Zen and Life

 Dr.Wei Chengsi gave a brilliant lecture “Zen and Life” at the Chinese Culture Colloquium on the afternoon of November 6.

Zen is the Way

Zen is process whereby one achieves high intelligence by practicing intensive concentration.

Like Confucianism, Buddhism teaches the philosophy of life. The difference is Buddhism provides a method called Zen to cultivate mind step by step. Zen consists of Non-Buddhist meditation, Mahayana and Tantra meditation. Non-Buddhist meditation adopts sit-ins to keep oneself peaceful but not sleepy; Mahayana is divided into sakara and nirakara. Nirakara is the supreme method, which features contacting the heart without using words. The last one is Tantra meditation, which requires a man to coordinate hand, mouth and mind. Tantra meditation is more popular abroad because it offers more practical methods.

Zen and Chinese culture

From the late Tang dynasty, Zen has been integrated into Chinese culture gradually, affecting different aspects of Chinese life, for instance, Buddhist temples, poems and paintings, language and tea ceremonies.

Zen and modern society

There are three main imbalances in modern society: material and spirit, science and humanity, competition and harmony, and Zen may be conducive to solving these issues. Dr. Wei said that nowadays few professors in college would tell students to develop wisdom and he therefore encourages them to find time to be alone. If Newton had been super busy, he wouldn’t have had the leisure to watch the apple fall.