6 Things I’ve Learnt After 10 Years of Practicing Zazen
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Introduction
Ever since I was in my late teens I felt an odd sense of interest in the subject of meditation. The concept sounded familiar, yet mysterious, even a bit occult. It seemed to have much to offer: peace and tranquility, mystical states of mind, maybe even some psychic powers? For a teen prone towards experimentation and with a proclivity for philosophy inquiry this seemed to be right up my alley. Nonetheless, after some years of Zazen practice, my conception of what meditation is and what it might bring has been altered substantially. So what is meditation, and what can one discover by continuously practicing it? What impact has it had on my day-to-day life, and what to expect during your first sit-downs? If you are ready to explore, let’s start.
Disclaimer: I can only speak for my experience and not for someone else’s, therefore the further content provided in the article will mostly document my subjective experience of the practice.
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Meditation helps you establish a fantastic morning routine
For a person who doesn’t have a 9 to 5 job (or for a person that does), morning meditation is a perfect tool to get in the right state of mind just after waking up and stepping out of bed. Television, text messages, social media… All these distractions fill our heads with waves of information that take away our ability to look at what’s happening inside our own minds. Leave the phone be. Instead, head to the bathroom, wash your face, clean your teeth, get a glass of warm water and sit down for some precious and all-so-important alone time.
This time is precious because it lets you reassess your morning state of mind, clean out the leftover scraps of thought that accumulated overnight, zoom in on what appears to require attention, and let go of all the excess weight that would otherwise bring you down throughout the day to come.
Trust me on this. The combination of seated meditation with a splash of journaling afterwards does indeed act as — borrowing the words of Julia Cameron — spiritual windshield wipers. When your mind will be cleansed and your priorities will be narrowed, go ahead and start putting out fires in your e-mail box. You will be much calmer and more centered doing that after your meditation than prior to it.
You don’t need fancy equipment to get started
The majority of my meditation practice has been done by sitting on a small cushion put on the floor somewhere in the middle of the room. I know, I know… You should sit facing a white wall with your eyes open, right? Yes, if you are a monastic monk. As you might have noticed, I am not. Therefore, no fancy mats or custom-made zafus are required. Just the floor, the cushion, my butt and the mind.
Unfortunately, as I have relocated to a new place I no longer have the warm wooden floor that I once had while living in Lithuania. Not a problem! Madeira is fairly warm and my girlfriend no longer needs her scarf, therefore I can use it to warm up the cold floor! Also, the apartment had some small cushions laying around once we arrived. A few magical twists and voilà, my new meditation station is ready!
Photo by the author
It is good to know that meditation is not an esoteric practice reserved for only the privileged few. It is something that is accessible to anyone with an interest and the right mindset to get started. So ready your cushions, and let’s move on to the next point!
Meditation is simple, yet our thinking makes it quite difficult
Even though my conception of meditation is always changing, I could summarize it as the process of silently watching the movement of one’s internal phenomena such as thoughts, feelings, and other types of sensations without excess discrimination. What that means is that you simply have to sit down, breathe, and observe what is happening in the body and outside of it without adding extra disturbance by the oh-so-usual narration process also known as the monkey mind.
Thoughts will come, that is natural. Feelings will come, that’s natural as well. Sensation will disturb you, no problem. Nonetheless, what one ought to do is breathe naturally: observe the breath filling your lungs and leaving the body. If a thought enters the mind, that’s fine. Let it be, but don’t pay too much attention to it. It will leave as unexpectedly as it came.
If you get carried away by thinking, don’t worry about it. Notice that you have moved away from the practice of Zazen and return to your breath whenever such an observation has been made. On and off, on and off, the process continues.
At first, your expectations of what meditation is might get in the way of the practice
Many people believe that mediation will help them empty their minds. I don’t believe that that is the case, and I don’t think it should be. The mind is like any other organ and it has its own responsibilities. While the heart pumps blood, the brain produces thoughts. Also, it filters them, consolidates memories, and regulates some of the physical processes. What meditation will teach you is not how to “stop thinking,” as it would be detrimental to the whole organism. Rather, it will show you how to associate less with the thoughts and feelings that come and go like clouds in the blue sky.
