Meditation results in a series of psychophysiological changes, including the habit of ‘not thinking’ leading to extend or bring-forth or transfer clear awareness to everyday living.
An important question from James Austin (Zen Brain Reflections, 2006)is, how can Zen make its age-old contributions to the study of consciousness? By inviting us to ask the naïve and seemingly incredible question: What is the world really like without our intrusive self-referent self in the picture?
At the entry-level meditation are the simpler forms of meditation that help adopt a positive, passive attitude and a ‘relaxation response’, a term that Herbert Benson introduced to summarize the early consequence of meditation. Meditation can be considered as a procedure of character change producing increasing self-lessness and enhanced awareness. Zen’s answer to information overload is Unload! Practical benefits of meditation are: increasing calmness and clarity.
The evolution of the following characters in oneself due to meditation are: “simplicity, stability, efficient action and compassion”.
Psychophysiological experiments, in general, but also in meditation can be summarized as resulting in excitation, inhibition and disinhibition in the brain (e.g., Lutz et al 2002).
There is a great explanatory divide between what is consciously reported and what is neurophysiologically measured.
Hence, a big ‘caveat’ in most studies of meditation so far amount to working hypotheses, with none of the results and conclusions taken as ‘set in stone’. All experiments are subject to revision. Some of the hypotheses and evidences could be closer to finding answers.
Buddha’s disciples expressed the central message of Buddhism as “Suffering I teach, and the way out of suffering”.
Buddha (Siddhrtha, 563-438 BC) at the age of 29 left his wife and child as he was saddened by the sight of suffering, of old men, sick men and the dead, and went on six long years of a spiritual journey of mediation and introspection, after which he is known to have attained enlightenment about the true source and nature of suffering and a way out of it. He later travelled all over India and taught his understanding until he died at the age of 80.
He prescribed an eight-fold path to overcome suffering: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right conduct, right vocation, right effort, mindfulness and meditation.
The Sanskrit word for meditation is ‘Dhyana’. As Buddhist monks and practitioners spread the teachings of Buddha to the east of India until Chine, meditation took on the name ‘Chan’ and adopted other spiritual and cultural aspects of Taoism and Confucianism. Buddhism became most popular and reached its heights in the Tang dynasty (618-917 AD). After it spread to Japan, it took on the name Zen which is a Japanese pronunciation of Dhyan and Chan.
The Zen tradition has two major schools: 1. Soto school, which emphasizes ‘just sitting’ for meditation and an incremental enlightenment, and 2. Rinzai school, which is more strict, austere and rigorous, and aims at sudden enlightenment.
The main cause of suffering is self-inflicted, based on our delusions, desires and worries.
“You must realize that a perspective on life that is desired from an inner experience is different from one that is derived intellectually” – Kobori Roshi (1918-1992).
What does the above mean? What is ‘inner experience’ here? Isn’t ‘intellectual’ not brain-body based as any other experience for that matter? Is this difference akin to the difference when you learn something by rote against what you learn by a more thorough understanding when you apply your knowledge?
Is the so-called ‘inner experience’ more intuitive, instantly recognizable against the more deliberate cognitive/intellectual experience?
For example, an expert chess player’s instant understanding of a board position as against a novice’s calculated understanding, through slower and more deliberate through book learning? What is the difference?
Zen is proposed to have a two-fold path, one of ‘intuitive’ experience of oneness – the meditator feeling one with everything around him, and two, the way to adopt this feeling of oneness to daily life.
The meditative path in Zen
Philosophy: The meditative practice of Zen is based on the original teachings of Buddhism which reveals that our suffering is due to our desires, ignorance and hatred, and that the meditative path of Zen overcomes these causes by training which involves: (1) simple, ethical and austere (restrained) lifestyle; (2) regular meditation (which may include an authentic teacher), community of like-minded meditators (Sangha), and long meditation retreats.
The above is the modern way in which Zen meditation is practiced.
Approach: The approach is succinctly depicted in the following schematic (Austin 2006).
——————————————-Practice time ————————————–à
Initial Quickening Absorption Kensho Stages of
Period -> (Makyo) -> (Samadhi) -> (Satori) -> Nirvana -> ongoing
Eclectic Musings by Ranga Sitaram 