Meditation Notes » zazen

Stay Young by Practicing Zen Meditation

meditation blogger — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:58:45 +0000

Another report on the anti-aging effects of meditation; this time specifically related to Zen:

Zen meditation, a Buddhist practice, is centered on attentional and postural self-regulation and scientists believe that its regular practice may affect the normal age-related decline of cerebral gray matter volume and attentional performance observed in healthy individuals.

Three-by-Three Exercise

meditation blogger — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 11:57:13 +0000

In Being Zen, Ezra Bayda introduces a meditation exercise called Three-By-Three, in which you bring three different sources of sensory input into awareness simultaneously, and maintain awareness of all three for three full breaths. You then continue on, using different collections of sensations, physical, visual or auditory, for each round of breaths.

This practice allows you to expand your sensory awareness beyond the standard narrow band that we typically use throughout the day. Ezra says:

The awareness moves from one point of focus to another, often attending to several aspects simultaneously. Without attempting to hold any of these aspects as a reference point, we witness the sensory world from a clear, alert perspective. This is ‘experiencing.’

The Meaning of Zazen

meditation blogger — Thu, 24 May 2007 11:18:26 +0000

In this follow-up video, Gudo Nishijima explains the meaning of zazen. He gives more practical advice on sitting (”it is necessary for us to practice zazen two times a day, at least.”) and delves into some of the scientific understanding of meditation that has been uncovered in the 20th and 21st centuries.

How to practice Zazen

meditation blogger — Tue, 22 May 2007 05:30:05 +0000

In this video Gudo Nishijima, a zen meditation teacher in his 80s shows the proper way to practice zazen. What I find interesting about this video is the amount of time he devotes to the purely practical instructional aspects of sitting. Unfortunately the camera is not mounted perfectly horizontally, so Master Nishijima is on a bit of a tilt.