Sam van Schaik Lecture Sep 21, 2019 at UBC for the Tianzhu Book Prize

We are pleased to announce the winner of the Tianzhu Book Prize for Excellence in Chan Studies.
The recipient of the 2019 award is Dr. Sam van Schaik, head of the Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library, for his book “The Spirit of Zen” (Yale University Press, 2018).
Abstract
It is well known that ‘Zen’ (or Chan or Son) means ‘meditation’. But there is less agreement about what meditation itself meant to early Zen teachers and their students. In this talk I will look at the Zen lineage history called ‘The Masters and Students of the Lanka’, as well as well as some Zen teachings preserved in Tibetan translation, to see what light they shed on early Zen meditation teaching. I will argue that these sources show that there was a multiplicity of meditation methods in early Zen writings. Rather than meditation meaning one thing (or nothing) to these early teachers, it could mean many things. But I will also suggest that there is evidence for a developing ‘Zen approach’ to meditation, for example in statements that there is no buddha apart from the mind, and that one should not be attached to the act of meditation itself.
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Emaho! Wonderful and interesting lecture! Wonderful subject! Thank you ✨🙏✨