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Tips for Meditation?
I would like people to contribute to a list I am compiling for what it takes to meditate successfully. they don't have to be quotes but that is what i am posting.
- letting go of thoughts is the most important. When we think , we think of something. Thinking of something means grasping that something with thought. However, during zazen we open the hand of thought that is trying to grasp something, and simply refrain from grasping. This is letting go of thoughts.
~Kosho uchiyama
-Set aside all involvements and let the myriad things rest. Zazen is not thinking of good, not thinking of bad. It is not conscious endeavor. It is not introspection. Do not desire to become a buddha; let sitting or lying down drop away. Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen.
~Zen Master Dogen
-Usually when you practice zazen, you become very idealistic, and you set up an ideal or goal which you strive to attain and fulfill. But...this is absurd. When you are idealisitc, you have some gaining idea within yourself; by the time you attain your ideal or goal, your gaining idea will create another ideal. So as long as your practice is based on a gaining idea, and you practice zazen in an idealisitic way, you will have no time actually to attain your ideal. Because your attainment is always ahead, you will always be sacrificing yourself now for some ideal in the future. You end up with nothing.
~ Shunryu suzuki
-Is it possible to gain greater happiness, or peace of mind, or courage, or sexual power, or greater charisma by doing zazen? There are many advocates of zazen who hold out these carrots for people to bite into. But as long as there is a hope or expectation of some result to be derived from zazen, then zazen is tainted. In the same way, when any action in our day-to-day life is motivated by some expectant result, or by what only appears to be a real condition or circumstance in our life, that expectant result is very likely to be dashed to pieces.
~Thomas Wright
- letting go of thoughts is the most important. When we think , we think of something. Thinking of something means grasping that something with thought. However, during zazen we open the hand of thought that is trying to grasp something, and simply refrain from grasping. This is letting go of thoughts.
~Kosho uchiyama
-Set aside all involvements and let the myriad things rest. Zazen is not thinking of good, not thinking of bad. It is not conscious endeavor. It is not introspection. Do not desire to become a buddha; let sitting or lying down drop away. Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen.
~Zen Master Dogen
-Usually when you practice zazen, you become very idealistic, and you set up an ideal or goal which you strive to attain and fulfill. But...this is absurd. When you are idealisitc, you have some gaining idea within yourself; by the time you attain your ideal or goal, your gaining idea will create another ideal. So as long as your practice is based on a gaining idea, and you practice zazen in an idealisitic way, you will have no time actually to attain your ideal. Because your attainment is always ahead, you will always be sacrificing yourself now for some ideal in the future. You end up with nothing.
~ Shunryu suzuki
-Is it possible to gain greater happiness, or peace of mind, or courage, or sexual power, or greater charisma by doing zazen? There are many advocates of zazen who hold out these carrots for people to bite into. But as long as there is a hope or expectation of some result to be derived from zazen, then zazen is tainted. In the same way, when any action in our day-to-day life is motivated by some expectant result, or by what only appears to be a real condition or circumstance in our life, that expectant result is very likely to be dashed to pieces.
~Thomas Wright
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Comments
The same principle can be applied positively to any wholesome quality (not just clarity) we wish to develop or negatively to any unwholesome quality we wish to abandon (i.e. Right Effort). We can do this any time, but a particularly good time to do this reflection on the cause and effect relationship of wholesome and unwholesome mental qualities is after a session of sitting meditation, before we open our eyes. What attitudes did we bring to our meditation object and what were the results?