10 Easy Steps to "Zen"

Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; WikiHow.com

Here are 10 easy steps to a "zen" (jhana) state of mind. Zazen (just sitting) is a type of meditation unique to Zen Buddhism. It functions at the heart of the practice. Zen (Chinese Ch'an, Sanskrit Dhyana, Pali Jhana) is the Japanese word for "meditation," so Zen Buddhists could be called "Meditation-centric Buddhists." This outlines how a beginner can practice zazen, which literally means sitting meditation.

ZEN: Who in the world is Alan Watts?

Dhr. Seven and CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; AlanWatts.org

Zen Birthday Card: "Not thinking of you." (Piraro/bizarro.com)

  

Early Alan Watts, London (colorized photo)

Alan Watts was born in London in 1915, at the start of World War I. At a young age he became fascinated with the Far East, and at 14 he began to write and was published in the Journal of the London Buddhist Lodge before writing his first booklet on Zen in 1932. He moved to New York in 1938 and then to Chicago, where he served as an Episcopal priest for six years before leaving the Church. In 1950, he moved to upstate New York before going on to San Francisco to teach at the Academy of Asian Studies. Among Alan Watts' earliest influences were the novelist Sax Rohmer and Zen scholars D.T. Suzuki and Christmas Humpreys. In late 1950, he visited with Joseph Campbell and composer John Cage in NYC.

 

Worldview

Alan Watts was profoundly influenced by the East Indian philosophies of Vedanta [the "best of the ancient Vedas"] and Buddhism, and by Taoist thought, which is reflected in Zen poetry and the arts of China and Japan.
 

"Why cats are awesome" (RantsRavesT)

After leaving the [Anglican] Church, he never became a member of another organized religion. And although he wrote and spoke extensively about Zen Buddhism, he was criticized by American Buddhist practitioners for not sitting regularly in zazen. Alan Watts responded simply by saying, "A cat sits until it is done sitting, and then gets up, stretches, and walks away."

• Don't be like Alan, kids. Here's how to zazen
• VIDEO: Be like Alan, kids: Watch cartoons

Expect the unexpected, and you won't be disappointed ("Zen Comics"/Ioanna Salajan)

  

1950's and early '60's

Later wild-eyed Alan Watts, Berkeley

After teaching at the Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco, he became Dean and began to give regular radio talks on KPFA FM, the Berkeley free radio station. In 1957, he published his bestselling Way of Zen, and in 1958 returned to Europe where he met with C.G. Jung. He was an early subject in pioneering psychedelic trials and, after recording two seasons of the public television series "Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life," traveled to Japan several times in the early sixties. By the late sixties, he had become a counterculture celebrity, and traveled widely to speak at universities and growth centers across the US and Europe.
 

The adventures of a doctoral candidate in "PHD ZEN" (phdcomics.com/Jorge Cham)

 
Later Years

The animated Alan Watts is not just for kids

By the early seventies, Alan Watts had become a foremost interpreter of Eastern thought for the West and was widely published in periodicals including Earth, Elle, Playboy, and Redbook. He appeared on CBS television's "Camera Three" in 1969, and in 1971 he recorded a pilot for a new show titled "A Conversation with Myself" for NET, the precursor to PBS. When the series was not produced, he recorded the shows with his son Mark and his long-time audio archivist Henry Jacobs in 1972. Overall, Alan Watts developed an extensive audio library of nearly 400 talks and wrote more than 25 books during his lifetime, including his final volume, Tao: The Watercourse Way. Alan Watts died in his sleep in November of 1973, after returning from an intensive international lecture tour. More

(Wiki featured article, May 15, 2014) Mycena aurantiomarginata, commonly known as the golden-edge bonnet, is a species of agaric fungus in the family Mycenaceae. First formally described in 1803, it was given its current name in 1872. It is common in Europe and North America, and has also been collected in North Africa, Central America, and Japan... More

How to meditate: Don't "meditate"

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; KyleCease.com, KPFK.org

A kuti is a "meditation hut" or "cell," lodging to withdraw, absorb, and contemplate. It is likely to feel like a prison cell if one does not enter with the right intention and view.

Oh, to have a Thai Buddhist meditation hut like this shrine hall (Richard-Perry/flickr.com)

 
It is easy to meditate, too easy. So easy that one should not "do" and it will happen.

