Elias Axmar - Zen: How To Live Your Life the Zen Way—Beginners Guide for Zen Meditation

Zen is a division of Buddhism, which is a code of life started by Siddharta Gautama Buddha around 2500 years back. The word Zen originated from the Chinese word Dhyana, which is usually pronounced as Chaan. The word means meditation. Translated to Japanese, Chan means Zen so Zen simply means seated meditation. The word also means Seon in Korea, Thien in Vietnam and Zen in Japanese.

It is based on the principles and teachings taught by Buddha and emphasizes mainly on meditating regularly and discovering the basic purpose and truth of life. Bodhidharma defined Zen using the following terms:

So what exactly is Zen Buddhism? Well, Zen Buddhism is a blend of Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism Buddhism, a practice, which was handed down from master to disciple across different generations. The truth is that Zen Buddhism is not a theory, belief, fragment of knowledge or ideology so trying to define it is truly fruitless.

However, you can still describe it as a practical experience that entails using Zazen (refers to sitting meditation- it comes from two terms Za, which means sit and Zen, which means meditation). This means that by adopting the Zen way of life, you will have to resort to meditating regularly to find what life truly means and end all your worries, discomforts and tensions.

Teachings of Zen

The essence of Zen lies in living in today, the present moment and letting go of all your concerns pertinent to your future and regrets, worries and bad memories of the past. It helps you experience the present and every moment it brings with itself. According to Buddha, the basic reason why people are unhappy is because they are forgetful of what they are blessed with and are lost in the materialistic world because of their uncontrollable and incessant desires.

When we become lost in this world, we are either worried about what might happen to us, or what we might lose in the future if we dont act in a certain way right now; or we are disturbed by our past- something that has already happened and cannot be changed. We continue ruminating on these thoughts and begin locking them inside our minds. This leads to having a negative and unhealthy mindset, which makes us do all that which isnt healthy and beneficial for us. We backbite, indulge in gossiping, think negatively of others, adopt unhealthy and illegitimate means of earning, become involved in bad habits and do everything that has a bad influence on us. Though we feel we are happy the way we are living, but in reality, we are completely dissatisfied with our lives. We stay depressed quite often and become so involved in negative actions, behaviors, and thinking that we find it difficult to let go. This increases our stress, anxiousness and tension and makes us go through different sorts of sufferings.

Our suffering is exactly what makes life miserable and this is precisely where Zen comes in handy. It teaches us to slowly disengage ourselves from everything that makes us unaware of our beautiful present and avoid it, so we can acknowledge our blessings and be thankful for them. The best way to be mindful of the present and acknowledge it is by improving your concentration and focus, which can be attained by the amazing practice of meditation. This is precisely why Zen revolves around meditation.