Previewing the Path of Zen

Abstract

This chapter introduces Zen as an “investigation into the self.” It relates this to the emphasis on self-understanding and self-realization in other philosophical and religious traditions, especially to Socrates’s understanding of the maxim “Know thyself.” It explains why meditation is central to Zen’s method of investigating the self, and specifically how Zen meditation alleviates the distorting effects of “karmic editing,” our accustomed perceptual and conceptual filtering of reality. Zen meditation is introduced in terms of what the Daoist sage Zhuangzi calls “sitting and forgetting.” The chapter concludes with a reflection on Zen master Dōgen’s famous yet enigmatic teaching: “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by the myriad things of the world.”