Dear Aham,
Zen is about letting our inner divine, labeled as Buddha Nature, to
shine through. Let it be our guide in our daily life. And the only way
that it may shine through depends on the purification of our physical,
mental and spiritual hindrances.
Because our inner divine, same as the external almighty, is all knowing,
all wise, all powerful, all harmonious.
JM
On 8/22/2013 2:07 AM, Bill! wrote:
Aham,
IMO zen is a set of teachings that first enable you to experience
Buddha Nature ("to see things as they really are" in Vipassana-speak)
and then to incorporate that experience into your daily life.
These teachings usually do employ a meditation technique - zazen -
which in Japanese means 'sit zen'. Although there are many beginning
techniques used to learn to do zazen and the most popular does involve
using the breath as does Vipassana; but all zen techniques (zazen,
koan study, chanting, bowing, etc...) are all geared to bring you
eventually to a meditative state called 'shikantaza' which means 'just
sit' or 'only sit' in Japanese. It is the same (I believe) as what the
Buddhist Sutras refer to as 'samadhi'. It is in this state that you
may experience Buddha Nature ("see things as they really are").
From what little I know about Vipassana there are a lot of
similarities with zen, and of course there should be if they are both
taking you to the same place.
There are participants in this forum that know more about Vipassana
than I, and also participants that probably have a different opinion
of what zen is than I've just wrote out.
I hope you'll hear from them.
Welcome to the Zen Forum...
...Bill!
--- In [email protected] <mailto:Zen_Forum%40yahoogroups.com>,
"reconceiving1942" <aham@...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I am new here in this group.
> I am familiar with some meditation techiques, where vipassana became
the strongest one for me.
>
> What exactly is zen?
> is zen a mediation technique or a quality of life?
> If so, can any one describe this quality?
>
> Aham
>
