For my final paper, I decided to research and practice the meditation practice of Zazen. This ancient practice of meditation has been around since the 13th century and was created by Zen master and founder of the Sōtō sect in Japan named Jōyō Dōgen or Kigen Dōgen. He was born on January 19, 1200, in Kyōto Japan during the Kamakura period, 1192-1333. He introduced Zen to Japan in the form of the Sōto school. This practice was a combination of meditative practice and Philosophical speculation. He was born into high nobility however, he was orphaned at the age of seven years old. When he was 13 years old he became a monk and studied the scriptures of Buddhism on Mount Hiei which is the center of Tendai Buddhism. Between the years of 1223 and 1227, he studied the practice of Zen Meditation in China. He also gained enlightenment under the Zen Master, Ju-ching. When he came back to Japan, he lived in various temples and worked to spread the practice of Zen Meditation. In his final years, he lived at the Eihei Temple, which he founded on the present-day, Fukui. He also penned a literary work called, Fukan Zazen Gi. This translates to General teachings for the promotion of Zazen in 1227. Zazen is the practice of sitting cross-legged (lotus) position, which he stressed the identity of practice and Enlightenment. He also believed that Zazen was not only a way to be a method of moving towards enlightenment but to effectively constitute enlightenment itself.
Now that I covered some of the history of the creation of this practice, let's get into how this is practiced. The instructions for this type of meditation are fairly simple, it instructs the disciple to sit in a quiet room, breathing rhythmically and simple with legs in complete or incomplete crossed legs, with the spine and head completely straight, hands completely folded on top of one another and eyes open. It also included all logical or analytic thinking that should be suspended. It also included that all of our desires, attachments, and judgment to leave the mind in a state of relaxed attention. The practice of Zazen varies from school to school but they all agree on the practice of insight into the nature of existence. Zazen meditation or Sōtō is at the heart of Buddhist practice the significance is that the practice is to suspend all of our judgments and let words, ideas, and thoughts pass by without getting them in the way of what we are trying to achieve in the meditation.
There are many different ways to sit when doing Zazen. There is Kekkafuza (Full lotus), Hankafuza (half-lotus), Burmese which is the practice of sitting cross-legged but the ankles are placed together in the front of the sitter. The last type is called Seiza which is a kneeling posture that uses a bench or Seiza (round cushion). The one thing that stands out is that it is uncommon for Zazen practitioners to practice with a chair. They do however often wedge a cushion on the top of it so that one is sitting at an incline or they could place a wedge at the lower back to help protect the natural curvature of the spine. They are taught to sit comfortably but not too comfortable to avoid falling asleep during meditation.
This practice is also taught in 3 ways; Concentration, Koan introspection, and Shikantaza which is just sitting. Concentration is the initial stages of the Buddhist Samatha meditation practice, which translates to the "tranquility of the mind", or "mind-calmness". This is where the student starts focusing on the hara/tanden, which translates to the "energy center" which is the focal point for meditative and exercise techniques. This allows the mindfulness of the breath exercises (ānāpānasmṛti), such as counting breaths (sūsokukan) or just watching it (zuisokukan). Mantras can also be used instead of counting breaths. This practice has to be continued in "one-pointedness" of the mind to effectively constitute an initial experience of Samadhi which is the
state meditative consciousness. Once a practitioner achieves this he/she can move on to the other two methods of Zazen. The second form of Zazen is Koan introspection. This is the focus of his/her consciousness as an object of meditation. This being said koans are ostensible, not solvable by intellectual reasoning. Therefore Koan introspection was designed to be a shortcut through the Intellectual process that leads to the direct realization of a reality beyond the conscious thought. The last form is Shikantaza, it is where the practitioner does not use any specific object for their practice but they try as best as they can to stay as much as possible to stay within the moment are very aware of what passes through their minds and what is going on around them. Dogen says, in his Shobogenzo, "Sitting fixedly, think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Nonthinking. This is the art of zazen." The Buddhists believe that meditation involves both the mind and the body. This being said there is an ancient Buddhist text called the Dhammapada that states, "All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. Dhammapada Chapter 1:1-2 what this text is getting at is that the mental states we experience on a daily basis are the key to everything in our lives. Traditional Buddhist meditation is an invitation to turn one's awareness away from the chaos of the world and has us look inwards to the inner experiences of our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. "For Buddhists, the realm of meditation comprises mental states such as calm, concentration, and one-pointedness (which comprises the six forces: hearing, pondering, mindfulness, awareness, effort, and intimacy)." There is also something called the three training's. In western societies if you wanted to explore a spiritual path meditation is the first thing you encounter. However, in the Buddhist tradition, meditation is the second part of the threefold path. The first is called Shilla which means, the development of ethics. Although Buddhism does
not have laws or commandments, they have 5 ethical precepts. These are guidelines to live without harming others or themselves. The second path is meditation which is called Samadhi. Having good ethics and acting ethically gives a chance to live a simpler life and a clearer conscience, which is the key to the basis of. a clear meditation practice. The last path is to develop wisdom, which is called prajna. The real aim of all Buddhist practice is to understand the true nature of our lives and experiences in past, present and future.
