“Sati” (Mindfulness); an Observation on Early Buddhist Authority to Zen Meditation

Abstract

Any Introductory books on Zen Buddhism, which origin related in a delightful little story, between the Buddha and Mahākāśyapa, in the assembly, at the Vulture peak (Grdhrakūa), start with ten or six drawings called 'Ox herding Pictures', depicting a story of taming an unruly wild bull, drawn by some ancient Zen masters notably by Kaku-an and Jitoku of the twelfth century. In the drawings, the bull represents the mind while the herdsman, who tames the bull, is considered to be a yogi, who engaged in meditation. The term Zen means meditation derived from the Chinese Ch'an of Sanskrit term dhyāna that known as Jhāna in the early Buddhism. But it is popularly believed that Zen meditation, that was introduced probably by Bodhidharma, from India to China, about in the sixth century A.C., and later on Went through remarkable transformations, that almost beyond recognition, is different from all other systems of Buddhism. This erroneous impression probably has been created by later developments in China and Japan. The fundamental principles of Zen and the concept of Satori (Sudden Enlightenment) are evidently based on early Buddhism. The significance of the simile that used in the Zen Buddhism, how developed the mental aspect? Is too, goes back to very ancient times. For example; as it appears in the Ox herding Pictures, the ox, at the beginning, is black but in the course of its taming and training it gradually becomes white, until finally it is completely white. Here, this is what the underlying idea of early Buddhist explanation on mind. For instance, in the Anguttara Nikāya, it is says thus; the mind, naturally, at the begging, is pure. It polluted by extraneous impurities and this defiled mind should be cleansed through discipline and meditation. In the Satipahāna-Sutta of Majjhima Nikāya, it has been taught about scattered mind which does not like to enter into the path of a subject of meditation (kammatthāna-vithi), but it should tie it to the post of the object of the presence of mindfulness (satipahānārammanat-thamba) by the rope of mindfulness (sati-yotta). Then that mind , even after having struggled this way and that, not finding the object previously indulged in, unable to break the rope of mindfulness and to run away, sits down and lies down close to that same object (of mindfulness) by way of neighbourhood concentration and attainment concentration (upacarappanavasena).