How does Zen Buddhism differ from Theravada Buddhism?
The Theravada school is based on the Pali Canon Tripitaka scriptures and although they don’t emphasize much on rituals, there are still rituals and theory. Zen is about practice to recognize our Buddha nature. I’ll explain my own take on Zen but keep in mind that Zen cannot be absolutely explained in words so this is just relative to my own perspective: When Buddha reached enlightenment, he realized that what he learned is so simple yet so complicated to teach to the normal person. What he learned through enlightenment is Zen and unfortunately, that experience itself is hard to explain in words because an experience is an experience and words are words. You might get a word (theoretical understanding) enlightenment but not an enlightenment experience. However, everything is one so as long as you have one type of enlightenment, you will eventually have a full enlightenment experience. Buddha intelligently realize this and thus, devised a system consisting of rituals, theory and ultimate