Zen Moves West

In its development in time, Buddhism moved outside Asia. Zen gained a remarkable place in Western culture when it became accessible to scholars and curious interested individuals at the end of the nineteenth century in the United States and in England. Zen was endowed with extraordinary characteristics which caused the immediate attraction of Western minds. It pointed to a direct approach for realising enlightenment, awakening, Nirvana, in the Zen tradition called kensho and satori, the acquired liberation from the constrictions created by the individual ordinary non-enlightened mind, and the ensuing extinction of the existential sufferings of life. The progress along the Way was guided by Zen Masters, the roshi, which were the living testimony of the enlightenment achieved through a lineage of transmission which went back to Shakyamuni Buddha. These extraordinary aspects of Zen led to its initial wide popularity in the West Coast of the USA in the 1960s, providing substantial inspiration and contribution to the revolutionary and innovative culture developing there, later spreading also to other countries.