Chan Buddhism is distinguished above all by its radical emphasis on direct, immediate experience of one’s Buddha-nature. Rather than centering practice on extensive scriptural study or elaborate ritual, it upholds a “special transmission outside the scriptures; not relying on words and letters; directly pointing to the human mind; seeing one’s nature and becoming Buddha.” This does not reject texts outright, but it treats them as secondary to lived realization. Awakening is often framed as sudden, a direct recognition of a nature that is already complete, rather than the endpoint of a long, purely gradual accumulation of merit or conceptual understanding.

Meditation stands at the heart of this approach. Seated meditation (zuòchán) functions as the core discipline, and mindfulness is extended into walking, working, eating, and speaking, so that ordinary life becomes the very arena of practice. Compared with traditions that emphasize devotional recitation, merit-making, or systematic doctrinal analysis, Chan places these activities in a subordinate role to meditative insight. This integration of practice with daily activity is sometimes expressed through sayings that link spiritual authenticity with simple work, underscoring that realization is not confined to the meditation hall.

Chan also cultivates distinctive pedagogical methods that aim to undercut attachment to concepts. Masters employ paradox, silence, shouts, unexpected actions, and later the use of gong’an (kōan) cases to disrupt habitual thinking and provoke direct insight. These methods are closely tied to the tradition’s non-dual orientation, which stresses that distinctions such as samsara and nirvana, sacred and ordinary, are ultimately not two. Rather than constructing elaborate metaphysical systems, Chan treats philosophical speculation with caution, regarding it as a potential distraction from the living reality of mind.

A further hallmark is the importance of mind-to-mind transmission between teacher and disciple. Lineage functions as a central principle of legitimacy, expressing the conviction that awakened understanding is best conveyed through direct encounter rather than through texts alone. In many Chan communities this gave rise to distinctive monastic cultures, with integrated schedules of work and meditation and a strong emphasis on the personal guidance of a realized teacher. All of these elements—direct experience, meditation-centered practice, unconventional teaching, and lineage transmission—combine to give Chan a character that is at once austere, iconoclastic, and deeply rooted in everyday life.