The Tao of Zen?

[Ikkyu]

More things I've dug up recently:

"Zen Buddhism... [is] a natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist influences."
-- D.T. Suzuki

[From:]

"Dr. Daisetz Suzuki (D.T. Suzuki), the equally eminent authority of Zen Buddhism, speaks of it (Zen Buddhism) as a natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist conditions."
-- Dwight Goddard, "History of Ch'an Buddhism previous to the times of Hui-neng (Wie-lang)" (2007) In: A Buddhist Bible, Forgotten Books (publisher)

[...]

Highly referenced and citated section on the Wikipedia.org page on Zen Buddhism:

(cf. "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen#Origins_and_Taoist_influences")

"Taoist terminology was used to express Buddhist doctrines in the oldest translations of Buddhist texts,[14] a practice termed ko-i, "matching the concepts",[17] while the emerging Chinese Buddhism had to compete with Taoism and Confucianism.[11]
The first Buddhist recruits in China were Taoists.[14] Against this background, especially the Taoist concept of naturalness seemed to have been inherited by the early Chán disciples:[18] they equated—to some extent—the ineffable Tao and Buddha-nature,[19] and thus, rather than feeling bound to the abstract "wisdom of the sūtras", emphasized Buddha-nature to be found in "everyday" human life, just as the Tao.[19]
In addition to Taoist ideas, also Neo-Taoist concepts were taken over in Chinese Buddhism.[17] Concepts such as "T’i -yung" (Essence and Function) and "Li-shih" (Noumenon and Phenomenon) were first taken over by Hua-yen Buddhism,[17] which consequently influenced Chán deeply.[20] On the other hand, Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being.[21]"