BIKERS CLUB FEBRUARY 2020 ISSUE | Page 51

The Zen Buddhism Lifestyle B I K E R S C L U B ® | www.bikersclub.in What does "Zen" mean? With our thoughts, we make the world WWW.BIKERSCLUB.IN The word "Zen" is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese "Ch'an," which means "meditation." Ch'an came to Japan and became "Zen" around the eight century. Today, the word "Zen" is in more general use in the West. At the heart of the Japanese culture lies Zen, a school of Mahayana Buddhism. Zen is, first and foremost, a practice that was uninterruptedly transmitted from master to disciple, and that goes back to the spiritual Enlightenment of a man named Siddharth Gautam (Shakyamuni Gotama in Japanese) - The Buddha - 2500 years ago in India. What is Zen Buddhism? Defining Zen is like trying to describe the taste of honey to someone who has never tasted it before. You can try to explain the texture and scent of honey, or you can try to compare and correlate it with similar foods. However, honey is honey! As long as you have not tasted it, you are in the illusion of what honey is.