Metta Meditation and Zen Buddhism
Yesterday our day began with an introduction to Metta meditation. It is a type of meditation that demonstrates loving-kindness. It is a very simple practice that allows us to direct well-wishes to another. At first I found the idea a little bit silly, but in the end, I found myself really enjoying it. Hope, our yoga instructor drew out a graph that showed the three parts of it: self, loved ones, and all beings everywhere. During the meditation, you are seated and reading out the three lines: 1. May __ be filled with loving kindness. 2. May __ be peaceful and at ease. 3. May __ be free from suffering and harm. To begin we set a timer for five minutes and Hope read out the three lines from above, using the filler “I.” She read each line over and over and until the timer went off. Once the timer ended she reset it and then replaced “I” with “you,” for loved ones. The third time we again rest the timer but this time we each took a turn reading the mantra as a whole, using the filler, “all beings everywhere.” A major part of Metta meditation is the repetition, the more you repeat and practice, the more it will become part of your thinking. I thoroughly enjoyed this practice. In the past with a more traditional form of meditation, I would distract myself with my personal thoughts, but with Metta, I was able to focus on the things in my life that were important to me, such as my loved ones.
Later in the day we created presentations and did research into Zen Buddhism to prepare for our trip to the Houston Zen Center. Zoey and I focussed on the top schools of Zen Buddhism. The first school is called Rinzai Zen (臨済宗) Rinzai Zen originated in China, where it is called Linji. The Linji school was founded by Linji Yixuan. He was known for his outrageous teaching style and was considered to be very harsh. He favored a kind of "shock" Zen, where he would use an application of shouts and punches would startle a student into an enlightenment experience.
The Rinzai school (臨済宗) focusses on the use of koans. Koans are essentially a riddle to get your mind thinking during meditation. The thought behind focusing on the koans is to force enlightenment and get to this point as quickly and efficiently as possible. Because of this rush to get there, it's considered to be further from the Buddha's teachings. Koans are designed to shock the mind into awareness and teachers will often recite them to students during a Zazen (seated) meditation teachers tend to “probe” students by using Koan “Checking questions” to help force their awakening. The time it takes to practice a koan is different for everyone some may practice one for years on end while it takes another only a few seconds to grasp the idea. The goal for using is a Koan is to not read and “understand” as many as possible; but to better understand your mind, that way you can reach enlightenment. The following is a very popular and well-known koan: "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?"
The second school is called Soto (曹洞宗). Soto is the leading and most prominent school of Zen Buddhism. It was originally founded in China in the lineage of the Chan school of Buddhism, but it was imported to Japan in the 13th century by Dogen Zenji and then called Soto Zen. Soto Zen seeks to transmit the true Buddha Dharma for generations, starting with the founder, Shakyamuni Buddha, all the way through the ancestor to the present day. Zazen or sitting meditation is the core of the practice of Soto Zen and Shikantaza or "just sitting" is the essence of the practice. People who practice Soto Zen do not actively seek enlightenment but they do seek to experience every moment to the fullest, that being where they are and the awareness of every action they take. In comparison to the Rinzai Zen school, they take a much more informal approach. Soto koans are less formal than the ones from the Rinzai school. Soto koans are more dynamic and represent the spontaneous answer of a master to a question rather than an answer to a predetermined question. Soto practitioners believe Rinzai koans are too formal and technical and distract students by forcing on them and urge to find an answer, which to Soto practitioners, goes against the nature of Zen (this is another reason the Rinzai school is considered to be further from the Buddha's teachings). Soto practitioners view enlightenment or Satori in a different way than Rinzai practitioners. In Soto Zen, Satori isn't a different and special state of consciousness. It is simply “a return to a human being's original condition.”
On Tuesday, we visited the Houston Zen center. It was located in a small house in the Heights, which is not what I would have expected at all. Unlike the past two temples we visited, it was not nearly as traditional. When we first arrived we took off our shoes and sat down for a zazen style meditation. To begin our guide rang a bell and led us into a meditative state. We sat for around ten minutes focussing on our breathing and keeping our spine tall.
