• Zen means “gathering of the spirit”.
• In the 6th/7th Century CE, the Mahayana Reform Movement (ch’an) in China took over elements of Daoism.
• In the 13th Century, ch’an entered Japan, where it came to be called zen.
• As the royal road to enlightenment, “sitting” in thought-less meditation is practiced;
the spirit is thus to be “emptied”.
• Zen had enormous influence on Japanese aesthetics (the tea-ceremony, painting, gardening art).