It will happen. So be meditated rather than meditating. In yoga class I say to practitioners, "Remember to breathe." Newcomers roll their eyes. But before long, they're forgetting. They're clenching, sucking in their guts, getting dizzy. "Breathe, breathe," I say.

Eventually, they ask, "O, you mean remember to do deep abdominal breathing without clenching." "Yes," I answer, "what else would I mean?" Breathing would just happen if we got out of our way.

Samsara or Bhavachakra thangka (Stephen Shephard)

But better than breathing, let the breath breathe you. That's tougher to get one's head around. No need. Just do it. It will happen if we allow. Look, it was just happening! You, reader, you were just doing it! The breath was breathing you...

By the same token, meditate. And remember to meditate. How? Pay attention. We're always paying attention to something. Choose. Rather than wandering and wandering -- endlessly wandering on in this tragic samsara (wheel), blinded by delusion, baited by craving, dejected by aversion -- choose. Focus. Stay.

Easy meditation steps: Stop. Stay. Awake. Too easy? Really stop, completely stop. If I were doing nothing, what would I be doing? Not nothing. "Nothing" is not something we do. There would be breathing going on. We wouldn't be breathing. In a sense, Breathing breathing us. We wouldn't be meditating. In a sense, Meditation would begin meditating us.

would be

• (Here "meditation" does not mean "contemplate" or "rotate in the mind." That comes later during the insight exercises for liberation. At this stage, it's all about acute-serenity, complete peace full of wakefulness and attention. For those of us with ADD, the two just don't seem to go together. But they will if the way we get to serenity is by prolonged attention. It purifies the heart/mind).

Downward Dog, also known as the Lululemon Test Pose (businessinsider.com)

 

All the words in the dictionary won't do it. Just do it. Practice. For one who practices -- who is persistent in following the directions, in "trying," as it were -- success comes. It can't help but come. Others go faster, still others go slower...some don't go at all. Look at yourself. Practice. It's not about them. It is about you.

The comedian on the radio

Christine Blosdale had comedian Kyle Cease on Pacifica on Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 11:00 am. He said it exactly, describing "flow," which is both a kind of yoga and a psychological state world class rappers like to enter. Athletes, too. And meditators can learn a lot from it. As a comedian and motivational speaker, Cease had something to say about meditation, realization, and having an epiphany about the illusions we live in:

• Christine Blosdale Special
• PLAY (or DOWNLOAD)

Evolving Out Loud (kylecease.com)

Walking meditation (sutra)

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly translation; "Discourse on Walking" (Cankama Sutta, AN 5.29); video by Ven. Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu (DhammaWiki.com)

(YB) Third of six in a series on HOW TO practice meditation demonstrating the simple technique of Buddhist walking meditation (candama) free of dogma and mumbo-jumbo.

 

Meditators, these are the five benefits for one who practices walking meditation. What are the five?

1. One can endure travel by foot.
2. One can endure exertion.
3. One is freed of disease.
4. One, whatever one has eaten or drunk, chewed and savored, gains good digestion.
5. One enters concentration while practicing walking meditation, which lasts for a long time.

These are the five benefits for one who practices walking meditation.

Easy instructions 

Living room Neue Errungenschaft (GretasWorld)

VIDEO: Walking meditation with Gil Fronsdal 
There are four postures for "meditation" (development, cultivation): sitting, walking, standing, and lying down. This Dharma talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) in Redwood City, California. Each talk -- also given by Andrea Fella and guest speakers -- illuminates aspects of the Buddha's teachings or "Dharma." The purpose is what the Buddha had in mind for his teachings, namely, to guide us toward the complete end of suffering and attainment of complete freedom (nirvana).

• VIDEO: Walking meditation with Joseph Goldstein
• VIDEO: Walking meditation with Thich Nhat Hanh
• VIDEO: Guided walking meditation (EZ Yoga)
• VIDEO: Easy walking meditation (Ben Griggs) A quick guide to focused walking meditation allowing the mind/heart to settle deeply, particularly useful for beginners and anyone struggling with drowsiness. Filmed in Japan among the cherry blossom trees at Happy Science Temple.