Meditation Styles: Zen and Hinduism

After experiencing Zen for a couple weeks, I've begun to compare it to other styles I've experienced in the past.  Notably these:

• Tibetan Buddhist
• Sufi
• Hindu styles of Paramhansa Yogananda

Of these, Tibetan and the Hindu styles of Yogananda I know best.

In comparing these to Zen there is a striking difference.  The idea of Mushin in Zen is probably the biggest difference.  That is, a state of having "no mind" or "thoughtlessness."

In both Tibetan Buddhist and Hindu meditation there is a pre-meditation form where the student counts the breath in an effort to "quiet the mind."  But in both styles of Tibetan and Hindu meditation, this isn't the goal.  It's just a way to clean the slate.

Tibetan Meditation

After the student has quieted the mind, the Tibetan Buddhist begins a very visual inward journey.  They visualize rooms or corridors that are defined as having meaning and link to other parts of one's life... for example, this is a excerpt from a Tibetan Death Meditation I used to follow:
"Visualize yourself standing on a green hill.  There's a table before you, and there are others surrounding the table.  The people at the table each wear a pack, for a long journey.  On the table are countless objects.  The people who are here are greedily stuffing so much into their backpacks, so much that they can't move.  As you approach you take only what is needed and no more.  Turning from the table you observe a building.  As you enter the doorway you notice that it's Yellow in color and that the first room is painted yellow.  on the floor is a single thorn.  You step on the thorn and it pricks your foot, causing pain and a drop of blood.  This is a reminder of how fragile our life is.  At any moment we can be injured and bleed, get infected... or die."

Another example is the Tibetan visualizations of historic characters - like Green Tara meditation.  

Such a meditation would walk the user through a variety of "rooms" and you'd come to understand that each room shows us something about life.  In fact, this is the basis of the Tibetan Mandala.  The Mandala is a 2D drawing of 3D space.  Much like an architectural diagram.

Benefit

The benefit of this style is that it creates a form of solving a problem with Gom (habituated thought.)  In this style there is an "antidote" to each problem you may face.

Hindu Styles of Paramhansa Yogananda

In Master Yogananda's style, there is less visual aspects then Tibetan, but the mind is still activated.  For example a typical session would be like this:

1. Count the Breathes for a bit
2. Begin the practice of Hong Sau (where you visualize your breath, either in the 3rd eye, nose or spine - depending on the teachings you have been initiated to)  It's very similar to Swami Vivikenanda's visual spine breathing.  In this part of meditation you sit and visualize movement (for example movement entering and exiting the 3rd eye, on each in and out breath.)
3. Aum Technique: While I can't go into the details, this involves the ability to listen to the internal noises.  Not mind noises, but body noises.  
4. Kriya Navi: Involves mental chanting and counting the chants and focusing the mind on various things
5. Communion with Master: At some point there would be a inner dialogue or even just a holding of the mental image of Master Paramhansa Yogananda.  You may get advice from him, or just visualize him. Perhaps you ask mental questions, or you sit still.

Benefit

What this style brings is a energy.  Hong Sau, and other techniques are amazing at opening up energy centers and moving energy to parts of the body.  This is very much tied to Yoga and therefore has a lot of the same benefits and characteristics.

Zen Style

I'm no Zen master... just a beginner, but so far it seems to me that in Zen, there really isn't any visualization at all.  In fact, by comparison there is far less technique, but it is yet very challenging.   I think it's easier here to get a glimpse of Samadhi, because the surface mind is lost.  There is no visualizing, there is just being without thinking.

While it sounds "easy" it's actually very difficult.  But Zen teachings make this easier for students to pick up, learn and experience states of Samadhi. 

And in doing Zen for a short period I found a brief glimpse of the Mushin state.  Just being in a bookstore and feeling a peace pervade, and no thoughts (other then the thought of observing there is no thought) and it lasted for some 20min or so.  It was pretty amazing. 

What's Best

They're all great and suit different needs.  Whatever works is what's best for you.  Maybe they all are useful to be used in the same meditation session.  Find what works and stick with it.

"What a noisy door."

A week ago I was practicing and learning Zen meditation... when I heard a character in a cartoon that was on our television say, "What a noisy door."

It struck me as an important thing to think about. 

Over the next few days I would sit in meditation and ponder that phrase.  To me it made some Zen sense in the idea that a gate separates one side from another.  For example, the inside from the outside.

Much like the gate of the mind separates outside action and noise from internal action and noise.  But when the mental gate is noisy  - it generates a problem of mental clatter.  Those thoughts that preoccupy the moment.  Worries about the future, regrets about the past, frivolous concerns about food, phone calls, or other events we might do that day.

When those thoughts exist, but the mind doesn't follow them, then the gate is silent, it just observes the inside noise.  The outside noise is also observed, without the mind following.

I suppose such a state of awareness would be called Samadhi. 

There is also a story in Zen called "The Gateless Gate."  While not having read it just yet, I thought, "what if there was no gate?"  Then the mind would be in the state called "no mind."  A higher form of Samadhi.

Finally, the breath.  In the teachings of Hinduism - especially the works of Paramhansa Yogananda, there is a concept of no breath.  A goal where one naturally ceases to breathe for a moment.  When these moments are found, then a great peace pervades.

Zen also speaks to the breath and likewise says that if we manually stop the breathing (holding breath) our thoughts stop.  We can see this when we are doing something that requires a lot of concentration - we naturally hold our breath.

In actual practice, I've found that in meditation my thoughts stop when I hold the breath.

So combining these two world views, the Gate could also represent the breath.  Since the mind and the breath are interconnected.  By having no gate, you have the moment of no breath and in that space there is bliss.  Mushin, or no thought.

Zen and the weekend

I had a great experience this weekend with Zen.

During saturday, I found myself at a book store and just filled with a really nice peacefulness.  I had less thought, and just observed. It was very enjoyable.

Later on Sunday, while reading "A Guide to Zen" by Katsuki Sekida, I heard a person on a TV say, "what a noisy door."  How appropriate as my mind at that moment was noisy.  It gave me something to reflect on in later meditation:  "What a noisy door."

Body stilliness = mental stillness

The idea of postures is to lock the body into stillness, and thereby create mental stillness.

In Zen the point of not feeling the body (not numbness, but not identifying with the body) is called "Off Sensation."

By locking the body and being able to forget it, the mind is stilled.

Counting Breaths

In Buddhism it's often noted the need to count breaths as a first step to meditation. 

Counting the breath is a process by which you inhale, and mentally count, 1, 2, 3, 4... to a count of 10.  The goal is to not allow other thoughts to interrupt this thought pattern.

If a thought comes in "i'm hungry," or "what number did I just think?" then we count it a fail and start over.

This control doesn't come from the will or brain alone.  It is a product of posture and breathing.

Kensho

Zen masters say that the purpose of Zen is to overthrow the wrong view of the world and zazen is the means of doing it.

They say that when coming out of samadhi, one can become fully aware of one's true form - this is the experience of pure existence.

The word kensho describes this, as Katsuki Sekida states, kensho is the realization of oneself and the objects of the world in the context of pure existence.