What is Chan? Part 4
So what is Chan (Zen) Buddhism? Is there no simple answer?
NO, there is not, Chan is as versatile as a Swiss Army Knife, has in its peculiarity many meanings, woundings, explanations.
One of them is that Chan is a clever trick, a method to free people from their illusions, thus enabling them to live a balanced life without feeling more the sufferings weighing heavily on the souls. Those who can separate themselves from greed, hatred and delusion through Chan have achieved their personal nirvana, they become happy, mindful and a sentient being. Why can Chan also be a trick? Well, if you follow the philosophy of Chan, then the world will not change, everything will remain as it was, with one exception: you, your personality will change, because you will change your identity, emulate other ideas, you will change as a whole. Your understanding of events, living beings and things will experience a completely new view, because your old filters will be "retired", new filters will be formed, through which you will look at life in a completely new way.
Our personality, the role we play, our behavior, all actions, even the body in its expression, everything is created by the mind, Buddha said, "With our thoughts we create the world!"
Whoever follows the philosophy of Chan will suddenly "need", "want" and "pursue" completely different things than he/she did until then. Because all that we had understood as reality, that has now changed, through the descent into the Chan we have created a new, personal reality for ourselves, which now completely differently determines the feelings, releases other emotions, makes other contacts possible.
Everything that we had built up, that we had put together, that is no longer important for Chan Buddhists (this also applies to the large group of "feel-good Buddhists") in one fell swoop, the trick of the Chan has worked, has made life easier for the followers. But even this newfound reality is an illusion, because we have also created it ourselves, constructed it according to our wishes, because we wanted to follow the Chan, have therefore left the illusions of the conditional world, are on the way to Buddha-nature, the unconditional acceptance of what is, turned away from the desire to somehow "want to have it".
Whether you think Chan (Zen) Buddhism is a trick, or whether you follow spiritual philosophy strictly as a worldview or even a religion, the important thing is that you come into balance, that you no longer lose your footing and/or orientation so quickly, that you deal with yourself and your circumstances more calmly. No human being can force life, in a few minutes everything can be over for each of us, there Chan can make the difference that lets you stop constructing illusions, because fear, greed and egoism are not a basis for a whole lifetime, at some point the penny must drop, right?
What (or who) is Buddha for you? Is it a person, a (former) great teacher, or is he a god for you? Does he stand for you as a symbol for enlightenment, for the awakening that every human being so desperately needs? Or is the great teacher just a voice from long ago that reassures you, that brings you peace and tranquility, that gives you security?
No matter how you see things, if Buddhism helps you get through life, then it is right and important, at least for the moment, and the moment is all that matters.
The path is the goal!
In the next few days, continue reading about the topic "What is Chan?"
What is satisfaction, what is danger, and how can we escape?
- Buddha - honorary name of Siddharta Gautama - 560 to 480 before the year zero