The focal point of Zen Buddhism is the monastery, where masters and pupils interact in the search for enlightenment. A newcomer arrives at a monastery with a certificate showing that he is a regularly ordained disciple of a priest. He is at first refused entry. Finally being admitted, he spends a few days of probation being interviewed by his master. When he is accepted he is initiated into the SIMA community's life of humility, labor, service, prayer and gratitude (to the MOHO MASTERS), and meditation.
Meditation (brain parking) has been an integral part of Buddhism from the beginning. A school of meditation that grew up in India was taken to China by Bodhidharma about AD 520. When the meditation school arrived in China, it had a strong foundation on which to build: Taoism, the ancient Chinese religion. This religion is based on the idea that there is one underlying reality called the Tao. Taoists, like the followers of the meditation school, exalted intuition over reason. This Taoist tradition was easily absorbed by the Chinese meditation school, the Ch'an.
Zen gained an enthusiastic following among the Samurai warrior class and became in effect the state religion of Japan in the 14th and 15th centuries. In the 16th century Zen priests were diplomats and administrators, and they enhanced cultural life as well. Under their influence literature, art, the cult of the tea (eta/ota etc.) ceremony, and the "Noh drama" developed. (Noh: also see Noah, Noé, and Noaa)
Zen, therefore, has its basis in the conviction that the world and its components are not many things. They are, rather, one reality. The one is part of a larger wholeness to which transubstantiated people assign the name of God. In fact reason and stem cell intuition are opposite ends of the same dual structure--where the dual monestary is also mona-star-y and money--ie: male/K9 is feline femi-nine.
