| In Japanese, "Zen" translates as "meditation". | | | | desires. |
| Meditation is a time when you sit quietly, | | | | Meditation is a tool that teaches you how to |
| seemingly doing nothing. In Western cultures, | | | | return to your deeper experience to perceive |
| sitting quietly and doing nothing might seem like a | | | | clearly, resulting in a profound sense of calm and |
| waste of time. How can anything significant be | | | | confidence that would not be shaken. As you get |
| accomplished by doing nothing? or are you really | | | | more accustomed to meditation, you realize that |
| doing nothing? The answers to these questions | | | | what seemed at first to be a no activity is really |
| require a shift in perspective. If you are willing to | | | | its own kind of activity. Meditation lets you be |
| experiment with this shift, a whole new world of | | | | immersed in your usual everyday life while also |
| possibility opens up for you. | | | | remaining fully aware. |
| When you meditate, you take a break from all | | | | The purpose is to see things as they are, to |
| the usual thoughts and activities that fill your life. | | | | observe things as they are, and to let everything |
| As you learn how to quiet your thoughts, you | | | | go as it goes. This is to put everything under |
| begin to perceive clearly in a new way. You | | | | control in its widest sense. |
| become in touch with a deeper part of yourself. | | | | Meditation is the cornerstone of Zen. All ideas, |
| We are all endowed with a mind that is clear, pure | | | | writings, and actions are secondary to meditation. |
| and deep. This is what the Zen masters call our | | | | To truly know Zen, you must engage in |
| true nature. It is already there, within everyone, | | | | meditation. Experiment with the meditations in this |
| but we usually do not notice because we are too | | | | lesson and you will begin to know Zen for |
| busy being pushed and pulled by our thoughts and | | | | yourself. |