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Zen
Hey all, I just started learning about Zen. I went to a zen center yesterday, and I really liked the friendly atmosphere of the people in it, even though their rituals and traditions were very strange to me.
I met with the teacher and he asked me if I knew much about Zen. I said not much. He told me just to focus on my breathing when I'm meditating.
But its really friggin hard! My thoughts just pop up and I can't help but be distracted by things like my dog barking and stuff. I really want to get the most out of meditation. Any tips?
The only thing I can say is that I do feel a great deal calmer when I'm done meditating.
I met with the teacher and he asked me if I knew much about Zen. I said not much. He told me just to focus on my breathing when I'm meditating.
But its really friggin hard! My thoughts just pop up and I can't help but be distracted by things like my dog barking and stuff. I really want to get the most out of meditation. Any tips?
The only thing I can say is that I do feel a great deal calmer when I'm done meditating.
0
Comments
Welcome to the board.
Yes: just keep bringing your attention back to the breath. If not for those pesky lil thoughts that you're clinging to, there would be no point in meditation. Meditation is a process and:
...it sounds like you've already gotten a lot out of it.
Thoughts are just a natural function of the brain. Like hearing, seeing, tasting, etc. are natural, automatic functions. Thoughts aren't the problem. Getting caught up in them, clinging to them, (or to sights, sounds, smells, etc.) is the problem. Anything you're labeling as a distraction right now is really just an opportunity for practice practice - to let go of.
But I can't tell if it's from the meditation or if it's just me thinking that it's working. It's kinda difficult to describe my feelings about it. I guess in a way it doesn't matter, if it works. My goal is to become a better person and be happier.
Breathing in, I know that I'm breathing in
Breathing out, I know that I'm breathing out
In on the in breath
Out on the out breath
In, Out, In, Out
Breathing in, the air goes deep
Breathing out, I feel calm
Deep on the in breath
Calm on the out breath
Deep, Calm, Deep, Calm
There's more. Check it out http://www.mindfulnessbell.org/articles/sitting1.htm
It is in the mud that the lotus grows.
The key in meditation is not to not think, but to not chase your own thoughts into delusion. As you develop one pointed meditation and you chase your thoughts less and less fewer thoughts will arise untill true clarity arises. Commit to sit and all of this will happen.
Shikan taza means "just sitting" so when you sit, just sit. This is the whole practice. If you can just sit fully then you are one pointedly meditating. Its very simple but not so easy. Sitting and thinking is not just siting, siting and breating is noy just siting, siting and meditating is not just siting. So shikan taza is exactly that.
Remember peace serenity and happiness are a consequence of practice not a result. If you focus one them (or anything for that matter) as the goal or result of practice then their impermanance will lead you into delusion. So just sit and focus on breath and posture keeping no particular goal or result or consequence in mind. This is the begining of one pointedness.
Best of luck
Pace
Alex
Tenzin Palmo was giving this Dharma Talk and she was talking about her time in the cave in Tibet. In a part of the year there would be shepherds coming near her cave. Once she saw a boy that was inexperient taking the sheep from place to place quickly and trying as hard as he could to keep them all together. At the end the sheep didn't eat well, he was stressed and tired.
Then she saw an old man doing the same, except he would go to a higher place and let the sheep eat grass freely. He was relaxed and the sheep well fed.
The point is you do not need to have this idea of disappearing into your breath. When you relax and let the thoughts come and go freely, and you don't get stuck on the idea that you are doing it wrong, or that it's too hard, your mind naturally becomes more calm. Have a good posture, relax, breath in and breath out. If it is still too hard, just count. Don't give yourself a hard time when thoughts pop up or you get distracted.
It is normal for thoughts to keep popping up, or for things to bother you and distract you. Being bothered and distracted and coming back again, then being bother and distracted, and coming back again...that is the process.