Don’t make the mistake of believing that writing is just talent and that every writer was born with it. Instead, we can see that the situation is widely different. Every proper piece of writing is a result of education, practice, training, dedication, and a lot of hard work. Let’s be completely honest, pretty much anyone can do something like this, but that doesn’t mean that the result will be as good as it needs to be, right?
We can even see that some computer programs can generate some kind of text. But it is important to say that it will never be as good as the one written by a trained person. If you would like to, have received some kind of help with writing a school essay be sure to visit TopAssignmentExperts. But what happens when you need to write about a more complex topic?
Surely, you would need to research the particular subject. Let’s say you need to write on Zen Buddhism philosophy, which is a pretty hard subject to understand, especially to us Westerners. Here, we would like to provide you with a couple of tips that can be of crucial help when writing an essay on this topic. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of these tips.
1. Don’t Use Western Perspective
The first and commonest mistake we Westerners make when writing on something that comes from the East is that we have a Western perspective. We cannot stress just how wrong this is. When you think about it, you will see that we are right on this one. For example, Zen Buddhism is a concept that appeared in a part of the world that has completely different values from ours.
Going into all aspects of history would take too much time. However, we can see just how different cultural aspects are in these two parts of the world. Therefore, having our perspective on things wouldn’t be as effective as we would like it to be, right? So, before you even start to write an essay on this topic, be sure that you have understood the state of mind of a person who practices Zen Buddhism.
2. It’s Different from Other Religions
After we’ve established that we shouldn’t use a Western perspective when talking about Zen Buddhism, it needs to be said that we need to forget everything we know about other religions. Buddhism is a religion like no other in the world because it doesn’t have any kind of doctrine inside it. At the same time, there are no rituals and scripture. The only thing you need to do is practice your spirit.
When you add Zen to Buddhism, you get a whole another picture in front of you. Zen is a Japanese word for meditation, which means that this concept encompasses all the practices of the religion, and adds meditation to it. It needs to be said that it also includes some characteristics of different concepts like Chinese poetry, Taoism, and Confucianism. You should take all of these into consideration.
3. There’s No God in It
Pretty much all of the most widespread religions in the world have one or more Gods. However, it needs to be said that Zen Buddhism doesn’t have any. Of course, all the things the followers are learning were established by Siddhartha Gautama, better known by the nickname Buddha. His story starts in a city in today’s Nepal, called Lumbini. He was a prince who was about to inherit his father’s throne.
However, his journey becomes much more interesting when he decides not to become a king. According to some branches of Buddhism, some entities can be described as Gods. However, it needs to be said that they are not as significant as Buddha. Practically, we are not talking about the type of religion that is similar to the most widespread ones in the world like Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
4. Clear Distinction from Materialism
Surely, you have seen at least one documentary where you can see many monks who are practicing some skills inside a monastery. In that monastery, there are a plethora of different items that you will certainly find interesting. However, it needs to be said that possessing anything is not considered good by Buddhism. We can see that materialism is something that is discouraged by this religion.
If you take a deep dive into the literature, you will see that materialism is considered dangerous for human’s soul health, if we can say it like that. It corrupts the soul, and it could lead to many bad things down the road. If you are fortunate enough to have anyone who has enough about Buddhism around you, be sure to ask them about this part. You can be sure that this is the answer you will get.
5. What is the Ultimate Goal?
Pretty much every religion in the world can be described as relatively simple when we are talking about their goals. It’s the part that leads to it is considered complex and sometimes, impossible to understand. However, we can see that explaining the ultimate goal of Buddhism is not easy, especially to us who are completely from a different cultural background. The simplest way to describe it is to say, enlightenment.
Every living being in the world will die eventually. When the time comes, the being will be reborn in some other form. For example, a man can become an animal in the next life and vice versa. To gain enlightenment means that you have succeeded to escape this cycle of life and death, and reaching the state of Nirvana. Zen, or meditation, is just a way that will make it much easier for you.
In Conclusion
As you can see, writing an essay on Zen Buddhism is impossible if you are not aware of the most important characteristics of this concept. Here, we’ve presented you with some of the crucial ones. Plus, have in mind that these are not the only ones and that your research will need to be much wider if you want to be successful or you can just check uk.assignmentgeek.com/