Zen Meditation Instructions (cartoon)

ZenToons; Zen Mountain Monastery (zmm.org); Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Sit up straight but not so rigidly that it's a strain (Daniel Lopez de Medrano/zentoons.com).

Calm down. Sit up. calm down.

Zazen [sitting] is the form of meditation at the very heart of Zen practice.

In fact, Zen [ch'an, jhana, dhyana] is known as the “meditation school” of Buddhism. Basically, zazen is the study of the self.

The great Master Dogen said, “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, and to forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.”

To be enlightened by the ten thousand things is to recognize the unity of the self and the ten thousand things. Upon his own enlightenment, the Buddha was in seated meditation.

• Learn Zen meditation in Los Angeles (FREE, Nov. 14)

Zen practice returns to the same seated meditation again and again. For 2,600 years that meditation has continued, from generation to generation. It’s the most important thing [the practice] that has been passed on.

The Buddha was born on Afghan's Silk Road

It spread from India [and Afghanistan] to China, to Japan, to other parts of Asia, and then finally to the West. It’s a very simple practice. It’s very easy to describe and very easy to follow. But like all other practices, we have to engage it on a consistent basis if we want to discover its power and depth.

We tend to see body, breath, and mind separately. But in zazen they come together as one reality. The first thing to pay attention to is the position of the body in zazen. The body has a way of communicating outwardly to the world and inwardly to oneself.

Watch this short video on three ways to sit: zafu, chair, or seiza (monasterystore.org).

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Empty the mind (Piraro/Bizarro.com)

How you position your body has a lot to do with what happens with your mind and your breath. The most effective positioning of the body for the practice of zazen is the stable, symmetrical position of the seated Buddha. Sitting on the floor is recommended because it is grounded.

We use a zafu (video) — a small meditation pillow — to raise the behind just a little, so that the knees can touch the ground. With your bottom on the pillow and two knees touching the ground, you form a tripod base that is natural, grounded and stable. More

• To receive beginning instruction in zazen at the monastery, come to the Sunday Morning Program or Wednesday Evening Zazen. All weekend retreats, including the Introduction to Zen Training Weekend, also include beginning meditation instruction for newcomers.

Just sitting when I should be doing?

Wisdom Quarterly (EDITORIAL)

Budai the Happy Bodhisattva sits joyfully (Muffett68 flickr.com)

  

"Don't just do something; sit there!" it is said.

How could sitting -- intentional action that's mental -- trump physical and verbal action?

I want to protest, I want to cry out, I want change the world!

Budai (Shutterhound Photography/flickr)

Can I  even change that world? That remains to be seen. We keep trying. But while we fret and fuss, the one sure person we could be changing goes unchanged.

Who can save another? Help another, yes, of course. But who can save, who can do it for another -- "it" being cultivate absorption as the basis of successfully liberating-insight (i.e., walk the Path of Purification)?

No one saves us but ourselves.

No one can and no one may.

We ourselves must walk the Path;

Buddhas only point the Way.

Why are we searching when the Path is known? What are we waiting for? Step 1, Step 1, what is Step 1?

Giant Buddha, Leshan (tenlivingcities.org)

One way to understand the very packed (densely encoded) message of the Noble Eightfold Path is to follow it as a threefold teaching: 1) right view (wisdom), 2) virtue, and 3) meditation (concentration, that is, the effortless composure of mind, which like the hang gliding after all the effort of launching).

This is not a step-by-step path: Its factors or folds are cultivated simultaneously. So as we increase in virtue, our ease, joy, and concentration improves. This gives rise to wisdom as the mind/heart settles and we are able to see things more clearly just as they are.

The Truth is just as it is. We need not contort ourselves to "believe" it. We need only watch and withhold biases (distortions), evaluations (views), and opinions. The Truth sets one free. We need do nothing more than find that truth by rectifying ourselves rather than the world. "Don't just do something; sit there."

