Thich Nhat Hahn

Discussion of meditation in the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions.
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Greg_the_poet
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Thich Nhat Hahn

Post by Greg_the_poet »

At the moment I'm practising soto Zen/zazen which I often find very hard. I love reading books by Thich Nhat Hahn and was wondering if his Zazen differs from the Japanese Soto school? If so how does his tradition do it? Also what is his tradition called?
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Lazy_eye
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Re: Thich Nhat Hahn

Post by Lazy_eye »

Greg_the_poet wrote:At the moment I'm practising soto Zen/zazen which I often find very hard. I love reading books by Thich Nhat Hahn and was wondering if his Zazen differs from the Japanese Soto school? If so how does his tradition do it? Also what is his tradition called?
Hi Greg,

His school is Linji Chan -- Rinzai in Japanese, Lâm Tế in Vietnamese. It differs from Soto in some significant ways.

Best regards,

Lazy
Greg_the_poet
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Re: Thich Nhat Hahn

Post by Greg_the_poet »

Thanks lazy, gassho :)
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Huifeng
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Re: Thich Nhat Hahn

Post by Huifeng »

Lazy_eye wrote:
Greg_the_poet wrote:At the moment I'm practising soto Zen/zazen which I often find very hard. I love reading books by Thich Nhat Hahn and was wondering if his Zazen differs from the Japanese Soto school? If so how does his tradition do it? Also what is his tradition called?
Hi Greg,

His school is Linji Chan -- Rinzai in Japanese, Lâm Tế in Vietnamese. It differs from Soto in some significant ways.

Best regards,

Lazy
Well, in lineage terms, it descends from Linji, yes. But don't expect it to therefore conform to some notion of Tang or Song dynasty Linji, such as it focusing on gong'an, or the legendary "shouting and beating".

Best to say that his tradition is "The Order of Interbeing", after all, that's what he himself refers to. It is part of the whole modernist movement of Chinese / Vietnamese / etc. Buddhism that has arisen in the 20th CTY.

~~ Huifeng
Greg_the_poet
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Re: Thich Nhat Hahn

Post by Greg_the_poet »

There are so many schools of Zen, let alone Buddhism. It makes me laugh :D
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Lazy_eye
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Re: Thich Nhat Hahn

Post by Lazy_eye »

Huifeng wrote:Well, in lineage terms, it descends from Linji, yes. But don't expect it to therefore conform to some notion of Tang or Song dynasty Linji, such as it focusing on gong'an, or the legendary "shouting and beating".

Best to say that his tradition is "The Order of Interbeing", after all, that's what he himself refers to. It is part of the whole modernist movement of Chinese / Vietnamese / etc. Buddhism that has arisen in the 20th CTY.
Thank you, Ven. Huifeng. Are all these modernist schools Linji by lineage (hey, that sounds rather catchy!)? Is all surviving Caodong via Dogen and Japan?
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Huifeng
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Re: Thich Nhat Hahn

Post by Huifeng »

Lazy_eye wrote:
Huifeng wrote:Well, in lineage terms, it descends from Linji, yes. But don't expect it to therefore conform to some notion of Tang or Song dynasty Linji, such as it focusing on gong'an, or the legendary "shouting and beating".

Best to say that his tradition is "The Order of Interbeing", after all, that's what he himself refers to. It is part of the whole modernist movement of Chinese / Vietnamese / etc. Buddhism that has arisen in the 20th CTY.
Thank you, Ven. Huifeng. Are all these modernist schools Linji by lineage (hey, that sounds rather catchy!)? Is all surviving Caodong via Dogen and Japan?
Probably most of them are, simply because for the past few centuries, the majority of formal lineages in China (and Vietnam I think) were Linji.
But there are some others, too. And also the revival of the Weiyang school with Ven Xuyun (Hsu Yun) in the 20th CTY.

~~ Huifeng
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