Learning the Art of Zen Meditation
Zen meditation has its history rooted in Zen Buddhism. It is practiced by Buddhist Monks since time immemorial to relax their minds. It has been considered throughout the world as the gentlest and simplest of all meditation techniques imaginable, but it can only be done perfectly if the practitioner knows how minds should be trained.
Learning the art of Zen meditation is no simple process. An aspiring practitioner needs to meet a lot of requirements prior to mastering its poses and tactics. The most necessary of them is to learn how minds should be relaxed and trained to reach absolute "emptiness". However, although it seems helpful to try harder to reach that stage, Zen meditation holds that forcing oneself to obtain a quite mind is not a good practice. To achieve absolute emptiness, one needs to spend some time first on reflecting whatever form of thoughts is present. Learning the art of Zen meditation is learning the best way to reach a quite mind without the need for force.
Zen meditation is also known by many as Zazen. It is a sitting meditation that is practiced with a person assuming a variety of sitting postures, including the lotus, half lotus, seiza, and Burmese poses. While initiating these poses, the person's awareness should be directed and focused to the breathing movements and postures executed. Most experts of this practice employ either a round or square cushion to rest themselves. The cushion is often placed on top of a padded mat and is where the practitioner sits on. A chair may also be used in certain instances.
Regardless of the standard sitting postures that Zen meditation maintains, it is best that a beginner will start with the practice by observing the way the breaths are made. While focusing on the breathing movements, learn how your thoughts are formed. According to Zen masters, learning this basic technique will help every beginner to detach their thoughts from themselves, which will in turn lead you to achieve emptiness. Mastering this technique may take you months and even years, but as soon as you know the core of it, you'll realize one day that you can empty your mind easily even without thinking about it.
In Zen meditation, the amount of time and effort you'll need to exert to perform the basic poses and movements vary significantly. For the householders who find Zen a good practice to try out, five minutes is enough. The key thing to note here is to do the techniques regularly.
