Hi Chris,
Zen is an experience. As Bill said there is nothing to "know".
However, if you were wondering about the basic posture or the method itself, we
have the following general guidelines for practitioners in our school.
For beginnger and session less than 45 minutes, any posture will do. Two years
ago, I taught a lady to just breathe with belly by sitting on a chair, because
she has two artificial knees. She benefitted from doing just that in one month.
For sessions longer than that, correct posture enables one to have good balance
and support. Tug in the lower back, with head centered and align with the
spine, etc. helps a longer session. Read here as a reference.
Our school is somewhat rigid and structured. We do recommend good postures as
well as one hour sessions as a minimum.
Have Fun,
Donald
Bill Smart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Chris, If youve only practiced for 3 years and already dont know exactly
what youre doing, youre making very good progress. It takes many people 5 or
10 years before they finally reach the critical point where they give up trying
to know. Some never reach that point and live their entire lives cursed with
knowing everything there is to know about zen.
As for the question on posture: Breathing freely is whats important.
Posture is only important in as much as it does not impede breathing and is
comfortable. Just find a posture that feels right and allows your breaths to
flow in and out effortlessly. As always I recommend you find a teacher. In
lieu of that, ZEN MIND, BEGINNERS MIND is as good a book as any and better than
most. Use it as a starting point and experiment from there to find a posture
that most benefits you.
Good luck - and congratulations again for not knowing.
Bill!
Chris wrote:
Hello. I may have been a member here before, but I can't remember. I
just started practicing Zazen again. I practiced everyday for about 3
years and then off and on for the last two. I'm still not sure exactly
what I'm doing. I realize that posture is very important and I had a
question about that. In Zen Mind, Beginners Mind it says that you
should push the head up and the abdomen down as if one were supporting
the sky, but when I do this it feels all wrong. I guess what my
question is in Zazen is it right to hold onself in a certain posture?
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