Zen Training and a Study by Kasamatsu and Hirai

• A Zen Study by Kasamatsu and Hirai
• Sit down and get glad T

Zen Training and its Results: A Study

This information is from an article in Psychologia, and slightly amplified for clarifications. - Tormod Kinnes

Akira Kasamatsu and Miio Hirai at the University of Tokyo writes in "An Electroencephalographic Study on the Zen Meditation (Zazen)" that in Japan there are two Zen schools named Soto and Rinzai. Both schools regard Zazen as their most important training method for reaching enlightenment of mind.

Zazen: Zen sitting is performed in two basic meditation forms: A full cross-legged sitting and a half cross-legged sitting. During the Zen sitting, the trainees' eyes must be open and look downward about one meter ahead and his hands generally join. In a quiet room the trainee sits on a round cushion and practises the meditation for about 30 minutes.

Sesshin: Sometimes the intensive Zen training is performed 8 to 10 times a day for about one week. This is called Sesshin in Zen Buddhism. During it, the trainees do not engage in daily activities, but live a much regulated life by following a strict schedule.

"By practising Zen meditation it is said that man can become emancipated from the dualistic bondage of subjectivity and objectivity, of mind and body and of birth and death. And he can be free from lust and self-consciousness, and be awakened to his pure, serene and true selfhood. This mental state (Satori or enlightenment) will often be misunderstood as trance or hypnosis. However, it is said that Satori is not an abnormal mental state but one's everyday mind in the Zen sens." [Zaze 205n]

Erich Fromm describes the satori state:

If we should try to express enlightenment in psychological terms, I would say that it is a state in which the person is completely tuned to the reality outside and inside of him, a state in which he is fully aware of it and fully grasps it. He is aware of it - that is, not his brain, nor any other part of his organism, but he, the whole man. He is aware of it; not as of an object over there which he grasps with his thought, but it, the flower, the dog, the man, in its or his full reality. He who awakes is open and responsive to the world, and he can be open and responsive because he as given up holding on to himself as a thing, and thus has become empty and ready to receive. To be enlightened means "the full awakening of the total personality to reality". [Paz, in Zaze 205-6n]

"If one asks what this state of mind is concerned in psychotherapy, it may be said that Zen meditation is the method through which we can communicate with the unconscious. In this context, however, the unconscious does not mean Freud's "unconsciousness". Rather, "the unconscious" in Zen is closely related tot he unconscious which is stated by Jung, C.G. (Suzuki), or Fromm, E. [Paz] In regard to this problem Dr. Daisetsu Suzuki states the meaning of it as "the Cosmic unconscious"." [Zaze 206n]

At any rate the Zen meditation influences not only the mind but also the body as a whole organism. Training of Zen produces changes not only in the mind but also in the body - electrographic changes of brain patterns are among them. [Zaze 205-6n]

By studying the electrical activities of the brain during Zazen, and comparing it to the general impressions that Zen teachers had of their own and their students's attainments in contemplation, it showed up that there was a good deal of correspondence between these impressions and significant brain wave patterns attained to during contemplation. Also, the amount of years of Zen training went into these estimates too. There was a neat correspondence between the general impressions, years of training, and the EEG measurement results. [See Zaze 213-14]

Specific changes of EEG patterns indicate corresponding changes of consciousness. [See Zaze 224]

The degrees of EEG [electroencephalographic] changes during Zen meditation are parallel with the trainee's proficiency in sitting Zen (ie zazen). [Zaze 214]

Dogen on Zen Sitting (Zazen)

"Dogen teaches us that Buddhism is just to practice Zazen, and to practice Zazen is Buddhism." - Roshi Nishijima - Rf: ▾Zazen.

"Only people who have experienced, in the mountain still state, the Zazen that is different from thinking, are able to grasp it." [Dogen, in Shobogenzo, Vol 4, p 247]

Sitting Zen

ZAZEN is another word for Zen contemplation (ie meditation), Zazen is the training in sitting and contemplating as hinted at below - and it is a very basic exercise in Zen: "Zazen is Zen, and Zen is Zazen," said Zen roshi Dogen. And:

The Tathagatas [Arrivers] of the past, present, and future and the patriarchs in India and China have also attained enlightenment through zazen. [Dogen in the "Bendowa" chapter of the Shobogenzo]

More of Dogen

GIVE UP even the idea of becoming a Buddha.
Your tongue should be placed against the roof of your mouth,
Your lips and teeth closed comfortably.
Sit firmly as a rock,
Watching, ie "key-thinking", beyond thinking and non-thinking.

