Words Cannot Teach It

Zen Buddhism is built on a radical premise: enlightenment cannot be taught with words. The truth Zen points toward is not a concept to understand but an experience to have. Reading about Zen is like reading about swimming — useful only up to a point. At some point, you have to get in the water.

Traditional accounts credit Bodhidharma, a semi-legendary monk, with transmitting meditation-focused Buddhism to China around the 5th or 6th century. Historically, Chan/Zen developed in China over time, in conversation with existing Buddhist practice and Daoist language. It evolved into a tradition suspicious of clinging to scripture, ritual, even its own teachings.