There are numerous meditation techniques. Some use mantras, some use Zen koans, some, like vippasana, monitor thoughts. But the core meditation taught by the Buddha is Tranquil Wisdom meditation. It’s a sixteen step meditation but the steps flow naturally so it’s not a memory test. The sixteen steps are found in Intermediate Zen at www.howtopracticezen.com,… Continue reading The Core Meditation of Zen
Category: Meditation
Outflows, Inflows and Zen Practice
The irony of Zen is that more words have been written about it than any other branch of Buddhism although the central teaching of Zen is that it is a mind-to-mind transmission, outside of words, independent of scriptures. It’s way past time for Zen to get back to its roots, back to its silence. The… Continue reading Outflows, Inflows and Zen Practice
The Garden of Zen Practice
Buddhism teaches that there are three worlds: The world of sense desire (the crude one we’re in now; it has six realms and is often referred to as the six worlds), the world of form (a much more subtle world where sense desires have ended but the desire for bodily existence has not), and the… Continue reading The Garden of Zen Practice
Zen From An Unexpected Guest
Buddhism is a method of cultivating the mind. Since Buddhism affirms that the universe is governed by impersonal laws and not by any creator-god, it has no use for prayer, for the Buddha was a teacher and not a god. Buddhism regards devotion not as a religious obligation but as a means of expressing gratitude… Continue reading Zen From An Unexpected Guest
Mean Zen, Good Results
So Time magazine tells us that the U.S. Marines are into Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. My first reaction was that using MBSR to increase the efficiency of a killing machine was a bad idea. Meditation is not a self-improvement program; quite the opposite, it lowers the boundaries between people until the meditator realizes that there… Continue reading Mean Zen, Good Results
Zen, Mindfulness, and Ignorance
This week’s Time magazine’s cover story reports that mindfulness practice is becoming a mainstream practice despite its Buddhist origins. People who won’t listen to monks in robes will listen to scientists, the magazine reports. Obviously, it is the monks who should be listened to. They won’t teach mindfulness to Marines so that they can become… Continue reading Zen, Mindfulness, and Ignorance
The Magic Of A Zen Sesshin
Sesshin is the Japanese word that we use in the world of Zen for a meditation retreat. A sesshin may last one day, a weekend, three or four days, a week, a month, thirty days, ninety days, or more. Most are seven days. A sesshin day typically begins before sunrise and ends after sunset. Starting at 5:00 a.m.… Continue reading The Magic Of A Zen Sesshin
Zen And Thrill Seeking
All of us have seen the interview conducted by admiring journalists after someone has run up to a cliff and jumped off it into the abyss with nothing but a hang glider to hold onto. Or after jumping off that nine hundred feet high bridge in West Virginia on Bridge Day with a bungee cord tied to an ankle. And they say the same thing.… Continue reading Zen And Thrill Seeking
Disney and Zen Practice
Walt Disney called Disneyland in California “The Happiest Place on Earth.” Walt Disney World in Orlando uses the same slogan. But having visited WDW scores of times, I can’t help but notice the crying children, the crowds spending their time in long lines to buy food (typically, huge turkey legs, burgers and other food cruel to both the… Continue reading Disney and Zen Practice
Tweet, Blog or Practice Zen?
The more I tweet, the less I meditate. The more I blog, the less I meditate. I just finished an hour of meditation. Even the idea of communicating thoughts seems ridiculous. Tweets and blogs disrupt the silence, infringe upon the silence, make a mess of the silence. Those who tweet don’t know and those who… Continue reading Tweet, Blog or Practice Zen?