Zen meditation goes back over a thousand years and there are no written records available to cover its exact start. So, as you would expect, it is steeped in tradition. No-one is totally certain exactly how or when Zen meditation first started although one of the earliest influences is the Flower Sermon. This ceremony was wordless and this is thought to help the purity of the sermon, where the Sakyamuni or Bhudda offers a white flower to the Sangha, an assembly of people who have a common goal or interest. This kind of ritualistic ceremony is often associated with Zen Bhuddism.

These early origins give Zen meditation a lot of its mystique and mystery. Rather than following a series of written creeds, practicers of Zen rely on the direct experience of different things as they journey from being a student to (eventually) a teacher of the art.

This can make it difficult for beginners to get to grips with Zen meditation methods as the learning takes place over an extended period of time, which is at odds with our modern aim of having everything we want instantly available. That said, the benefits of this are that you end up with a deeper understanding and arguably a better meditation experience.

The method is split up into 5 schools, also known as houses:

Guiyang Schoool, Linji, Caodong, Yunmen and Fayan. They were named after the different Zen masters who founded them and, as you would expect, each takes a slightly different approach.

Between them, these different schools have imfluenced the current methodology of Zen Bhuddism.

There are also national differences in the way that Zen is practiced. for instance, China’s version is called Ch