What is Zen?

If you’re interested in mindfulness, you’ve probably heard of the Zen practice. And if you take the effort to try to grasp it, you’ll discover that it’s a load of nonsensical jargon.

In the West, however, the more mysterious something is, the more we must delve deep to comprehend it. Isn’t it true that if we don’t “get” it, there’s something wrong with us?

Obviously, many people in the East ‘get’ it. Many have suddently become ‘awakened’ after sitting in meditation. At least that’s what’s been told to us.

The Zen Study Society has this explanation about Zen:

So, again, what is Zen? Stop now. Stop trying to get an intellectual lock on something that is vast and boundless, far more than the rational mind can grasp. Just breathe in with full awareness. Taste the breath. Appreciate it fully. Now breathe out, slowly, with equal appreciation. Give it all away; hold onto nothing. Breathe in with gratitude; breathe out with love. Receiving and offering — this is what we are doing each time we inhale and exhale. To do so with conscious awareness, on a regular basis, is the transformative practice we call Zen.

This simple yet profound practice can release us from the shackles of past and future, as well as from the self-imposed and imprisoning barriers we erect around what we erroneously consider our separate and unchanging identities.

Really?

To me, a moment of ‘awakening’ is no different than a moment when you suddenly recognizing that you’ve been wrong all along. And this recognition doesn’t have to come from a long sit.

And it does require thoughts. You think something over and over again and in the abyss of confusion, your mind suddenly shifts, and you see a new perspective.

Einstein suddenly realized that time and space are inseparable while he was on a train leading to campus. What he saw was the clock’s second-hand moved in synch with the train and thus space-time. No elaborate practice of eliminating thoughts as taught in Zen.

He was just thinking deeply.

So, if you don’t ‘get’ Zen, don’t worry. Just forget about ‘getting’ Zen and you’ll be just fine.