Caodong school

The Caodong school is a major branch of Chinese Chan Buddhism and one of the Five Houses of Chan, taking its name from the combination of master Dongshan Liangjie (807-869) and his successor Caoshan Benji (840-901). The school is known for its emphasis on seated meditation, called zuochan in Chinese and zazen in Japanese, and during the Song dynasty its masters developed a distinctive practice known as silent illumination or serene reflection meditation, resting on the doctrine of inherent enlightenment and buddha-nature. The Caodong lineage traces back through Shitou Xiqian to the Sixth Chan Ancestor Huineng, and though it nearly died out in the eleventh century it was revived under Song dynasty masters such as Hongzhi Zhengjue, becoming a major Chan tradition that influenced Buddhism across East Asia, particularly in Japan and Vietnam. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/