Quotes About Meditation

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body.

In union with God, the heart absorbs the Lord and the Lord the heart, and the two become one. Quotation attributed to St John Chrysostom by Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos, 52 (Philokalia IV,252)

True prayer is not only of the mouth, it is of the heart, that is, of the whole being. It is a cry de profundis, out of the deep. There is a correspondence between the depths of the heart and the heights of heaven, understood not in a physical sense but in the sense of a 'beyond' in relation to the centre.

The thoughtful soul to solitude retires.

Pagodas are, like mosques, true houses of prayer; ?Tis prayer that church bells waft upon the air; Kaaba and temple, rosary and cross, All are but divers tongues of world-wide prayer.

Master Hakuin emphasizes kufu in movement or practical training in Zen. He says, "To practice Zen in movement is superior to doing so in the stillness of meditation.

In disciplining ourselves to practice Zen in movement, we never cease to become mu with all our might or count the frequency of our respiration at all times and in all places just as we do when we are in meditation. Therefore, it is our ideal to train ourselves to attain immovability in movement. As I have been saying, however, even professional Zen monks cannot always practice Zen in movement except those endowed with the greatest capacities.

If we analyze the character for zen, we find that it combines the radical shi (to show) with the character tan (single).

by trying to become "no-thought and no-thinking," we create the idea of "no-thought and no-thinking." This is one example of the wrong direction of zazen.

show) with the character tan (single). That is to say, the character for zen means "to show singleness of mind.

Kawajiri Hogin classifies those who sit for wrong reasons as: 1) those who sit in order to tranquilize their minds; 2) those who sit to be empty in their minds; 3) those who solve koan as if they were guessing games; 4) those who start sitting, motivated by their wish for escape from this disturbing world.

those who are inclined to tranquil meditation are apt to think that they have sat long enough as soon as disturbing thoughts within them subside during meditation. But thinking that they have sat long enough in itself is dualistic. As long as they are captured by such a thought, they cannot be liberated from dualism however long they may wait.

Apart from nembutsu, we can cure our fatigue by sitting truly well in meditation, even if we shorten the time of our sleep. This has been proved by many who have experienced zazen. Ten minutes of zazen before reading and the momentary immersion in samadhi before work—how well they help us enjoy our work and reading, and to what a great extent they enhance our efficiency!

think that the essential point of Zen lies in "proof," which is variously called "right awareness of no-self," "seeing one's original self-nature," and so on.

The publication Koan Kaito Shu15 (The Collection of Answers to Koan)

When all are seated, the jikijitsu claps the taku (wooden clappers) once, followed by the four successive rings of the small metal bell called inkin at measured intervals. This is the sign of shijo, which means the beginning of samadhi or zazen. In the ensuing period of quietness, the slightest movement of our bodies, even coughing, is forbidden.

After the passage of a given length of time, the jikijitsu again rings his bell once and claps his clappers twice. Then comes a short break of about ten minutes. Sometimes during this break kinhin (meditative walking) takes place in the meditation hall.

When a number of people recite a sutra in one accord, they are told to recite it with their ears. It is good to recite the sutra in such a way that the voices of those sitting next to us enter our ears, and, passing through them, come out of our mouths by becoming our own voices. After the lecture, the testimonial teaching of the past Zen Master related to the temple or the lecturer, or Shiku Seigan Mon77 are recited by all present.

Sanzen is classified into sosan (mandatory interviews for those with koan) and dokusan (individual interviews).

It goes without saying that the method of melting the ice of our egos into water, as they originally are, lies in samadhi.

Accordingly, if we put it in extreme terms, all types of Zen other than Patriarchal Zen are inauthentic. However, in a positive sense, it may be said that Zen Outside the Way (Gedo Zen), Common Zen (Bompu Zen), Zen of the Mouth and Head (Koto Zen), Literary Zen (Moji Zen), Zen for Health (Kenko Zen), Zen for Medical Treatment (Ryoyo Zen), and all the rest exist within the realm of Patriarchal Zen.

there are large number of people—so-called believers—who misunderstand the concept of "no-thought and no-thinking" (Jpn. munen muso).

With regards to the methods of attaining the essence of religion, there are generally two types as described by Imazu Kogaku:1 the meditation type and the prayer type.