Sean, Sorry for the tardy reply, but I did not get your posting via email as I normally do. I logged into the site today and saw your post.
I am not an expert in Vipassana, but I do live in Thailand where Vipassana is widely practiced and have spent a short time at a Vipassana training center and believe I do have some knowledge of it and its teachings. Your description of Vipassana meditation, '...sitting and not grasping any thoughts, emotions, experience, etc,...', is also completely applicable to zazen. I think it is important, however, to emphasis that 'not grasping' does not mean 'rejecting' or 'avoiding'. 'Not grasping' means 'not holding onto', or 'not forming attachments to' thoughts, emotions, experience, etc... >From my experiences and observations the major differences between Vispanna and zen are in the rites and rituals, rather than the meditation. Also, as far as I can tell Vipassana does not recognize mind-to-mind (non-verbal) transmission which goes to the core of zen teaching. Hope this helps. Let me know what you thnk. ...Bill! --- In [email protected], "seanlukens" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi folks, > > I am new here and have a basic question. How is zazen different from > vipassana meditation? I practice the latter each day, sitting and not > grasping any thoughts, emotions, experience, etc, and this seems > similar to zazen. > > But, I read someone on-line who adamantly said that "vipassana is NOT > zazen!" but there was no explanation of the difference. > > Any guidance or referral to sources would be much appreciated. > > > Sean > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
