete picture of Zen Buddhism. Undoubtedly, this has contributed to the spread of Zen Buddhism in the West, and how this came about is a complex of causes derived in part from the background of Westerners who travelled to Asian countries like Japan and Korea and then returned to their countries. A prime example of this is the famous book Zen and Archery by Eugen Herrigel, published in the 1930s, which laid considerable groundwork for the idealized expectations of Europeans. Zen and the Art of Archery, like many books like it, only told the partial practice of Zen Buddhism, perhaps because lay authors like Herrigel did not have time to delve deeply while they stayed in Asia or because they filtered what they wanted. Many early Zen people in the West were from secular Protestant Christian backgrounds and little interested in ritual and legend. When Asian teachers arrived in Western countries, they, too, were faced with predominantly lay students who were equally disinterested in anything they deemed superfluous to Zen. Of course, the nature of Zen is to emphasise reductive simplicity to get to the Fundamental point of things, to emphasise ‘Prajna’ insight. And this continues even today in Western Zen centres. This, in contrast to the next largest lineage of Buddhism, is  Vajrayana, or ‘Tibetan’ Buddhism as it’s colloquially often referred to in the West.  We associate Vajrayana Buddhism in the popular consciousness with Bodhisattva, Guardians and Devas, and subsequent rituals to invoke the superstitious power of such beings to help and guide. However, ritual is not limited to the Vajrayana lineages and is found in Zen Buddhism as well.  Zen Buddhism is part of the Mahayana movement, which can be described as a federation of lineages that spread out of India. Zen is traditionally considered to have arrived in China around the 7th Century C.E., making it a historical latecomer to the Chinese Buddhist dysphoria. Zen Buddhism is an outlier in the Mahayana movement, having strong characteristics that would be more likely to be matched with Theravada Buddhism that spread to and survived in Southern India as part of Southern Buddhism. Zen and Theravada lineages, for the most part, put emphasis on meditation, Vipasanna for Theravada, and Dyanna, a method of meditation derived from Samatha and Vipasanna, and critical scriptural studies and dialogues. However, Theravada spread further south, eventually into what are now Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, and Laos predominately, while Zen Buddhism spread into China [1]. As a Mahayana school, Zen, therefore, inherited the Legendary traditions of Mahayana while still adhering to historicity and rationalism. Hence, in the Zen school, Venerable Sakyamuni is the ‘Historical Buddha’ while not denying his previous births. The historical Buddha remained paramount in Zen, with Venerable Mahakashyapa as the first  Indian Ancestor and Zen revering 26 subsequent Indian Ancestors, including Venerable Nargajuna. The lineage of Zen is another deep subject, however, only touched on here. As part of the Mahayana, Zen inherited the teaching that multiple births led to the birth of Venerable Sakyamuni, his teaching and his Parinirvana supported by the various guardians, Bodhisattva, Devas, generals messengers and others. In China, the Sacred Mountain of Wu-tai, historically associated with the golden age of Zen Buddhism, is considered the mythic earthly home of Manjusri Bodhisattva. Manjusri In Art In Buddharupa images, the Bodhisattva Manjusri is depicted with a sword in their right hand, typically to cut the bonds of ignorance away, representing Wisdom and freedom or sometimes a White Lotus representing the purity of the teachings. Manjusri Bodhisattva may appear in Indian or Chinese forms, resembling other Bodhisattvas. Additionally, in Chinese and subsequent Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese lineages of Zen and Mahayana Art, as riding a Celestial dog or, less commonly, an elephant as in the original Indian depiction. The Celestial Animal represents the Cannon of the Teachings, the Tripitaka. Manjusri Buddha rupa are traditionally sculpted in stone, bronze or wood; stone Buddharupa typically will be set in the temple’s precinct, while wooden and bronze are set in the Buddha Hall. Line and coloured paintings are also made on paper or on wood panels. In paintings, associations with Manjusri Bodhisattva not only take the form of illustrating the Bodhisattva but also the aforementioned Wu-tai mountain and scenes from the sutras depicting the Layman Vimalakirti and others as he debates with the Bodhisattva. Famous and easily seen examples of statuary Buddharupa in the Rinzai Zen school are the Great Buddha Halls or Dai Hondo at Kenninji, Tofukuji and Nanzenji in Kyoto, Japan, where you will find large wooden Buddharupa settings. In Practice In Zen temples, the Bodhisattva Manjusri is often enshrined in the main hall of the Buddhas and Bodhisattva, where commemorative rituals are carried out. Usually in a grouping called Shaka sanzon, opposite the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra (O-Fugen-sama), the Bodhisattva of training. Another type of grouping found in some Buddha halls is the Four…