There are innumerable ways of understanding Buddhism,
You should do zazen alone.
The [inward] treasure house will then open of itself.
Be able to enjoy it.
[▾Source]

Further Sayings

Having started from his outskirts he joins the way, but he has hardly begun -
Who possesses innate knowledge all the same has to practice awakening.

You may use a sitting posture (zazen) - or a lying posture.
Keep your nose in line with your slender form's navel, and Zazen will be the manifestation of ultimate reality.

Let reality manifest in a daily life. Realism is also for that. And why give up your seat at home to wander in the dust and the dew on the grass? [Link]

Sit Down and Get Glad

Just the sitting practice and that only

PERHAPS Soto Zen is thought of as a Japanese tradition, but it was imported from China by Dogen in the early 1200s. Furthermore, it is said to be essentially the same as the Mahamudra (Great Symbol) teachings of Northern Buddhism:

A useful and succinct formula of comparison for Chinese Zen and Tibetan Mahamudra is that Zen is esoteric Mahamudra and Mahamudra is exoteric Zen. - Professor Chen-chi Chang [Tiy xxxix - More on it]

In contradistinction to the Mahamudra, the later Zen provides no 'map' for its students. [...] By offering to the novice a step-by-step guide to one end goal, the Mahamudra is closer to the Indian tradition, and perhaps easier and safer. - Professor Chang [Ibid]

By sitting calmly and comfortably, one is to go beyond thinking by observing serenely. Nothing is sought, not even enlightenment. Just the sitting practice is to be held on to.

For beginners: do it for at least ten to fifteen minutes (preferably 25) every day.

Zen serenity and furtive living stem from recognizing things for what they are - in tune with: "Don't ever let others condition you." [Zuigan]

Dogen wrote an essential guide for Zen training - it is included in the English Shobogenzo translation too. [Shz; Szd; Szi; Szm; Szp] [▾Link] ◊

Zazen gazing can melt away certain mind-forged distances.

From inside, from deep inside is the best

ONE HAD better do the sitting in a quiet room. One session is to last about 30-35 minutes, eventually.

Gladness from deep inside is called Giu-Zamhai in Zen. It is happiness from within that warms your heart. It is attuned to the real essence of our life. Buddha thought that Giu-Zamhai was to be reckoned with too. In fact, he taught Giu-Zamhai, gladness of being, a felicity which comes from inside of us. Thus, feel that you are alive and experience how bright the world can seem. ◊

Train yourself in watching the natural flow of breath too

TRAIN and exert yourself in breath-watching, and go on from there - investigate and probe well - and know yourself too.

Gist

1. Stick to your sitting practice.
2. Go deep inside to find suitable outlets from within.
3. Train yourself to eventually investigate better what courses around you.

Literature  

Paz: Fromm, Erich: Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism. Unwin. London, 1986

Tiy: Evans-Wentz, W. ed: Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines. 2nd ed. Oxford University. London, 1967.

Shz: Cleary, Thomas, tr: Shobogenzo: Zen Essays by Dogen. University of Hawaii Press. Honolulu, 1986.

Szd: Nishijima, Gudo Wafo and Cross, Chodo, trs.: Master Dogen's Shobogenzo. Book 1. Woking, Surrey (UK), 1994.

Szi: Nishijima, Gudo Wafo and Cross, Chodo, trs.: Master Dogen's Shobogenzo. Book 2. Windbell Publications. London, 1996.

Szm: Nishijima, Gudo Wafo and Cross, Chodo, trs.: Master Dogen's Shobogenzo. Book 3. Windbell Publications. London, 1997.

Szp: Nishijima, Gudo Wafo and Cross, Chodo, trs.: Master Dogen's Shobogenzo. Book 4. Windbell Publications. London, 1999.

Zaze: Kasamatsu, Akira and Hirai, Tomio: "An Electroencephalographic Study on the Zen Meditation." Psychologia, vol 12, 1969, p 205-25. Kyoto, Japan.



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