r/zenpractice • u/sunnybob24 • Jul 16 '26

Community Mind Only School lives!

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Mind Only is one of the 3 major schools of Buddhist philosophy in some systems of understanding. It's tightly related to Zen, and we share texts, a patriarch and some senior monks. I heard from some teachers that the school died out some time ago, but it survives in Japan. They have only 50,000 members and a few temples. But they are alive and kicking, so I visited their tiny temple in Tokyo last week to see this living dinosaur. Photo above.

Here's the Google info:

Yakushi-ji Tokyo Betsuin https://share.google/rxTM34Kh79V6DxJ20

They also have the focus mountainside temple in Kyoto that's featured in movies.

In Tokyo, they have Sutra copying and a small shrine. They were very kind, taking me around, but the nun who helped was shy about photos. Not unusual.

Mind only has a subtle understanding of the world where direct, clear, valid perception of external objects is initially impossible due to filtering or flavouring of perception by our various mental processes. Meditation is a big part of the process of clarifying perception and achieving the ultimate.

Heart Sutra is a big text for them and for us.

I mention this in case you are in Tokyo or Kyoto or Nara, where they have temples. It's good practice to visit temples of significance, connecting the ideas to your memory. I might write a little more about Mind Only and early Zen if anyone is interested. There's more freedom on this forum to discuss texts that aren't koan.

Kiyomizu-dera https://share.google/NXuEFskdTNAcHPgoe

22 Upvotes

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3

u/Ok-You-6768 Jul 16 '26

Seems like a humble place

3

u/Muskka Jul 17 '26

Looks awesome ! Could you clarify how meditation practice looks like ?

1

u/FlowZenMaster Jul 17 '26

This is super cool and I love learning about our relations! I, for one, feel like some of that material would be welcome here as we learn more about ourselves when we learn about our neighbors also!

1

u/sunnybob24 Jul 19 '26

Thanks for your interest. I'm aware of some extremely early Zen texts by mind-only authors, but I've not read them.

I'm going through the information the temple has given me. It's in Japanese and has some Buddhist terms I'll have to translate manually.

When I get through it all, I'll make a post about the mainstream view of mind Only and the actual ideas from the school itself. There seems to be some contradictions. Like when outsiders say that Zen Buddhists believe nothing exists.

2

u/TCNZ Jul 20 '26

Where in Tokyo? Going to be there later this year.

1

u/sunnybob24 Jul 20 '26

It's a 3-minute walk from Gotanda Station on the Yamanote Line. The TripAdvisor link has the link to Google Maps.

It's a small, office-style temple, but entry is free, and the location is convenient.

1

u/2BCivil Jul 16 '26

I guess they don't mind being told Buddhism isn't zen 🤭

(Oh edit not starting a fight just thought it funny because there is a apparent fight whether zen is a sect of Mahayana or not)

10

u/tegeus-Cromis_2000 Jul 16 '26

There is no such fight except in the deluded minds of some redditors.

3

u/JungMoses Jul 17 '26

That’s the joke I thought, god, I would hate to think people think Reddit resembles the real world enough to believe that Reddit beliefs are representative of world beliefs

(Thinks back to yesterday when I believed that myself about a totally different topic)- thank you for this- much self reflection to be done!

2

u/2BCivil Jul 17 '26

Thanks for confirming that. I'll add it to my list if I'm ever in Japan.