The way of Zen

The Way of Zen is to attain enlightenment after eliminating ignorance and self-attachment by one's own effort. Of course if you eliminate ingorance self attachment does not exist. Enlightenment is attained through self-discipline and dispelling our ignorance. It generally comes a little at a time. By first taking the step to realize ones nature. You will realize the great battle is inside. You will understand the great battle was only a battle of self. As they say the heavens will open for you to proceed. It was brought by Bodhidharma from India. He claimed to teach the Buddhism that the Buddha originally taught, emphasizing the mind to mind transmission, as Buddha passed it on to Kashyapa when he held up a flower. This is one of the reasons buddhism on the practiced in Zen is different from types practiced in China like Chan. Bodhidharma's Buddhism, naturally fused with the indiginous mysticism of China, Taoism, became known as Ch'an. But Zen and Chan are related but not the same. Conciousness First it's important to note that the practice of Zen, and coming to true understanding, entails Zen practice, and not merely the reading and philosophising of idea in Zen books. One can only know Zen through experience, which cannot be gotten by intellectualizing over it. The intellect cannot know Zen. The third layer of consciousness, store consciousness, is the deepest. There are many names for this kind of consciousness. Mahayana tradition calls this store consciousness, or alaya, in Sanskrit. The Theravada tradition uses the Pali word bhavanga to describe this consciousness. Bhavanga means constantly flowing, like a river. Store consciousness is also sometimes called root consciousness (mulavijñana in Sanskrit) or sarvabijaka, which means “the totality of the seeds.” In Vietnamese, we call store consciousness tang. Tang means to keep and preserve. These different names hint at the three aspects of store consciousness. The first meaning is of a place, a “store,” where all kinds of seeds and information are kept. The second meaning is suggested by the Vietnamese name, because store consciousness doesn’t just take in all the information, it holds it and preserves it. The third meaning is suggested by bhavanga, the sense of processing and transforming. States of Meditation Zanshin ( literally remaining spirit) Mushin ( literally no mind) Fudoshin ( literally Immovable mind).