literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org

Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

I'm very glad you asked that excellent question, "What is Zen?"

Perhaps long before the 6th. century B.C.E. (Before the Christian Era),
which was the century of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical figure known
as The Buddha, in India, in the Sanskrit language, the language of
the sacred Hindu Vedas, there was a word, dyana used to describe
a form of concentration or meditation.

Now, it is from that word dyana that, centuries later, and a
continent away, we finally arrive at the word zen. We shall see
that the migration of dyana to become zen is a gradual
eastward journey, to the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan, by way of
China.

That journey started with Bodhidharma who brought dyana
to China, where it became known as chan (because they couldnt
pronounce dyan and we all know that the Chinese talk funny).
Many centuries later, someone brought chan to Japan, where they
pronounced it zen (because they couldnt say chan and we all
know that Japanese talk funny.)

I cant let you go away without adding some archeology to all this.

In ancient India, there are various representations, carvings and
engravings of someone seated with crossed legs, erect posture, folded
hands, and closed eyes. Now, who or what do you suppose that figure
represents?

I thought I would be very clever, just now, and search on Siva "Lord of
the Beasts" archeologists. Google returned only one browser page,
which was one of mine, written 8/5/99.

I have been searching just now for a picture to show you regarding that
ancient seal discovered, showing a figure in meditation.

http://www.jainsamaj.org/literature/harappa-150104.htm

One may study the engraved seal from Mohenjo-Daro (Cambridge Hist.
of India, 1953, Pl. XXIII) of the third millennium B.C. Rudra (Pasupati)
Mahadeva seated in meditation in the midst of mortals such as men,
animals such as rhinoceros, buffalo, tiger, elephant, antelopes, birds and
fish and exhibiting the peniserectum (Urdhva-etas) pose standing for the
upward force of creative activity. The iconography of the God noticed in
the Mohenjo-Daro seal is fully explained by the following Riks from the Rig
Veda:-

1. "Brahma among gods, leader of the poets, Rishi of sages, buffalo
among animals, hawk among birds, axe among weapons, over the sieve
goes Soma singing."

2. "The thrice-bent bull goes on roaring-The Great God has completely
entered the mortals."

3. "Rudra is the lord of creatures."

Folks, it took me a while, but here is a photo of that ancient seal:

http://faculty.cva.edu/Stout/IndianCambodian/MohenjoDaroSeal2.jpg

According to Ninian Smart, Professor of Comparative World Religions, it
is a toss-up between Jain and Saivite worship as to which is the more
ancient continuously practiced religion.

Now, Mahavira, the 24th Jain Tirthankara was a contemporary of
Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha (around 600 B.C.E.). I believe
that Zarathustra dates also to around 600 B.C.E in Persia.

By around 3500 B.C.E. in the Harrapan civilization, archeologists find brick
platforms which it is assumed were used for Yajna fire sacrifice. And the
discovery of the famous "Siva-Pasupati" (Lord of the Beasts) Seal
indicates Saivism as well as the practice of Yogic.

At any rate, we see a lotus position meditative figure in artistic depictions
of Siva, Mahavaira, and Buddha.

It is very interesting to note that, in the Old Testament, in the Book of
Genesis, there is an account of how Patriarch Abraham sacrificed several
different animals, split them in half, arranged their halves in a row (with a
path through the middle), and then sat all day in a meditative state. When
he was in what sounds like a trance, then God appeared as a fire which
passed along the path between the animal halves, through the middle of
the sacrifice.

We may see the actual description of Abraham's meditative trance and
vision

in Genesis 15:7-21 (King James Version)

7And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the
Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

8And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

9And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she
goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove,
and a young pigeon.

10And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and
laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.

11And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove
them away.

12And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram;
and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

....

17And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark,
behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those
pieces.

We scholarly types love discover grand designs, symmetries and formulas
which span millenia and continents and draw everything together into
one, to organize it and keep it neat, and render it suitable for multiple
choice testing.

And if we cannot discover such patterns, then we create them and impose
them on the data, when everyone is looking the other way.

(I shall be adding to this much of Sunday morning, I hope, as I drink my
many coffees. And I file ever 10 minutes. So keep your cursor near that
refresh button, and, like Ole' Gabby Hayes used to say, "Keep those cards
and letters comin' in!")

We may return somewhat to our thread topic, East vs. West by
noting a number of things. First, in the Vedas, the words siva and
rudra originally mean simple gentle and harsh. Later,
Shiva and Rudra become personified as deities.

You may read about Siva and Rudra here:

http://www.mythfolklore.net/india/encyclopedia/rudra.htm

where Rudra is 'A howler or roarer; terrible.'

Now, it would be most convenient if we could show that our word
CIVIlized is derived from siva (gentle) while our word
rude comes from rudra (terrible).

At sometime around the 3rd millenium B.C.E., in India, a nomadic,
aggressive, warlike people, light in complexion, began to migrate further
and further south into India, to finally meet and merge with the very
gentle and meditative, darker complexioned, people of the south. The
warlike people admired Rudra, the howler. The gentle, thoughtful people
admired Siva, lord of beasts. What took place was a cultural and religious
synthesis, as well as some frolicksome intermarriage.

Several years ago, I watched a PBS educational television interview with
Richard Poe, author of Black Spark, White Fire: Did African Explorers
Civilize Ancient Europe?

Richard Poe cites Aristotle's observation that the Greeks are an ideal
mean or middle road between the fierce barbarians of the North (the
Germanic tribes), and the gentle civilized people of the South (Africa).
Aristotle felt that the Greeks combined the best qualities of both extremes
of rudra and siva.

We easily see the rudra-siva polarity between Tennyson's destructive
poetic analysis of a flower side by side with Basho's gentle haiku of the
nazuna:

‘Flower in the crannied wall’

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

FLOWER in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies;—
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

Get your own free IRC Chat room