After coming out of the meditation we spoke to her a little bit about Zen Buddhism. It was really great coming in with a little bit of knowledge on the subject, it allowed us to better understand the environment and the meditation. Next, she led us through a mindful eating exercise, similar to the one Ms. Harrison had us doing during the first week with a raisin. We were each given a Hershey's Kiss chocolate and were told to observe it as if we were aliens and had never seen or tasted one before. We observed the shiny aluminum foil surrounding it, listened to the crinkling sounds as we unwrapped it, smelt it, and finally bit into it. This exercise was pretty difficult for all of us, and it is something we should definitely all work on. We later each had the opportunity to ring the bells in the studio and then we finished off our visit with a cup of tea and a cookie.
To wrap up the day, Hope led us in a restorative yoga class!
Later in the day we created presentations and did research into Zen Buddhism to prepare for our trip to the Houston Zen Center. Zoey and I focussed on the top schools of Zen Buddhism. The first school is called Rinzai Zen (臨済宗) Rinzai Zen originated in China, where it is called Linji. The Linji school was founded by Linji Yixuan. He was known for his outrageous teaching style and was considered to be very harsh. He favored a kind of "shock" Zen, where he would use an application of shouts and punches would startle a student into an enlightenment experience.
The Rinzai school (臨済宗) focusses on the use of koans. Koans are essentially a riddle to get your mind thinking during meditation. The thought behind focusing on the koans is to force enlightenment and get to this point as quickly and efficiently as possible. Because of this rush to get there, it's considered to be further from the Buddha's teachings. Koans are designed to shock the mind into awareness and teachers will often recite them to students during a Zazen (seated) meditation teachers tend to “probe” students by using Koan “Checking questions” to help force their awakening. The time it takes to practice a koan is different for everyone some may practice one for years on end while it takes another only a few seconds to grasp the idea. The goal for using is a Koan is to not read and “understand” as many as possible; but to better understand your mind, that way you can reach enlightenment. The following is a very popular and well-known koan: "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?"
The second school is called Soto (曹洞宗). Soto is the leading and most prominent school of Zen Buddhism. It was originally founded in China in the lineage of the Chan school of Buddhism, but it was imported to Japan in the 13th century by Dogen Zenji and then called Soto Zen. Soto Zen seeks to transmit the true Buddha Dharma for generations, starting with the founder, Shakyamuni Buddha, all the way through the ancestor to the present day. Zazen or sitting meditation is the core of the practice of Soto Zen and Shikantaza or "just sitting" is the essence of the practice. People who practice Soto Zen do not actively seek enlightenment but they do seek to experience every moment to the fullest, that being where they are and the awareness of every action they take. In comparison to the Rinzai Zen school, they take a much more informal approach. Soto koans are less formal than the ones from the Rinzai school. Soto koans are more dynamic and represent the spontaneous answer of a master to a question rather than an answer to a predetermined question. Soto practitioners believe Rinzai koans are too formal and technical and distract students by forcing on them and urge to find an answer, which to Soto practitioners, goes against the nature of Zen (this is another reason the Rinzai school is considered to be further from the Buddha's teachings). Soto practitioners view enlightenment or Satori in a different way than Rinzai practitioners. In Soto Zen, Satori isn't a different and special state of consciousness. It is simply “a return to a human being's original condition.”
On Tuesday, we visited the Houston Zen center. It was located in a small house in the Heights, which is not what I would have expected at all. Unlike the past two temples we visited, it was not nearly as traditional. When we first arrived we took off our shoes and sat down for a zazen style meditation. To begin our guide rang a bell and led us into a meditative state. We sat for around ten minutes focussing on our breathing and keeping our spine tall.
After coming out of the meditation we spoke to her a little bit about Zen Buddhism. It was really great coming in with a little bit of knowledge on the subject, it allowed us to better understand the environment and the meditation. Next, she led us through a mindful eating exercise, similar to the one Ms. Harrison had us doing during the first week with a raisin. We were each given a Hershey's Kiss chocolate and were told to observe it as if we were aliens and had never seen or tasted one before. We observed the shiny aluminum foil surrounding it, listened to the crinkling sounds as we unwrapped it, smelt it, and finally bit into it. This exercise was pretty difficult for all of us, and it is something we should definitely all work on. We later each had the opportunity to ring the bells in the studio and then we finished off our visit with a cup of tea and a cookie.
To wrap up the day, Hope led us in a restorative yoga class!
Comments
Post a Comment