2006-09-17 17:22:10 · 6 answers · asked by skipjack 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Very good question waygro!!!
The reason ZEN caught on was because in the 60's many of the counter cultural thinkers of the day such as Alan Watts etc. popularized ZEN . ZEN is much less dogmatic and more of the essential nature of Buddhism. Dzogchen is also more along the lines of spirituality then mainstream mahayanna Buddhism.
Email me if you have any more questions here...I have been studying this stuff for years. :)
Good Luck,
dharmabear
2006-09-17 19:21:29 · answer #1 · answered by dharmabear 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would assume because Zen Buddhism conflicts less with the values of Western philosophy compared to some other forms of Buddhism.
Materialism and sensualism are rampant in Western society, and Westerners don't wish to give them up. Zen does not require that sacrifice but instead directs the mind to a deeper connection with things.
2006-09-18 00:45:22 · answer #2 · answered by wideawake42 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Absolute faith is placed in a person’s own inner being. Zen came to Japan in the 13th century five centuries after the orthodox forms of Buddhism. It appealed because of its emphasis on the uselessness of words and the insistence of action without thought.
Zen teaches the possibility of enlightenment in the here and now, unlike the tendency that have developed in other strands of Buddhism as far off goals. It teaches that enlightenment is a spontaneous event, totally independent of concepts, techniques or rituals. Zen Monks are based on doing things, learning through experience.
Esoterically regarded, Zen is not a religion but rather an indefinable, incommunicable (fukasetsu) root, free from all names, descriptions, and concepts, that can only be experienced by each individual for him- or herself. From expressed forms of this, all religions have sprung. In this sense Zen is not bound to any religion, including Buddhism. It is the primordial perfection of everything existing, designated by the most various names, experienced by all great sages, saints, and founders of religions of all cultures and times. Buddhism has referred to it as the "identity of samsara and nirvana." From this point of view zazen is not a "method" that brings people living in ignorance (avidya) to the "goal" of liberation; rather it is the immediate expression and actualization of the perfection present in every person at every moment.
2006-09-18 03:55:24 · answer #3 · answered by sista! 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that it is because it is the most well known school over here.
2006-09-18 00:41:37 · answer #4 · answered by mike i 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because we're just not taught to know what the differences are.
2006-09-18 00:23:52 · answer #5 · answered by reid296 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I wouldn't think that was true, but you might be correct.
2006-09-18 00:50:36 · answer #6 · answered by S K 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