Isthmus

Zen Community

Welcome

Introduction

What Is Zen?

Organization

Teachers

Schedule

Coming Events

Past Events

Links

The Distant Shore
(Newsletter)

 

Introduction to Practice

Meditation Postures

Sitting Meditation

How you sit is less important than that you sit, and many different postures are possible. The important point is to find a posture that allows you to sit silently and comfortably, with backbone straight, in a poised and alert condition.

• Place cushion on mat and sit in the position of your choice.
• Keeping the spine straight, shoulders back and loose, tip the head forward slightly, tuck in the chin, and allow your gaze to rest on the floor about three feet in front of you. Your eyes should be half open, looking down.
• Place hands in the lap in the Maha Mudra (leftover right, with the thumbs touching lightly).

Variations in seated meditation postures include:

• Sitting on a chair.
• Straddling several cushions (This is sometimes comfortable for beginners, but is not a stable position if you have a tendency to fall asleep during the sitting period).
• Kneeling on the mat and putting the cushion on the calves of the legs and sitting on it.
• Using a meditation bench.
• Half-lotus posture.
• Full-lotus posture.
• Sitting cross-legged, but without the legs crossing each other (So-called Burmese position. May be helpful for someone whose legs tend to fall asleep).

Standing Meditation

For the sake of your own practice and that of others, we ask that you do not move around or fidget during sitting meditation. However, it is a common mistake to sit past one's physical endurance.

If you must move during meditation, we ask that you give a small sitting bow, and then as slowly as you need to, get up, stand behind your mat and cushion, and hold your hands in hapchang (palms together at about chest height). You may stand this way until the physical discomfort works itself out, and then bow and resume your seat, or if you wish, you may remain standing for the rest of the meditation period. Standing meditation also provides a helpful alternative if you are sleepy during sitting meditation.

Breathing

In all meditation practices, the breath is important. To calm the body down, it is helpful to take several long, deep breaths at the beginning of meditation. After that, there is no need to do anything special with the breath. Simply breathe naturally from the diaphragm and center your attention in the lower belly. The breath should be relaxed, natural and quiet.

Chanting Meditation

"Chanting meditation means keeping a not-moving mind and perceiving the sound of your own voice. Perceiving your voice means perceiving your true self or true nature. Then you and the sound are never separate, which means that you and the whole universe are never separate. Thus, to perceive our true nature is to perceive universal substance. With regular chanting, our sense of being centered gets stronger and stronger. When we are strongly centered, we can control our feelings, and thus our condition and situation. " -Zen Master Seung Sahn

• Chanting is simply another form of meditation.
• The meditation practice of "being in the present" becomes apparent during chanting. When the mind is not present in the room but thinking about something else, it is easy to skip parts of the chant or make some other error in chanting.
• Chanting allows us an opportunity to put down our individual thoughts and preferences, and do "together action."
• The key to chanting correctly is to chant just loud enough to hear your own voice, but softly enough to hear everyone else in the room. This allows everyone to follow the Moktak Master.
• Although the chants may be new and unfamiliar to you, the main thing is simply to try. Follow along as best you can, and don't worry about making mistakes.

Chanting Forms

• On Wednesday evenings our three main chants are the Evening Bell Chant, which is performed solo, the Heart Sutra in English, and the Great Dharani, which is in transliterated Sanskrit. Chant books are distributed at the beginning of practice.
• A moktak {a small wooden percussion instrument) is used to keep the rhythm.
• We bow together when we hear the sound of a roll on the moktak.
• Hold the book in hapchang (hands folded in front of you as if in prayer with the book resting between your thumbs and index fingers).
• When we've finished, place the book on your mat to the right of your cushion.

Meditation Practices

There are various forms of meditation practice. These practices are the heart of meditation. Each technique has a special effect on the mind. Meditation practices used and taught in the Kwan Urn School of Zen include:

• Keeping a question, or "hwa tou." If you have a great question, such as "what am I," "what is life," etc., this question will help you practice. If the question is big enough and intense enough, it will bring you to "Don't-know-mind" or "before-thinking-mind."

• Mantra practice. Mantras are used to calm the mind and strengthen the center. Mantras differ in their length and direction. The usual technique is to recite the mantra constantly, allowing all other thinking to drop away. When the mind strays, gently bring the mind back to the mantra without any judgment.

• Kong-an practice. Also known as "koan" in some Japanese traditions, kong-an is an ancient form of question and answer, referring to spontaneous teaching exchanges between past Zen Masters. Kong-an practice, question-and-answer, is an integral part of individual teaching interviews with the Zen teacher, and points to the wisdom aspect of practice, in which we learn to respond clearly and directly to events arising in our daily lives. Sitting with a kong-an is one of the trademarks of Zen practice.

We teach a mantra practice called, Clear mind, clear mind, clear mind, Don't know. This is particularly effective for beginners or for people with a lot of thinking. Breathing in, repeat to oneself, "clear mind, clear mind, clear mind." Breathing out, say to oneself "Dooooooonnn't knnnoooooowww" just once. The out-breath or exhalation should be at least twice as long as the in-breath or inhalation.

When your mind wanders, this does not mean that you are doing the practice incorrectly. Just notice these thoughts as thoughts, let them go, and gently come back to your practice. Meditation is this very coming back process.

At the Isthmus Zen Community. we sit for periods of 25 minutes with the beginning and ending of sitting meditation indicated by three claps of the chugpi (a wooden slapstick).