Not the Buddha, but Fat Happy Budai the Bodhisattva (Spectergeneral/flickr.com)

Thai Forest Buddhist Meditation (video)

Wisdom Quarterly

(Mrnopparath) Theravada Buddhism in the Thai Forest tradition as Way to Happiness

The pursuit of happiness, the way to freedom from unhappiness, is Buddhist meditation. It is immediately effective (timeless) not because unhappiness ends but because, in the present moment, everything is all right.

Unhappiness (dukkha, disappointment, woe, suffering) is not due to impermanence alone, but by the very threefold nature of "things." Conditioned phenomena are unsatisfying by their very nature.

Buddhism is the path to seeing the true nature of things directly. This opens up the possibility of liberation from all unhappiness. Practice, not theory, is essential. These Western monks, early students of Ajahn Chah, returned to the West and took up the monastic life to benefit the world.

(WanderWolfProject)

Learning to meditate according to the Thai Forest style is much easier in America than Thailand where clear English is hard to come by. But the difficult accommodations, heat, mosquitoes, lack of suitable food, and other hardships make it an experience one never forgets. Here Ajahn Luangta Michael explains breathing meditation according to tradition.

• One of the best and most accessible books ever written on the subject is What the Buddha Never Taught by Canadian journalist Tim Ward.
• Keeping the Breath in Mind by Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo (translated and distributed freely by the eccentric American monk Ven. Thanissaro) is a very helpful "how to" guide.
  

But the most famous Thai monk in this tradition was Ajahn Chah, who created Wat Pah Nanachat ("International Forest Monastery," where Tim Ward visited) for foreigners to learn and practice in English. He had many great Western disciple, the funniest and perhaps most accomplished of which is the great Ajahn Brahm, now an abbot in Australia who (contrary to tradition) welcomes both female and male practitioners.

(DhammaTube) Life of Ajahn Chah in Isan (Laotian NE Thailand)

Basic Instructions

• Place right foot on left leg, right hand on left.
• Eyes closed, "look" at the breath with the mind's eye.
• Bhutto means Buddha. When breathing in, think "bhu."
• When breathing out, think "tho."
• Do this all the time.
• Have a feel (sensation, awareness) when the breath touches the nostril or upper lip.
• Know the breath when breathing in and when breathing out, slowly, comfortably.
• Do it for 10 minutes every day at first, and build up to one or two hours.
• Practice every day 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes and more.
• Up the level of meditation until, like a battery, it is charged, intensified, and concentrated (samadhi).
• When it is full, it can be of use for insight (vipassana) to know what things are true by heart, which is far better than normal thinking.
  

Thailand (Isan) Today
(Thaipulsedotcom) I visited Wat Pah Nanachat (and Ajahn Chah's other temple Wat Nong Pah Pong) in 2011. It is a great place. There were only a few monks about, so I walked around shooting video. I stayed overnight and found that the Australian monk in charge, a young guy maybe 28, was way too engrossed with getting chores done and having a big result from it. He was kind of like a military drill instructor. He was completely stressed out about some new people who had just arrived.

(HeartS0ngs) I feel fortunate to just be a layperson with enough conviction and wisdom (which I hope lasts) to keep practicing the Noble Eightfold Path alone, with only the Internet for guidance. I'm not sure I could survive life in a forest monastery! But I believe it would be a wonderful opportunity for intensive training and practice for anyone strong enough to undertake it.

(BuddhaWhisper) Seems like there are politics everywhere, even in a Buddhist Monastery, in all traditions. And it's no better in Western Dharma centers.

(Dharmathai) I agree with Ven. Dhammavuddho. I was ordained in a Thai temple full of Thai monks, and the same kind of unhelpful unfriendliness was evident. The Western monks seem to have a much better grip on what a bhikkhu (Buddhist monk, recluse) in the Buddha's Dispensation should represent through actions and speech. However, what Ven. Dhammavuddo says about the lack of stress on meditation is now also true: Many practitioners get lost in rules (vinaya) and dogma and no longer seem to focus on the practice and knowing the real heart.

How to sit Zen

PasaDharma.org

Zazen, the formal practice of seated meditation, is the cornerstone of Zen training. Za means "sitting." Zen -- which derives from the Sanskrit dhyana, or jhana in the ancient Buddhist language Pali -- means meditation.

