Category: Mindfulness

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

Zen Practice And Enlightenment

The Buddha identified four stages of enlightenment: Stream Entry (sotapanna), the Once Returner (sakadagamin), the Non-Returner (anagamin), and Buddhahood. The Buddha taught that Stream Entry is attained when the first three of the ten fetters are overcome: Those first three fetters are: 1) Belief in an independent, unchangeable/permanent or everlasting self, called atman in the Vedas, which belief… Continue reading Zen Practice And Enlightenment

Zen Mindfulness of Mind Objects

Venerable Ajahn Sumedo When our Zen (meditation) practice reaches the super-advanced stage of mindfulness of mind objects, we can start bragging that we are advanced, highly skilled practitioners (that is a hilarious joke so I hope you don’t break your ribs laughing; bragging about anything is something a practitioner at such an advanced level would… Continue reading Zen Mindfulness of Mind Objects

Mindfulness of the mind

  After arriving at the Still Forest Pool, the eighth stage of Tranquil Wisdom meditation, discussed in the previous blog, we sit in equanimity, i.e, our mind is the Still Forest Pool, silent and unmoving. We await the appearance of a nimitta. Nimitta is the sign of nirvana. We are in the neighborhood of nirvana when it… Continue reading Mindfulness of the mind

Mindfulness of Feelings

The previous blog post discusses the first four steps of the Buddha’s sixteen step meditation popularly known as Tranquil Wisdom meditation. Now we can briefly discuss steps five through eight, the four steps that collectively develop mindfulness of feelings, the second foundation of the four foundations of mindfulness. When we experience the breath of the… Continue reading Mindfulness of Feelings

Zen Breathing: Diversity to Unity

Step one of Tranquil Wisdom meditation – In the words of the Buddha: “Mindful he breathes in, mindful he breathes out.” That’a about as simple an instruction as possible. The key word is of course “mindful.” Throughout the day, we breathe without thinking about it. Step two: Awareness of long and short breaths In the… Continue reading Zen Breathing: Diversity to Unity

Two Views of Anapanasati Zen

Of course the Zen school did not arise until a thousand or more years after the Buddha had passed away. However, in keeping with our use of the word “Zen” as meaning meditation, which it does, it is OK and accurate to refer to Anapanasati meditation. (We don’t want the search engines looking for “Zen”… Continue reading Two Views of Anapanasati Zen

Zen Koans and Mindfulness

Harnessing the power of what Ajahn Brahm jokingly refers to as super power mindfulness is the key to cracking open a Zen koan. Without it, a Zen student can struggle a lifetime with koans and never open the gateless gate. With it, the koans are seen and the gate opens. Tranquil Wisdom meditation, taught by… Continue reading Zen Koans and Mindfulness