Ask Lewis: 8 Tips To Begin Your Spiritual Journey
How to meditate, contemplate, and introspect
To engage the spiritual path requires an intention and a hunger for the sacred. This is usually done through various practices including…
1. Meditation: Methods known as Zazen,
2. Mentoring: Exploring Zen questions under the support of a Zen Guide or teacher,
3. Kōans: Contemplation on seemingly nonsensical and paradoxical riddles called kōans. The most famous kōan is “describe the sound of one hand clapping?” A Zen student might be asked this seemingly paradoxical or ridiculous question, and if they give an unsatisfactory answer (often there is no “right” answer) their teacher will ask them to meditate on it further. Sometimes a Zen student might have to ponder a single kōan for a very long time.
4. Stories: These usually have hidden morals and lessons that must be meditated upon to be understood is also important. As with #3 a Zen student might be told this seemingly paradoxical or ridiculous story, and to repeat it themselves. If they don’t offer something that shows they understand the lesson or moral of the story their teacher will ask them to meditate on it further. Sometimes a Zen student might have to ponder a single story for a very long time.
5. Routines: Zen practice is, like mindfulness. Something that needs to be done 24/7, 365 days a year. What is often called Zen mind, beginner's mind, is a way of being that needs to be developed slowly without regret or expectation. If one does not do it, there is no need for guilt or shame. One does it or doesn’t do it. Still, to have a sense of mental and emotional contentment it is wise to practice the various elements of Zen consistently.
6. 24/7: Where is the best place to practice EZ? Anywhere and at any time!
What are the best EZ practices? Different traditional Japanese Zen schools of thought place different emphasis on various practices. On EZ we focus on 7 Pillars which are the Foundational Principles of EZ. Just to remind you.
These are:
- Meditation,
- Contemplation.
- Introspection.
- Exploring your cognitive biases, and logical fallacies.
- Doing what needs to be done.
- Living through love while serving others.
- Game-based thinking.
- Singing, dancing, laughing communicating clearly, and being silent.
These 8 Pillars are not rigid or dogmatic, yet they do create a framework for daily practice. Each of these pillars requires wakefulness and a sense of focus on the many subtle elements that comprise the human experience. This is a complete awareness of your surroundings and your relationship to them.
Ultimately if practiced consistently the 7 Pillars lead to very introspective, self-reliant, and practical ways to ponder your relationship to various stimuli. The goal of Zen is not to overcome those stimuli. It is to remove your attachment to them and remain conscious of them. Here you can decide which ones to pull back from and which to magnify. In this way you can, with this level of mindfulness, consciously guide the subconscious, (breathing, driving, walking). In this, you can create desired patterns for repeated actions inserting them into the subconscious.
How does a person find a Zen Awakened Teacher in EZ? They don’t! By the end of the twentieth century, many dark hidden truths about many ashrams and monasteries had come to the surface. The practice of bowing to, worshipping, and deifying teachers, drunken poets, and so-called Awakened Teachers was common. Sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement of monastery affairs, and generally poor behavior had become acceptable and these led to many scandals involving respected and important teachers. In recent decades many of these spiritual communities have come to struggle with their issues. The joke told concerning this is a dysfunctional pattern of intense “self-medicating” “meditation — 5:00 AM, self-medication — 6:00 AM, Alcoholics Anonymous — 7:00 AM.”
The source of much of this drama and unnecessary struggle comes partly from the idea that spiritual Awakened Teachers transcend all good and evil. Many spiritual seekers base their practices on teachings that evolved in a time when Monasteries were disconnected from the ordinary life of society.
The Takeaway
As profound as these traditions can be, the inner politics within monasteries were often horrifically violent and competitive. In the past and even today moral precepts were considered very important for students to follow, but Awakened Teachers were allowed to ignore them since they had seemingly transcended good and evil. This is of course nonsense. In our modern times, ethical accountability is essential. Can one have consistent compassion without ethics?
©Lewis Harrison, all rights reserved.
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