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Simplicity in Zen

Buddhism is very complicated because it is not a monolithic system of thoughts and philosophy. It accumulated many centuries of cultural and philosophical development. The Sutras were all attributed to Buddha but were most likely written by people remotely associated with Buddha. Lots of the mystic Hinduism found their ways into Buddhism, which was inevitable because Buddhism was developed in the Hindu environment, like the 33 layers of heaven, 18 layer in hell, the reincarnation of all animals, etc.

There were many different theories about how life, death, and Nirvana. There were many sectors and schools about how one could attain Nirvana to avoid the reincarnation into a lower animal form. Thing got complicated and confusion reigned supreme. In essence, everybody just picked what he believed and convinced others that his was the best and most logical way to deal with life and all its ramifications.

The general consensus was that vegetarianism was good, giving to the temple was good, kindness to people and animal was good, reciting Sutra was good, meditation was good, worshipping Buddha and other Buddhist deities was good, dedicating to priesthood was good, etc. Could one attain Nirvana by doing all these? Maybe. Maybe not.

Zen was a great simplification of all these. Huineng maintained that Buddha hood and enlightenment could not be achieved through generally accepted Buddhist practices, like reciting Sutras, making offerings, meditation in special sitting positions. As everybody already had the Buddha nature in him, all he had to do is looking inward to find the true Buddha. Our senses and our thoughts tended to veil us from the Buddha nature and they should not be trusted. The process of Zen (Dhyana, Ch'an, meditation), was to reject the influences of senses and thoughts, and to arrive at a state of ideallessness, nonobjectivity, and nonattachment. In this state, nothing external of ourselves and within our own minds can influence us and dragged us back to the earthy existence.