" Zen Meditation [???] Mindfulness
Zen is about living in the present with complete awareness.
Practitioners turn off the automatic pilot that most of us operate from
throughout the day -- we don't really notice all the things that are
going on around us or within our own minds.
They try to experience each moment directly. They don't let thoughts,
memories, fears or hopes get in the way.
They practice being aware of everything they see, hear, feel, taste, and
smell.
Another way of looking at this is to say that a Zen practitioner tries
to be completely aware in the activity of any particular moment -- to
the extent that they are one with what they are doing. So, for example:
* when they eat they focus totally on the food and on the act of
eating;
* when they meditate they open the mind to the reality of the moment,
not allowing thoughts, feelings or sensations to preoccupy them, not
even thoughts about enlightenment or Buddhism;
* when they work, they only work;
* when they brush their teeth, that's all they do -- they don't think
about other things at the same time.
Zen practice is to realise that thoughts are a natural faculty of mind
and should not be stopped, ignored, or rejected.
Instead, thinking, especially discursive thinking, is to be acknowledged
but then put to one side so that the mind is not carried away by
worries, anxieties, and endless hopes and fears.
This is liberation from the defilements of the mind, the suffering of
the mind, leaving the truth of this vast, unidentifiable moment plain to
see.
Stilling the mind
In Zen Buddhism the purpose of meditation is to stop the mind rushing
about in an aimless (or even a purposeful) stream of thoughts. People
often say that the aim of meditation is "to still the mind". <snip> "
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/customs/meditation_1.sh\
tml#h3
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/customs/meditation_1.s\
html#h3>
--- In [email protected], "Bill!" <BillSmart@...> wrote:
>
> Grinding a brick to make a mirror? Well, I'll have to reflect on
that...
