Chan is viewed as a school of Buddhism that arose in China. But from a Chan perspective, it’s not a school, a fixed practice, a thing to attain, or even an experience. It’s simply the manifestation of the buddhadharma as laid out in the threefold practice of virtue, meditation, and wisdom. This threefold practice is the essence of Buddhism’s eightfold path. Virtue is associated with right speech, right action, and right livelihood; meditation is associated with right effort, right concentration, and right meditation; and wisdom is associated with right resolve and right view.
The distinctive approach of Chan is to point out that there’s no such as a fixed self; we’re already free. It’s only due to our fixation
