The Mind-Set Of Meditation
Note: This article is written by Lasse Felsted Petersen of Towards Peace, you can readmore about lasse here.
Set aside all involvements and let the myriad things rest. Zazen is not thinking of good, not thinking of bad. It is not conscious endeavour. It is not introspection. Do not desire to become a Buddha; let sitting or lying down drop away. Be moderate in eating and drinking. Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen as though you are saving your head from fire.
– Dogen Zenji
This article is a continuation of the previous article: The art of meditation – the road to Buddhahood
If you haven’t read that article yet, it might be best to start there. But this is not just a random article; it is also an excerpt from the book I am writing at the moment called Towards Peace. The release date is still unknown as I just started writing a couple of months ago. Hope you like it.
Now we have sorted out the outer structure in the previous article, so let’s begin.
Most people can sit down and cross their legs, but if you don’t know what is actually going on inside you, and start noticing yourself, then the posture is just a posture. The posture is important, but the mind set, the way you approach your meditation is even more important. There is an old Chinese saying that goes like this:
Before I studied the art of Zen at tree was just a tree, and a mountain was just a mountain, now when I study the art of Zen a tree is not longer a tree and a mountain is no longer a mountain, but now when I have mastered the art of Zen, a tree is just a tree and a mountain is just a mountain.
This describes the dropping away of concepts of the mind, a way of seeing clearly, a way of having a broader focus, a way of being able to “take in” more of life, more of the moment. A lot of Zen books describe the inner life of Zazen, the way ones mind-set should be upon meditation.
There has been written volumes about this, and sometimes it is more confusing than helping. One of the best books about the mind-set behind Zazen is Omori Sogens book “an introduction to Zen training” which I can highly recommend.
So how does the mind works in regards to Zazen meditation? We see the world through our eyes and our experiences are heavily filtered by our different perceptions of reality, created by cultural, social and family values. So every time we see the world we see it contrast to something else. For instance, when is a person rich? If a beggar has a one dollar bill is he considered rich when he is compared to a person with no money? In a relative sense, yes he is. But is he considered rich compared to you who has a steady income, no. Everything in life consists of opposites, and we compare these opposites with each other all the time and this is one of the reasons that we “suffer” or experience hardships. Because we are so focused on what others have and what we don’t have that we forget what we actually have here in this moment. We forget the present because we are caught up in a future wish for something better, and this is one of the things that create that underlying dissatisfaction that most people have. You might say you don’t have it and that you are happy always, but behind that smile behind that mask the dissatisfaction is lurking beneath the shadows, and we have to be aware about it. If we are not aware, it might strike us when we least expect it, when we let down our guards.
Zazen is a way of sitting down, in quiet, to once again look at those beliefs about the world and yourself. To examine these beliefs and to delve into the nature of them and ask yourself “is this really true” - “is this really how the world IS?” and most often we realize that it is not how the world is, it was just how we happened to perceive it in the given moment. With Zazen we start to loosen our perceptions, we start to develop another way of seeing the world around us, in a way more intense, but in another way less intense. What do I mean about this? When we say that a person perceives the world very intense we speak mostly about feeling. That we go from depressed to happy the same day or week, but this is not what I mean. When I say intense I mean an overall awareness of the things that are happening around me in the given moment, and how my system reacts to them. If someone yells at me or I get scared I feel a contraction in my stomach area, I feel the defence mechanism at play, I start to realize that the body is a very subtle mechanism, which is capable of registering almost all the subtle movements. So a word of advice would be to start to develop more awareness, start to notice how your body reacts in different situations.
Zazen – Expectations
Before we sit down in Zazen one of the most important things that need to be dropped is the expectation of attaining something. Because Zazen is not about attaining anything, in fact it is about dropping something. Heavy loads of; worry resentment, pride, anger and other things limits our way of life.
In reality meditation is just sitting down on the pillow, without trying to manipulate your experience of the given moment. When I say “manipulate” I speak about the tendency to control ones breath, posture, and position of hands, of constantly forcing ones thought back to present. As long as we are trying to do this we are manipulating our experience of the moment, and when we do this there is someone manipulating. You can look at it in two ways, there is the one who meditates, the meditator, and there is meditation. Adyashanti says “meditation is to let go of the meditator” because the meditator is the person who wish to attain something with the meditation practice.
It is like seeing a flower. There are two ways of seeing it. One is “I see a flower”, where the flower and I are two separate entities, not at all connected, or this is what we think. And there is “seeing the flower”. In “seeing” the flower we just notice the flower, we are not separate from the experience and we don’t pass any judgements about the flower. We don’t label the flower; we just see it in all its beauty. Our focus is wide and open and not narrowed down.
You do the same thing in meditation. Most mediators narrow their focus, they focus on their mind and the thought in their mind and they desperately try to force the thought away, but this is not at all possible to do, thoughts will always be there. Then what to do? Instead one should try to widen the lens, widening ones focus to encompass the body, the mind, the pillow and the room, trying to include everything in the room with your attention. Not by looking, but by noticing with your awareness. Just try this out, it might be difficult at first but this is the key to deepening your awareness.
During the day we shift our awareness back and forth, but mostly we have a very narrow focus, so our problems seem much bigger and threatening than they actually are, because we aren’t flexible, so by shifting our awareness we gain a much greater patience and respect, and our problems seem much smaller.
So the real point of meditation or of focusing is to be taken in by life itself. Feeling alive, and feeling the people around us. To shatter the silken thin veil that separates us from the true experience of life. Of course we are experiencing life now, this is not my claim. My point is that there are various degrees of embracing life. One can do it with a closed or open heart, which one you choose is up to you. In Zen we say yes to the yes and yes to the no. Accepting what IS.
The mudra
To help us in focusing we can use the Mudra, the hand posture of Zazen. The mudra is often referred to as the mirror of Zazen. If your focus get too narrow and you get lost in thought your mudra tends to get more tense and this tension goes to your shoulders and then to the rest of the body, but by relaxing in the hands, and by checking your mudra from time to time, you can reconnect with the present moment and get more focused while you are sitting.
Now go sit on your pillow and start to meditate, there are no excuses for not doing it.
Nice Site layout for your blog. I am looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
Hey Tom
Thanks a lot for your comment. We are working on the site. It is actually quite a struggle to find qualified writers to the site. If anyone who is reading or commenting here is willing to contribute with articles we would be grateful. Mail me at petersen_lasse@hotmail.com and title the mail towards peace, as I have some other interesting projects going on too.
Thanks to everyone who is reading at happiness-cafe I think this site has some great potential to change the way we look upon our lives. to develop one self we must always be willing to question our most firm believes, even though it IS hard
Thanks for the sweet words Lasse and your effort with comment writing.
And thanks to everyone, who are following the website. Whitout you, the website wouldn`t develop and give the oppurtunities to help others.
I`m truly grateful for your comments and that you keep coming back to read the articles..