Adventures in zazen meditation, part 2
Posted: December 17, 2008 | Author: Doug | Filed under: Buddhism, Religion, Zen | 5 Comments »As stated before, I have started up zazen meditation yet again. I did some careful introspection about my past efforts, which started out well, but failed soon due to changing environment and such. So, this time around I made some different approaches toward meditation and things seem to work better this time. Here’s some advice I’d like to share:
- Don’t bother setting a timer for yourself or a goal. Just meditate for a while, and when it’s time to stop, just stop. There’s nothing wrong with seeing how long you meditated in hindsight, but if you make yourself sit for 10 minutes, you’ll spend ten minutes thinking “is it ten minutes yet”?
- Based on some things I read in Shunryu Suzuki’s book, Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind I think I misunderstood what it means to stay focused in the moment. Based on this and advice from Ven. Yin-Shun, I realized that in my efforts to concentrate and focus on my breath, I was trying a bit too hard. Yin-Shun used a nice analogy of a horse and chariot.* If the horse goes too far off the path, one pulls the reigns and brings it back in the right direction.** But if the horse is dong fine, don’t keep pulling or it will just freak out. If thoughts arise in your mind, don’t panic. That’s what I kept doing.
- Posture does matter, so do spend some time practicing how you will get into the right posture, so that when it’s time to meditate, you don’t get the posture wrong and have a bad session. If you’re legs aren’t providing good support, somewhere a muscle will get fatigued and start quivering pretty soon, distracting your mind so on. I am not flexible at all, but I seem to find the half-lotus position very helpful.
- On that note, a pillow and a little practice with posture really is all you need. I have never purchased a zabuton, stool or any other Zennish accoutrement. I just sit on a ratty old pillow in my bedroom on the floor and just do that. Seems good enough.
Hope that helps.
Namuamidabu
* – For us American Buddhists, think of an old 1800′s stage-coach. That’s what I do. Yeeeeee-haw!
** – In a nice dharma talk by Ven. Sister Fa Xun (Shoon), she reminds us that it helps from time to time to ask yourself “are you really sitting?” or “are you really breathing?” and so on.
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Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
Always enjoy your posts Gerald. Zazen is often so formalized that many don’t want to go through all the bother of the ritual. But the point I think is to know is that it is suitable for here and now. Wherever someone is and whatever their circumstances. If one doesn’t perceive even that basic reality (the whole point of zazen actually) then zazen will be a frustrating and illusory experience.
Thank you for this good advice. I may try it. I am not sure exactly what I expect to get out of doing this practice though. But I think that is the point. One should not necessarily do this in order to “get” something out of it. You should just do it.
I agree the ratty old pillow is all you really need. I sat on a cushion from my couch for a year when I started, and even though I have a set-up now with my “mystic zafu” and zabuton, I still think back on that cushion with much fondness. Too bad the couch has been long sold…
Amen to that, sister! Welcome to the L8B, Alice!
I set myself a ten-minute meditation time, but I use a nifty kitchen timer to mark the time. It has a blinking light when my time is up that I can see out of the corner of my eye (it can also be set to vibrate or beep, or all three). Once I set it, I get my mind off the time. Until I got it, my practice wasn’t particularly consistent.