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Soto (曹洞 宗; jap.: soto-shū) is (or was) one of the five
sects of
Zen-Buddhism
in China.
In Japan, it is one of the famous
Zen-sects, as well as the
Rinzai- and
Obaku-sect. With 14,700 temples and nearly 7 million adherents (in
1989) it is the biggest of these Zen-sects.
Soto, still practised both in
Japan and in the West, stresses
shikantaza, the
meditation in simply sitting in a fixed posture. Sitting is not seen
as the means to an end, but as an end in itself, a direct means of
expressing enlightenment and Buddhahood in an instant.
The sect was founded by
Dogen Zenji (1200-1253) a leading religious figure in
Japan, whose thoughts are the basis of the sect.
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