In its beginning stages, zazen is a practice of concentration, with a focus on following or counting the breath. But more than just concentrating, zazen is a powerful tool of self-inquiry, boundless in its scope and ability to reveal the true basis of reality. Through zazen we realize the unity of the self with all things, which has the potential to transform our lives and those of others.

HOW TO SIT ZEN

• Sit on the forward edge of your zafu, bench, or chair.
• Arrange your legs -- full lotus, half lotus, Burmese, kneeling, or chair; choose the most stable position you can sustain comfortably.
• Center your spine by swaying in decreasing arcs, left to right, forward and backward.
• Straighten and extend your spine, and align your head (by "pushing up the ceiling" and then relaxing). The origin of thrust is at the small of your back. Your belly and buttocks both protrude slightly.
• Head -- should be centered, not tilting forward or backward or leaning to the side.
• Ears -- should be parallel with the shoulders.
• Tip of the nose -- centered over the navel.
• Chin -- tucked in slightly.

Sitting meditation in Honolulu (diamondsangha.org)

• Eyes -- neither fully opened nor fully closed, lowered to 45 degree angle; unfocused, "gazing" in the direction of the floor 2 to 3 feet in ahead. If you are closer to a wall than that, then look through it, at where the floor would be. Thus, blinking is minimized.
• Mouth -- lips and teeth closed; place the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, just behind the front teeth. Swallow any saliva in your mouth, and evacuate the air so there is a slight vacuum. This inhibits salivation and overly tense jaw muscles.
• Hands -- "cosmic" mudra:
  Right hand -- palm up, blade (karate chopping edge) against lower belly; left hand -- atop right, middle knuckles overlap; thumbs -- tips lightly touch, forming an oval.
• Make sure your whole body is arranged the way you want it before beginning zazen.
• If using reading materials, set them off to the side or behind you to avoid distractions.
• Keep as still as possible during zazen.

Zazen Checklist

Pasadharma.org (Pasadena, CA)

Sitting like Bodhidharma sat -- eyelids missing. Meditating boys in India

Zazen, the formal practice of seated meditation, is the cornerstone of Zen training. Za means "sitting." Zen, which derives from the Sanskrit word dhyana, means "meditation." In its beginning stages, zazen is a practice of concentration, with a focus on following or counting the breath.

More than just meditation, zazen is a powerful tool of self-inquiry, boundless in its scope and ability to reveal the true basis of reality. Through zazen, we realize the unity of the self with the ten thousand things, which has the potential to transform our lives and those of others.

HOW TO SIT

• Sit on the forward half of your zafu, bench, or chair.
• Arrange your legs -- full lotus, half lotus, Burmese, kneeling, or chair; choose the most stable position you can sustain comfortably.
• Center your spine by swaying in decreasing arcs, left to right, forward and backward.
• Straighten and extend your spine, and align your head (by "pushing up the ceiling" and then relaxing).
• The origin of thrust is at the small of your back so your belly and buttocks both protrude slightly.

BODY PARTS

• Head -- should neither tilt forward, backward, nor lean to either side
• Ears -- should be parallel with shoulders
• Tip of nose -- centered over navel
• Chin -- tucked in slightly
• Eyes -- neither fully opened nor fully closed, lowered to a 45 degree angle; unfocused, "gazing" at the floor 2 to 3 feet in front of you so blinking is minimized.
• Mouth -- lips and teeth closed; place the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, just behind the front teeth. Swallow any saliva in your mouth, and squeeze out the air so there is a slight vacuum. This inhibits salivation and overly tense jaw muscles.
• Hands -- place in "cosmic" mudra:
• Right hand -- palm up, blade against lower belly
• Left hand -- on top of right, middle knuckles overlap
• Thumbs -- tips lightly touch, forming an oval

REMINDERS

Make sure your whole body is arranged the way you want it before beginning zazen. And keep as still as possible during zazen. If you must get up for the restroom, or if a coughing spell requires you to get a drink of water, please rise and exit quietly and quickly. Take care of your immediate needs, and return in a mindful manner, re-joining the group as soon as you can. After a short sit there is walking meditation (kinhin).