My experience is that Zazen doesn’t need any prior view. What is needed are good, clear instructions for practice. Its use for a Christian is that it fosters a, “disposition of body and mind that allows the Spirit to manifest fully.” As we search for God, God is also searching for us.

 

By Angel Roberto Puente

I think I’ve always been a “nuts and bolts” kind of guy.

I have a need to understand how things work. I like sharing my experience and the conclusions I have reached but it’s not my intention to teach anything. If you find anything good in what I say, you’re welcome to use it. The reason there are so many meditation styles is because people are different.

I was given the first elements of Zazen when I was 16 years old. This was Hara breathing which I latched on to with passion and is the center of my practice to this day. Like most of you who practice, I started having experiences. My response was to want to know how they happened. Almost 60 years later, I have a good idea.

All the traditions have what is called a View—it’s the framework that is provided to facilitate understanding of what is supposed to happen in practice (a lot like marketing).

Even when I first came in contact with Zen and learned to sit, I was 20 years old and I had no view. The view I acquired about four years later was from reading The Three Pillars of Zen, (which, in hindsight, was very misleading) and it led me to formal practice.

Now I’ve learned from multiple views: the different modalities of Zen, Early Buddhism, besides Tibetan, Chan, Burmese and Thai Buddhism. Also I’ve learned from science, which has been advancing exponentially in the last 20 years. Thanks to this extraordinary age of technology and information, it is possible to know of and learn from Buddhist teachers, scholars, and entire organizations dedicated to the study of contemplative arts.

The traditional views that are provided by the contemplative strains in all religions can now be simplified.

My experience is that Zazen doesn’t need any prior view. What is needed are good, clear instructions for practice. Its use for a Christian is that it fosters a, “disposition of body and mind that allows the Spirit to manifest fully.” As we search for God, God is also searching for us.

In this regard, instructions on posture, focusing on breathing and relaxation may seem enough, but they leave out the natural progression that will occur in what is essentially a training in non conceptual, bare attention. Disregarding this makes it very difficult to translate the practice to daily life, to make it a normal way of functioning.

I ascribe to the maxim, “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” This is well applied to ourselves. If whatever is “seen” or thought to be understood makes no improvement in our daily life, in the resolution of mental conflicts, let it go and continue practice. Even if it does promote improvement, don’t get stuck.

I was surprised to learn that the most simple step of zazen is the most important: bringing the attention to the breath.

In Pali, it is called Sati, which has been translated as mindfulness. Its real connotation is to remember.

Arthur J. Deikman, a psychiatrist, in De-automatization and the Mystic Experience, (Psychiatry, Vol. 29, No. 4, Nov. 1966, p. 324-338.) coined the term de-automatization to speak of placing attention on processes that are done without awareness. This is basically Sati, the simple steps that we have to remember to come back to again and again.

From the simple attention to the breath—a natural progression—without disregarding the breath, will expand to the body, feelings, the mind and observed phenomena or insights. There is another element, which is really the underlying essence of everything, space. Due to its invisibility, it is not immediately evident.

In ancient writings, we hear a lot about, “the mind like sky” in which perceptions come and go. Some think of it as silence. Others, as a natural emptiness, non solidity, that mistakenly is replaced by fixed objects.

Dr. Les Fehmi, (d. June 24, 2021), a decades long student and scholar of Zen, created a modern training in the use of the concept of space, which he called Open Focus. He wrote two books on the subject for the general public and gave training to thousands of students. The interesting thing is that it was based on his biofeedback research. The results could be measured.

In a scientific paper he wrote, Attention to Attention (Applied Neurophysiology and EEG Biofeedback. 2003), he explains the scientific background of his use of “imageless imagery.”

“Whenever you think of it, carry out your everyday tasks while at the same time being aware of infinite space, silence, and timelessness. Be aware of the three-dimensional space between, around, and through objects. Attend to all your senses: seeing, hearing, feeling, taste, smell, mental activity, and time. Include both objects and space. Imagine an awareness of space that permeates everything. Imagine feeling the background space against which everything is highlighted.”

In my practice I start off by feeling the space three inches below the naval. I always contact the breath from there. In an organic way, with the in breath the spaciousness fills the torso and the head. With the out breath, it flows downward to the feet, relaxing the whole body. This cycle repeats until body and mind are deeply relaxed.

The sense of space broadens until it includes all the perceptions present. Breath, body, mind, and environment are held in the spaciousness at the same time. It’s in this condition that the sense of self can suddenly disappear. The initial sequence is always available to fall back on.

This method has served me well in the almost six decades I’ve practiced it. Give it a try and see for yourself if it works for you.

 

Photo: Pixabay

Editor: Dana Gornall

 

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