Concepts deriving from Zen Buddhism have come to form part of popular Western culture during the last twenty years or so. These concepts are often vague and misleading. This paper suggests that Zen can be usefully characterized as a set of techniques designed to bring about specific changes in behaviour and experience. This is also often held to be one of the aims of psychology. As yet, psychologists have paid relatively little attention to Zen, judging from the published literature. This literature is reviewed. Suggestions are made as to what psychologists might learn from Zen; in particular by contrasting the approach of western psychology with that of a highly sophisticated system from a very different advanced culture.