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You are the consciousness, while thoughts and feelings are all but visitors. The apprehension of this principle will in itself create more internal space and make the practice of sitting down way more pleasant and comfortable.
Sitting is not always comfortable. You’ll have to find a way to ease into it.
As another disclaimer, I would like to state that I don’t believe that there is a specific way of how one ought to sit during the meditative practice. Some people might even say that it is not important to sit at all; that meditation should be something that you are enrolled in 24/7! For example, Jiddu Krishnamurti states that:
“Meditation is not the pursuit of an invisible path leading to some imaginal bliss. The meditative mind is seeing, watching, listening, without the word, without comment, without opinion, attentive to the movement of life in all its relationships throughout the day.”
Nonetheless, if one wants to enter the meditative state while sitting, the person should find a comfortable way to ease into it. For me personally, the half-lotus is the most natural position for being seated, but if you like sitting cross-legged or being on your knees, that is fine as well. What matters is that your spine is erect, your hands are relaxed, and you feel well-postured without being over-tensed. To get a better view of how I sit, I asked my girlfriend to do a picture of it. It is not perfect, yet it is what feels natural. If I am very stiff, I might sit on my knees as well, yet that is not common.
Photo by the Marija Toropceva
For a more complete explanation of the “right” Zazen posture, we can consult the late Zen abbot Kosho Uchiyama Roshi. In his book “Approach To Zen” he wrote:
“Sit up and straighten your back as if you were pushing your buttocks firmly into the zafu. Keep your neck straight and pull in your chin. Without leaving an air-pocket inside, close your mouth and put your tongue firmly against the upper pallet. Project your head as if it were going to pierce the ceiling. Relax your shoulders. Your ears should be in line with your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel. Keep your eyes open as usual, look at the wall, and drop your line of vision slightly. Once you’ve taken the zazen position, open your mouth and exhale deeply. By doing this, you change your whole mood. In order to work out the stiffness in the joints and muscles, slowly swing two or three times to the left and right. Now you take the immovable posture. Once you’ve taken the immovable posture, breathe quietly through the nose. The important thing is to let long breaths be long and short breaths be short. Because your abdomen is comfortably resting on solidly folded legs, blood leaves the head and circulates plentifully towards the abdomen. Because blood circulates downward from the head, there is no congestion, excitability is lessened, and you can no longer chase after fantasies and delusions. Therefore, doing correct zazen means taking the correct posture and leaving everything up to it.”* Meditation is not something supernatural, yet it is sort of a superpower
I am not a credible source for information on the subject of enlightenment as I have no idea of what this concept means experientially. Nonetheless, by reading some books on Buddhism I have stumbled upon an explanation that seems to ring the chord. It was by the late Buddhist monk, essayist, and philosopher D. T. Suzuki when he said that:
“Enlightenment is like everyday consciousness but two inches above the ground.”
There are many other descriptions of this elusive concept, but none of them seems to hit home as well as this one.
I think the reason for this is because Suzuki’s interpretation is so elequent, yet simple. It is not something that you have to believe in, but rather it is what you can test and insvesticate directly through your own daily practice.
In conclusion
Meditation is a great practice for anyone who wants more freedom, space, and calm throughout the day. You don’t need much to get started: a cushion and the right mindset should be sufficient. If you don’t have a cushion, fold a hoody, set up a small pile of t-shirts, there is no one way of doing it!
Nonetheless, previously devised expectations of what meditation is might at first get in the way of your practice. Looking from another angle, it is great material FOR your practice! Don’t pay much attention to it, just sit straight and breath naturally. If your mind wonders, bring it back softly to your breath and carry on from there.
Meditation is not something magical or supernatural. On the opposite, it is one of the most natural states for an unburdened mind. Fortunately, if the mind is covered by clouds or disturbed by some undercurrents, you can sit down and tap into the meditative state whenever you please. Once you get better, maybe you won’t need to sit down at all.
Post Scriptum: For anyone who wants to read a bit more on the subject, I’d like to recommend a collection of 3 books on what Zen is and how to ease into its mentality and practice.
Kosho Uchiyama Roshi: “Approach to Zen: The Reality of Zazen/Modern Civilization and Zen”
Shunryu Suzuki: “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”
Seung Sahn: “Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn”
Hopefully, the books will aid you in your practice and other inquiries.
