Good evening, everyone, and a warm welcome to the Buddhist Centre. I always call it simply that—the Buddhist Centre.

It’s a broad name, but it fits because Buddhism is a vast tradition with many schools. The one we follow here is Chinese Zen Buddhism. I use the Japanese word “Zen” because it’s more familiar in the West, but this tradition originated in China. In Chinese, it’s called Chan. For various reasons, mainly political, the Chinese Chan school is less known in the West than its Japanese counterpart.

Chan is a less familiar term for many. This is largely due to historical circumstances; the Chinese school didn’t spread through the West as pervasively as Japanese Zen did. But at their heart, they are the same living tradition. This tradition was born in China around the 5th or 6th century and later journeyed to Japan in the 12th or 13th.

While Japanese culture shaped it in unique ways, the heart of the teaching is identical. Tonight, we’ll explore this tradition we follow.

We’ll be talking specifically about Chan. I’d like to discuss how it expresses itself and how we engage with it on the path.

The Four Foundational Pillars

We can describe the Chan path using four key aspects: faith, understanding, practice, and realization. Think of them not as rigid steps, but as interdependent aspects.

Now, Chan has a famous reputation for its intense focus on practice and its profound goal of realization—of awakening. That reputation is well-earned. However, to build a stable house, you need a foundation. That foundation is laid with faith and fortified with understanding.

The Dynamic Balance of Faith and Doubt

This emphasis on faith might seem at odds if you’ve heard me speak before. I often introduce Chan through the powerful lens of doubt—that great, questioning doubt that fuels genuine inquiry. So, what’s the relationship? Are they opposites?

In Chan, they are partners. It is said that our doubt should be as immense as our faith. This isn’t a contradiction, but a dynamic balance. Here, we don’t mean blind, unquestioning faith or a cynical, closed-off doubt.

• Faith here is a confident trust, a willingness to embark on the journey.
• Doubt here is an engaged curiosity, a commitment to verify the truth through your own experience.

Imagine setting out on a voyage. Faith is the conviction that the journey is worthwhile and the destination exists. It’s what gets you to build the ship and set sail. Doubt is the compass and the questioning mind; it ensures you’re checking your course, learning from the stars and the sea, not just drifting with the current. One provides the motive force, the other the discernment.

Unpacking Faith in the Chan Context

So what does this faith actually consist of? Its cornerstone is faith in our Buddha Nature.

This is the deep-seated trust that our most fundamental nature is already awake, free, and whole. We are not lacking anything essential. Our true mind is originally endowed with wisdom, compassion, and clarity. We simply fail to recognize it, like a priceless heirloom forgotten in a cluttered attic.

Our daily lives, filled with worry, confusion, and conflict, often seem to contradict this. That perceived gap is precisely why we need a path. Chan is that path—a series of time-tested methods to help us clear away the clutter and recognize the treasure that has always been ours.

This foundational faith naturally extends outward:

• Faith in the Dharma: Trust in the Buddha’s teachings as a reliable map of the human mind and the path to freedom.
• Faith in the Methods: Confidence in practices like meditation, which are the practical tools of the path.
• Faith in the Teacher: Trust in a guide who can point the way, having walked it themselves.
• Faith in Oneself: The most personal and vital belief: that I have the capacity to understand, practice, and realize.

Crucially, this is not a demand for passive belief. It is an active, provisional trust. We are invited to adopt the attitude of, “Let me try this and see if it resonates, if it bears fruit in my own life.” We take the teachings as a working hypothesis. Through dedicated practice, we gather our own evidence. This process transforms intellectual faith into embodied knowledge and deep confidence.

Understanding: Illuminating the Way Forward

If faith is the fuel, understanding is the navigational system. Without it, our journey can veer off course or stall. The Buddha illustrated this beautifully: Faith is like an incredibly strong giant, capable of great feats, but he is blind. Understanding is like a frail, small person with perfect vision. Alone, each is limited. Together, with the giant carrying the clear-sighted one, they are an unstoppable team.

In our context, understanding means progressively comprehending the principles of the Dharma—the nature of suffering, the workings of cause and effect, and the framework of the path. We cultivate this understanding through:

• Studying the primary sources: the sutras (the Buddha’s discourses) and the insightful commentaries on them.
• Listening to teachings, engaging in dialogue, and asking questions.
• Receiving personal guidance in interviews with a teacher.

This isn’t about accumulating abstract information. It’s a practical study aimed at answering life’s core questions: “What is the root of my dissatisfaction? Is there a way to live with more peace and less conflict? How does this ancient wisdom speak to my modern life?” The teachings remain perennially relevant because they address the universal human experience—our shared search for happiness and meaning.

We live in an age of astounding technological intelligence, but our inner worlds of emotion, relationship, and perception remain the classic human terrain. We may have more information, but not necessarily more wisdom. The aim of understanding is to cultivate that very wisdom.

Practice: The Laboratory of Experience

Understanding without application is like reading a recipe but never cooking. Practice is where we step into the kitchen. In Chan, this primarily means meditative practice—the intentional, sustained cultivation of our mind and heart.

The aim of practice isn’t withdrawal from life, but a transformation that allows us to meet life with resilience and openness. We often believe our peace depends on controlling external events. Chan offers a paradigm shift: Enduring harmony arises from a fundamental inner shift, enabling us to respond to any situation with balance and insight.

This cultivation develops along two mutually supportive tracks:

1. Cultivating Stability (Samatha): This is the practice of developing a calm, unified, and steady mind. It’s about training our attention to be present and unwavering, not tossed about by every passing thought or emotion. This isn’t numbness or suppression; it’s the development of a profound, unshakeable inner equilibrium.
2. Cultivating Clarity (Vipassana): A mind that is stable becomes clear, like settled water. This clarity allows for insight—seeing things as they truly are. We begin to observe the patterns of our mind, the transient nature of experiences, and the reality of our present moment without our usual stories and biases. We see directly.

Through this dual process of calming and clarifying, we create the ideal internal environment. We are not manufacturing enlightenment; we are patiently cleaning the window so that the sunlight—our inherent Buddha Nature—can shine through unobstructed.

Realization: The Blossoming

This brings us to realization—awakening, or directly seeing one’s true nature. A critical point here is that practice does not produce realization as a manufactured product. Our true nature is not created; it is revealed. Practice diligently prepares the ground, removes the weeds, and provides water and sunlight.

Think of it this way: Practice is the careful gardening. Realization is the moment the flower blooms. It is a natural, organic fruition. When the conditions nurtured by practice are ripe, awakening can occur at any moment—in deep meditation, in a moment of quiet reflection, or in the midst of daily activity. Practice makes us profoundly receptive to that moment of recognition.

An Integrated Path

In living the path, these four aspects—faith, understanding, practice, and realization—continuously enrich one another. They form an upward spiral, not a straight line. Faith initiates the journey, understanding helps us navigate, practice embodies the way, and realization confirms the truth. Each genuine insight then deepens our faith and refines our understanding in a beautiful, self-reinforcing cycle.

This weekend, we are offering a course designed to immerse you in this integrated approach. We will explore what Chan is, engage in the foundational practices of working with body, breath, and mind, and discuss how to bring this awareness into the flow of daily life. It’s an opportunity to move from hearing about the path to taking your first steps on it.

Ultimately, both Buddhism and Chan address the most sincere human inquiry: How can we live with less self-created suffering and more authentic peace, simplicity, and joy?

Thank you all for your kind attention and presence here tonight. I welcome any questions you might have.

A transcript of a public talk by teacher Žarko Andričević, held on February 8th 2017