Introducing Zen and Zazen
By "Dotetsuzenji"
What is your personal definition of Zen?
If someone asks me what Zen is I may not be able to give them a satisfactory answer in terms of words or theories, unless the words that may encourage them to practice it. I can, however, define it in a few ways that might help devotees distinguish it from other techniques.
Zen is a practice, a belief, a way of remedy, a way of gaining insight into our own nature, a guide to discovering our true self. It is a pointer to salvation and deliverance (with no dependence on the supernatural), a method to achieve perfect peace of mind (without tranquillisers) and to gain intuition. It can enable us to live by a high moral standard (without the need for precepts), to release habits and patterns in favour of creativity, and to free the mind from reactionary thoughts allowing realistic thinking. It can convert the superstitious mind to one of spontaneity and revive the true Psycho-Physic (Mind-Body) balance. It allows the imigration from the ocean of anxiety to the shore of tranquillity, the return to heaven from exile. It transforms the Snake (lazy person) into a Dragon (active person), and the Fox into a Lion. It channels the energy of our mind to enable us to see our luminous selves, and removes all ancient thought forms and blockages to a non-duality mind. Finally, provides a short cut to the awakening of the Buddha himself.
What is Zen trying to teach us?
Zen is trying to teach us how to access our mind in order to see our true nature, to awaken that mind to vigilance and to bring forth our creativity for use at the conscious level. Any technique or teaching which can lead us to these important discoveries is indeed worthy of respect. Zen is to awaken the mind to one’s true nature. Nothing else.
What is Zazen?
Za, in Japanese, means to sit and Zen means contemplation. Zazen is seated Zen but it isn’t meditation. It differs from other meditation techniques. In Zazen, we do not sit to think but to remove all extraneous and intrusive thoughts from our minds. "No thinking is the best thinking". The is the motto of the Zen masters. In Zazen, we try to let all thoughts find their way out of our minds using the very effective methods learned for this purpose. We actually empty our minds in each sitting, rather than invite in more nuisance thoughts as new guests.