What’s Daoism Got to Do with It?

China Root: Daoism, Chan, and Original Zen by David Hinton

Shambhala Publications, 2020 176 pages; $17.95

THE COMMON understanding in America is that Zen Buddhism came to us from Japan, where in turn it was transmitted from China in the twelfth century, by the great masters Eisai and Dogen. In China, it developed first through a singular, active transmission from India in the sixth century, a feature most notably associated with the figure of Bodhidharma. The legendary iconoclast, moreover, came from a long line of masters in southern India that traced their teaching directly back to the Buddha, focusing on meditation practice and a close connection to the master in the quest to overcome the pervasive suffering and essentially illusory nature of the world and reach “the other shore” of nirvana, while eschewing all embellishments (chanting) and organizational encumbrances (rituals) of mainstream schools. It is also generally accepted that, while Zen claims to present a tradition outside of or beyond the scriptures, its thought owes a great deal to the (), (), and () sets