Shaka-nyorai
Shaka-nyorai East AsiaIn Japan the Buddha known as Sakyamuni, ‘the silent sage of the Sakya clan’,is the perfect embodiment of virtue. With the exception of the Jodo sect, which concentrates exclusively on the worship of Amida–nyorai, there are shrines dedicated to Shaka-nyorai in every Buddhist monastery, but above all this obmutescent figure is revered by the adherents of Zen.
Although the doctrines of the Ch'an Tsung, or ‘inner–light school’, were first brought from China in 1191, the real founder of the Zen sect was Dogen (1200–53), who established the great monastery of Eiheiji. Dogen spent four years under the instruction of Chinese masters, and the Japanese today acknowledge that Zen doctrine owes much to Taoism. Like Lao–tzu, the Buddha is supposed to have realized that the experience of Enlightenment was beyond the power of words to convey. Therefore the inexpressible doctrine was born of a smile of Shaka-nyorai before a...
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