Chan
Do you know about the chan? Chan came to public attention in china as a distinct form of Buddhism sometime around the end of the seventh century. There appeared a group of monks at that time acting and talking in ways that challenged the kinds of knowledge and technologies that Chinese Buddhists and the society at large had held in highest esteem for generations. Their religious practices and modes of discourse bore little resemblance to those of either their predecessors or fellow Buddhists. Not only did they not do what was expected, they often engaged in actions that would have been regarded by Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike as quite shocking. Almost nowhere in this literature do we read that they studied, recited or expounded that Buddhist as nothing less than the words and fundamental insights of the Buddha scriptures known as sutras. Yet those very scriptures were regarded by almost all Buddhist as nothing less than the words and fundamental insights of the Buddha himself.