Zen MeditationAs reflected in its simple symbol which you can see on the right, the purpose of Zen Meditation is the realization of your own existence in this present moment. You can spend hours, days and weeks allowing your mind to run amok in the past and the future, Zen Meditation has many of the characteristics of other forms of meditation. You sit. You allow your eyes to be almost closed. Your gaze is soft and in a gently downward direction. You allow your attention to rest upon your breath. You bring your attention back to your breath if it moves away. You might ask “What’s the point of doing this?”. The point of Zen meditation is to open our eyes to our "true nature," to enable us to live a truly awakened life. Simply put, it gets us in touch with our pure "beingness." In Buddhist terms, it opens us to the realization of "emptiness." (Cf. The Heart Sutra) The Maha Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra Introduction Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness; Form itself is emptiness; emptiness itself is form. So, too, are feeling, cognition, formation, and consciousness. Therefore, in emptiness there is no form, feeling, cognition, formation, or consciousness; no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no sights, sounds, smells, tastes, objects of touch, or dharmas; no field of the eyes, up to and including no field of mind-consciousness; and no ignorance or ending of ignorance, up to and including no old age and death or ending of old age and death. There is no suffering, no accumulating, no extinction, no way, and no understanding and no attaining. Because nothing is attained, the Bodhisattva, through reliance on prajna paramita, is unimpeded in his mind. Because there is no impediment, he is not afraid, and he leaves distorted dream- thinking far behind. Ultimately Nirvana! All Buddhas of the three periods of time attain Anuttara samyak sambodhi through reliance on prajna paramita. Therefore, know that prajna paramita is a great spiritual mantra, a great bright mantra, a supreme mantra, an unequaled mantra. It can remove all suffering; it is genuine and not false. That is why the mantra of prajna paramita was spoken. Recite it like this: Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha! Return to the top of Zen Meditation
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obsessing and worrying over things that can’t be changed or that haven’t happened yet. Or you can spend 10 or 20 minutes a day sitting in Zen Meditation allowing your being to revel in the joys of the present moment. It’s a choice we all make all the time.