Let's get into my experience with the Zazen practice. I chose this practice because it is in tune with my own definition of meditation. To sit with your legs crossed and back straight. It was also a practice that I would correlate with Jedi meditation. For someone that has a tendency for a mind that races in any sort of calm atmosphere, I found this practice very helpful and I got a lot out of it. It helped me focus on what my weaknesses were and strengthen them. I also noticed a change in my sleep. Ever since I could remember I had trouble sleeping, I was more of a night owl and tended to stay up late. However, when I did finally sleep my mind would race and I would always wake up more tired then I went to bed which was very frustrating. However, doing this meditation before I went to bed or even hours before my mind seemed to be calmer. Another thing I noticed is my energy. During this Covid-19 pandemic, I have still been working at my job at the grocery store that I have been apart of since mid-January. I usually work 7 am and into the afternoon hours. Before I started this medication I seemed to be more lazy than I wanted to be and it really bugged me to the point where I would get extremely frustrated with myself because I knew I could do better. That being said, the combination of meditation and better sleep has made an impact and has increased my energy to take on the day.
Now that I gave historical and religious information about this wonderful practice let's dive into the scientific significance of Zazen Meditation. There have been many studies on the Zen practice of "thinking about not thinking" and the results are quite fascinating. One study suggested that Zen Meditation could be used to help treat "attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (so-called ADD or ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder, major depression, and other disorders marked by distracting thoughts." In the last decade alone there has been a rekindling of scientific research into meditation. This is due to the wide availability and increased sophistication of brain scanning techniques. This being said, scientists have found that months of intense training in the art of meditation can sharpen one's brain enough to identify details that they might have missed if they did not conduct the intense training. "It is important that this type of research be conducted with high scientific standards because it carries a long-standing stigma — perhaps well-deserved? — of being wishy-washy." "Constructive skepticism should always be welcomed as a great sparring partner." said researcher Giuseppe Pagnoni, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta. The art of Zen Meditation is to stop the withdrawal from the world around us. Scientists in Atlanta did a study where they took 12 people with experience with Zen Meditation and 12 others who did not know anything about the practice. At the conclusion of this study, they found out from the brain scans that the Zen training led to different activity in the set of brain regions better known as the "default network". They found that 12 that did Zen Meditation when distracted lost focus but rebounded quicker than the others who did not practice Zen Meditation. What they found was that there was an increase of activity in the angular gyrus, which is the part of the brain that processes language. "The regular practice of meditation may enhance the capacity to limit the influence of distracting thoughts,"
Pagnoni said. I n conclusion I strongly believe that Zazen meditation is very beneficial to all of us and may change our views on the world around us.
Sources
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dogenangulargyrus
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Soto
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zazen
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samatha
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dantian
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi#Buddhism
https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/customs/meditation_1.shtml
https://www.livescience.com/2829-study-zen-meditation-clear-mind.html