The Fruit of Zen

Do you engage in meditation when you rise in the morning, or perhaps before you succumb to sleep at night?

When one speaks of meditation, the methods available today are innumerable, ranging from styles rooted in Indian tradition to the Zen practices of Japan. Yet, do you truly grasp the perspective that meditation is not merely a tool for relaxation, but fundamentally a method for treating the root cause of the malady that we, as human beings, inherently carry?

I practice meditation solely at night, before sleep. As for the method—or perhaps I should call it the style—after years of trial and error, I eventually arrived at a practice that resonated viscerally with me. It is what is known as Seiza [静座].

This is somewhat intricate, for in the Japanese language, the sound “Seiza” holds two distinct meanings. Generally, the Seiza [正座] spoken of in Japan implies “sitting correctly” within the context of etiquette, used in settings such as the tea ceremony. However, the Seiza [静座] I refer to here, though identical in sound, differs in meaning: it is to “sit in stillness.” Both carry nuances of discipline, but I personally understand Seiza [静座] to hold a stronger connotation of self-cultivation.

Furthermore, while Seiza [正座] is connected to the lineage of Zen, the source of Seiza [静座] lies not in Zen, but in Confucianism. Consequently, because a deeply Confucian philosophy flows through Seiza [静座], one receives the impression that its way of thinking differs significantly when compared to Zen or Buddhist meditation.

Personally, I sense that the majority of what is discussed in the context of modern mindfulness—as represented by Zen meditation—sets its objective on the practitioner removing idle thoughts to reach a state of Mu [無] (Nothingness). Indeed, many practitioners of Zen believe that the state of nothingness lies where these idle thoughts have been eliminated, and there is a prevalent tendency to perceive reaching that state as the very purpose of meditation.

Admittedly, idle thoughts are troublesome companions in human daily life. They hinder our performance in the real, obstruct our lives and our ways of thinking, and at times, through hesitation or delusion, lead us in the wrong direction. Therefore, it may be inevitable that we detest idle thoughts in the course of living. Historically speaking, it is a fact that since idle thoughts were born within humans, their existence has been viewed as problematic; one could say that the archetype of religion surged into action initially as an answer to this.

In a sense, I personally believe that the source of religion originates in how we interpret and handle the idle thoughts generated by the development of the human brain. Because the methods, practices, and philosophies for this differ according to the regulations of each region, various forms of religious germination occurred worldwide. For instance, making God the ideal, making a specific figure the ideal, or making nature itself the ideal—the early forms of faith vary. Yet, in any case, it is a fact that by first considering this problem of idle thoughts, the radical nature of all religions becomes visible. Taking this into account, we see that the issue is a universal one: how do we, in the modern age, handle these idle thoughts that are directly linked to human history?

To confront this problem, I will now conduct my own inquiry into what the true fruit of Zen is.