The word Zen is the Sinico-Japanese abbreviation of the Sanskrit Dhyana, or Meditation. It implies the whole body of teachings and discipline peculiar to a Buddhist sect now popularly known as the Zen Sect. This religion was first introduced in Japan by the Samurai, the military class.
Throughout history, there have been striking similarities between the zen monks and the samurai. First of all, both had to endure privation and strict discipline without complaint. Secondly, the so-called honest poverty is a characteristic of both the Zen monk and the Samurai. Thirdly, the Zen monk and the Samurai were distinguished by their manliness and dignity in manner sometimes amounting to rudeness. This is due to the hard discipline that they underwent, and the mode of instruction. Fourthly, our Samurai encountered death, as is well known, with unflinching courage. He would never turn back from, but fight till his last with his enemy. To be called a coward was for him the dishonour worse than death itself. If a person should be a person and not a beast, then he must be a Samurai-brave, generous, upright, faithful, and manly, full of self-respect and self-confidence, at the same time full of the spirit of self-sacrifice.
Thus becoming, as it were, an indispensable discipline for the Samurai, Zen never came to an end, but grew more prosperous than before during the reign of the Emperor Go-dai-go, one of the most enthusiastic patrons of the faith.
