This article falls within the scope of WikiProject Buddhism, an attempt to promote better coordination, content distribution, and cross-referencing between pages dealing with
Buddhism. If you would like to participate, please visit the
project page for more details on the projects.BuddhismWikipedia:WikiProject BuddhismTemplate:WikiProject BuddhismBuddhism articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Asia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
Asia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AsiaWikipedia:WikiProject AsiaTemplate:WikiProject AsiaAsia articles
Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought "northern" and "southern" Buddhism referred to the separation of the "Sudden" and "Gradual" schools during the 8th century in China. Northern Buddhism was led by Shen Xiu and his followers, and was marked by their belief in gradual enlightenment through study and meditation. Southern Buddhism was led by Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch, and propogated sudden or instantaneous englightenment.
In the context of Zen, northern and southern schools refer to the split that you are talking about. Generally applied to Buddhism, Northern and Southern refer (generally) to a distinction between Mahayana and Theravada that's described in this article. There should maybe be a note in the article about Northern and Southern Zen as well. --
Clay Collier22:14, 11 November 2005 (UTC)reply