Meditation (Zen)

[dannyfrankszzz]

I'm interested in learning more about meditation.

I've done some in the past.

I was taught the technique of sitting still, focussing on the breath and slowly move my mind through my body.

Is the idea of this to help the mind achieve balance and stillness, and to be calm - thus allowing the mind to think more clearly and objectively.

[Master Vigil]

The idea of meditation is focus. Your mind must have complete control over itself. The idea of counting breaths is to train the mind to only focus on the breaths. Once you think of something else and lose count, you know your mind is not focused enough. To much do we think of many things at once. This is not the way of zen or tao. You must first bring focus to your mind to be able to control it enough to be calm and still.

[David Morley]

Originally Posted by dannyfrankszzz

I'm interested in learning more about meditation.

I've done some in the past.

I was taught the technique of sitting still, focussing on the breath and slowly move my mind through my body.

Is the idea of this to help the mind achieve balance and stillness, and to be calm - thus allowing the mind to think more clearly and objectively.

Concentrating on breathing is only the beginnign. The idea is to be able to concentrate on the breathing and not affect the breathing and therefore be able to loog at an automatic function of the body in the 'third person'. This should allow you to then look at arrising thoughts in the 'third person' as well and therefore analise, compartmentalise and then clense the mind of unwanted thought, yearnings etc.

[Master Vigil]

A student went to his master and asked "why do we meditate?" The master took a bucket of water and swooshed the water around. He then asked the student to tell him what he saw in the water. The student responded "ribbons of light." Then the master said "now wait until the water calms down." And once it did, he asked the student once again "what do you see in the water?" And the student said, "the moon." This is the purpose for meditation.

[Runt]

The purpose of meditation is to attain pure perception. We humans are generally incapible of pure perception because we are burdened by that little voice in our head, subjective thinking, and the lack of focus. To achieve pure perception, one must still the mind and the body. When you still the body and the mind, you lose awareness of yourself--i.e. become "selfless". Selfless, you feel the unity of all things, but you also feel that "you" do not exist, that "you" are an illusion, inseperable from this unity.

At least, this is how it is for me.

[Master Vigil]

There are many outcomes and uses for meditation. That is of course one way runt. But not the main purpose. The main purpose is clarity, focus, and control. Once you achieve this, you can then make yourself "selfless", or allow yourself to surpass perception. I would also say that once one has pure perception, one then dies. For one may glimpse that pure perception and teach about it, but never achieve pure perception until one dies.

When I meditate, I am focusing on the spirits and their way. I then focus my mind to achieve that way to be more like the spirits. After I achieve this, I then can clear my mind to focus on issues more clearly.

[Pingu_Pow]

Whilst I do believe meditation is everything mentioned above, you've seemed to miss a crucial fact. A large portion of meditation is for the simple purpose of calming the mind and spirit. the counting of breaths is step one to calming the mind and focusing it, but once breathing becomes automatic, you simply sit and breath, dwelling in your calm center and stepping out of the hustle and bustle of daily lives. stopping and breathing and clearing your mind lets you focus on the important things in life, once the trivial things are pushed away.

[Master Vigil]

My post with the zen koan pretty much summed that all up. The calmness of the mind is not the end purpose of meditation, calmness is the means to clarity and enlightenment. Even though calmness is needed before these, focus is needed in order to achieve calmness. There are many steps to life, no one is more important. But they must be in order, you cannot run before you can walk, you cannot sit in bliss without focus and clarity.

[Green Gaia]

Originally Posted by Master Vigil

A student went to his master and asked "why do we meditate?" The master took a bucket of water and swooshed the water around. He then asked the student to tell him what he saw in the water. The student responded "ribbons of light." Then the master said "now wait until the water calms down." And once it did, he asked the student once again "what do you see in the water?" And the student said, "the moon." This is the purpose for meditation.

I like that. I have a book on Meditation, I really should read it and start practicing this.

[Master Vigil]

Meditation is great because it is not based on religion. You hear of all kinds of people meditating. Its like a universal language for spirituality.