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RELATED TOPIC:
AN ACCOUNT OF MY HUT, BY CHÔMEI

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KENKÔ's ESSAYS IN IDLENESS

RELATED TOPIC:
NOH DRAMA

 
MEDIEVAL JAPAN
Zen Buddhism

Robert Oxnam :: Zen Buddhism flourished in this last phase of medieval Japan. In its pure form, Zen was and remains an austere faith, emphasizing the practice of meditation as the route to ultimate truth beyond the illusions of this world.

Unlike the other salvationist sects, which permitted the individual to escape from suffering by putting his faith completely in some other being or thing, Zen emphasized personal enlightenment via individual discipline.

Through art and aesthetics, we can see that Zen had an enormous influence. It stressed simplicity and directness in all forms of expression. The ceremony of serving tea became a formalized Zen ritual, and tea houses were incorporated into Zen temples. Garden landscapes of sand and rocks within temples were places of meditation, the raked sand representing water and the rocks symbolizing mountains.