The Zen Way

The Zen way of meditation is simple and effective. Zen teaches one to live in the present with complete awareness, so that one comes out of dreaming about the future or reflecting on the past.

There is no sorrow or unhappiness in the present. It might have been in the past or it might be in your dream of future. When we flow with our thoughts, we forget our real self and become a bundle of thoughts ourselves. When we are able to separate ourselves from our thoughts and are able to observe our thoughts, life becomes clear and the implication of thoughts on us fades away.

I shall make this clearer with a simple example. A boy named Tom had a cat named Tommy. When Tom had been in the school, Tommy was bitten by a cruel dog. When this incident happened, he was not aware of that and was playing happily with his friends. When he returned home, he came to know what had happened from his parents and felt terribly sad. So, it is not the incidence that puts us out of balance, but the thought of that happening.
To get relieved from the impact of the thoughts and to know its reality, we need to detach ourselves from the thoughts and become a good observer of the thoughts. This is the essence of meditation. Once we separate ourselves from our mind and its ever flowing thought patterns, we may attain the real freedom.

So, how to achieve this freedom? Zen way of meditation is one of the easiest ways of doing this. A lot of emphasis is given on observing the breath and the popping up thoughts in this simple way of meditation. Once we observe the breath, the mind is attached with something happening in the present, the breathing. It prevents it clinging back to the past or wander in the future. While observing the breath, still the thoughts might come and try to take us away. In that case, we should not analyze the thoughts that enter our mind. Instead, we should just be aware of the thoughts, not following it. In due course of time, the grips of thought on us would become weak and fade away. Gradually, the gaps between the thoughts would increase and take us closer to our real nature.

The advantage of Zen

One of the great advantages of Zen is you can start practicing it right now. There is no need of any formal initiation and there is no need to wait for your master to come and teach you. There are a lot of good books to get you started in the path of Zen meditation. The book 'Zen Mind, Beginners Mind' is a great one. I liked it for its simplicity and the way it sheds light on Zen meditation.

Once the concept of Zen is understood, then the practice is what is important. A regular practice would take you towards success.

Breath and Mind

There are different type of individuals in this world and each one has a own perspective towards the self, the others and the environment around. So, what makes this difference? Why is there such a high degrees of difference from one individual to the other? It is all dependent upon the mind and the intellect of the individual. Having command over breath means command over the mind.

To understand it completely, we need to know the difference between the mind and the intellect. Mind is one which generates different options or ideas and intellect decides which is right based on the past experiences. For example, if you go to a restaurant, mind gives different suggestions on what you could have and  the intellect decides what is right for that moment considering the health condition, climate and other factors. In the process of evolution, human beings were granted with a good intellect which the lower order of beings did not develop. It is with this intellect, the human being was able to create culture and come out of the grips of the instincts and develop further. Intuition is still higher than intellect which is not going to be discussed here.

We learn and develop our intellect with the help of our mind and the intellect in turn helps us to lead a holistic life. A human either just follows what the mind says or is able to see what the mind suggests and take a decision based on the intellect and the intuition. We all fall under these two categories and the varied degrees in between these two extremes. If one is able to separate the mind and the thoughts, his development is faster and his understanding of the natural laws are better.

So, how to reach the state in which we separate the thoughts and act wise? Directly working with the mind is quite tough. We need to have a grip over our mind and for that we require a tool which is our breath. Our mind and our breath are very closely related and one controls the other. You could observe this very easily. Just observe your breath during different moods (anger, joy, etc..). You shall find for yourself the difference. So, if we work on our breath, we could make a drastic impact on our mind. How do we do this? For this we need to develop the habit of observing our breath which is the start of meditation.

How do we meditate? Sit in a comfortable pose with your eyes closed and your back straight. Now we are going to start observing our breath. Where to observe and what to observe? As we know breathing process is always on whether we are conscious of it or not. So, just observing is our duty now. To start with, observing the breath inside the nostrils is the easiest way. If you are not able to get a feel of it immediately, you could do a few forced inhalations and exhalations to start with. But after that it is necessary to feel just the breath as it is. What to do with the mind (with all the thoughts popping in) when observing the breath? When a thought comes, just be aware of it and don't analyse it. Soon, it will lose its grip over you and fade away. As you do this regularly, you would find your breath going more feeble and the gaps between the thoughts increases which is a real indicator of your progress. As you progress this way, you get a command over your mind which is a powerful tool that we have got. This brings transformation in an individual and takes us closer towards our real divine nature.