Zen: In Search of Enlightenment

Zen, the Japanese form of Buddhism, is the determining element in the Japanese character. It is not a matter of belief in a deity, a conviction that certain acts incur divine punishment and others divine reward; rather it is a mind-set and a way of life that stresses the most rigorous kinds of discipline and self-abnegation and fosters a single-minded devotion to one's goal and unquestioning obedience to one's superior. To watch a postulate monk sit without making any visible response to being whacked on the shoulder with a two-by-four and to know that Japanese businessmen commonly go on retreat to such monasteries is bound to make American businessmen and women pause.