Zen Meditation-A Form Of Buddhist Meditation

Zen meditation is the form of Buddhist meditation developed Korea, Japan, Vietnam and china.

Zen meditation allows the mind and body to relax and experience insight into nature of existence.

Zen meditation postures:

  1. Full lotus posture
  2. Half lotus posture
  3. Burmese posture
  4. Sitting on a chair
  5. Seiza posture

Full lotus posture: Sit straight on the floor and place each foot on the opposite thigh. By sitting cross legged on the floor increases your stability and efficiency. This is perfectly symmetrical.zen meditation

Half lotus posture: Sit straight on the floor and place left foot up on to the right thigh. Place your right thigh under the left foot. This is slightly unsymmetrical. Sometimes your body needs to compensate in order to keep it straight.

Burmese posture: Sit straight on the floor. Keep your legs crossed and feet should rest flat on the floor. Knees should also rest on the floor. Sometimes you may feel difficult to make the legs touch the floor. After sometime, the muscles will loosen and the knees begin to drop.

Sitting on a chair: Sit on the chair with feet touching the floor. Keep your spine straight with lower part of the back curved.

Seiza posture: You kneel down with buttocks resting on the upturned feet. You can use seiza bench to keep all the weight off your feet and helps to keep your spine straight. You can also use pillow to keep the weight off the ankles.

In all the postures, the back should be kept straight and breathe should be taken deeply. Keeping the back straight allows the diaphragm to move freely. The breathing will become very deep.

When you breathe, your abdomen will rise and fall. In general, we take shallow breaths. In zen meditation, deep breathing takes place. You have to wear loose clothing to allow deep breathing.

If you are a beginner, counting the breath is the best way. take a deep breathe and breathing should flow into lower abdomen. Keep your attention on breathing. If your attention wanders, bring it back and breathe again.

When you are breathing, you should keep your mouth closed. Press your tongue lightly against the upper palate. This reduces the saliva and swallowing. The eyes should be lowered and chin should be tucked in.

Hands are held close to the body where the left hand rests on top of the right hand with palms open and up. Abdomen should be relaxed and allowed to hang out slightly.

Benefits of zen meditation:

  1. Blood pressure can be lowered
  2. Enhances the immune system
  3. Overall relationships will be improved
  4. Stress and anxiety could be reduced.
  5. Improved concentration
  6. Quality of sleep improves
  7. Depression can be reduced
  8. Gain wisdom and clarity of mind
  9. Less agitated to accidents
  10. Inner strength and positive thinking will be improved
  11. Self trust and self esteem can be developed

If you practice zen meditation regularly for fifteen to twenty minutes, you can see the change in yourself and in your health [Meditation benefits].