SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

d. What is Serene Reflection Meditation(Sōtō Zen)?In China the most popular of the Zen schools was the Lin-chi(Rinzai). However, in Japan the TsÕao-Tung (J. S‡t‡) Schoolenjoys the greatest popularity. The Rinzai School in Japanmainly enjoyed the favor of the Shogunate and Daimyos(feudal lords) while, in contrast to this, the S‡t‡ School penetrateddeeply into the hearts of the common people. In additionto S‡t‡ and Rinzai Schools in Japan, there is still another ZenSchool known as the †baku School. This originally was affiliatedwith Rinzai, but since its founder in Japan, an immigrantChinese priest named Ingen (1592Ð1673 C.E.), lived on Mt.†baku in China, he called his school of Zen the †baku School.Ingen introduced this school into Japan during the TokugawaPeriod. Since the Meditation Schools of the Ming Dynasty hadalready attached great importance to nembutsu (invoking thename of a Buddha to attain salvation), this may be regarded asthe distinctive feature of the †baku School. In contemporaryJapan, Rinzai counts 6,000 temples; S‡t‡, 15,000 and †baku, amere 500. The three Meditation Schools combined have morethan 8,000,000 followers and can boast of the second largestclergy of any Buddhist sect in Japan. The meditation which hasbeen introduced to the West is largely Rinzai. Rinzai makes use126