Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void is all-inclusive, having no opposite - there is nothing which it excludes or opposes. It is living void because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all human beings.

ZEN MASTER DOGEN

Dōgen Zenji  was a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. Originally ordained as a monk in the Tendai School in Kyoto, he was ultimately dissatisfied with its teaching and traveled to China to seek out what he believed to be a more authentic Buddhism. He remained there for five years, finally training under Tiantong Rujing, an eminent teacher of the Chinese Caodong lineage. Upon his return to Japan, he began promoting the meditation practice of zazen through literary works such as Fukan zazengi and Bendōwa. 

ZEN MASTER BASHO

​“Baso, Doitsu (Ma-tsu Tao-i) 709-788. Third most influential master in the history of Zen, after Bodhidharma and Eno. He had at least eighty, and maybe as many as one hundred thirty, enlightened successors, including Hyakujo Ekai and Nansen Fugan.

His family name was Ma – Mazu meaning Ancestor Ma or Master Ma.He was born in 709 northwest of Chengdu in Sichuan. During his years as master, Mazu lived in Jiangxi, from which he took the name "Jiangxi Daoyi".

ZEN MASTER RINZAI

Founder of the Rinzai school of Zen. One of the greatest, most influential Chinese masters in Zen history, known for his thunderous shouts and sudden blows. Student of Obaku Kiun.

ZEN MASTER BANKEI

Bankei Yōtaku (盤珪永琢, 1622-1693) was a Japanese Rinzai Zen master, and the abbot of the Ryōmon-ji and Nyohō-ji. He is best known for his talks on the Unborn as he called it. According to D. T. Suzuki, Bankei, together with Dogen and Hakuin, is one of the most important Japanese Zen masters and his Unborn Zen is one of the most original developments in the entire history of Zen thought.

ZEN MASTER
​ CHUANG-TZU


Zhuang Zhou, often known as Zhuangzi ("Master Zhuang"),[a] was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BC during the Warring States period, a period corresponding to the summit of Chinese philosophy, the Hundred Schools of Thought. He is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name, the Zhuangzi, which is one of the foundational texts of Daoism.
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ZEN MASTER BODHIDHARMA

The traditional founder of Zen in China. Said to have been a monk who traveled from India to China in order to transmit the Authentic Teaching of Buddhism. All Zen schools regard him as the First Ancestor of Zen in China.
Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to Chinese legend, he also began the physical training of the monks of Shaolin Monastery that led to the creation of Shaolin kungfu. In Japan, he is known as Daruma.

ZEN MASTER LAOZI

Laozi (also Lao-Tzu /ˈlaʊˈdzʌ/[1] or Lao-Tze, Chinese: 老子; pinyin: Lǎozǐ, literally "Old Master") was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer. He is known as the reputed author of the Tao Te Ching, the founder of philosophical Taoism, and a deity in religious Taoism and traditional Chinese religions.