A Meditation on Meditation

First off, I just want to relate my thoughts and experiences on meditation. I am not a spiritual guru, nor some kind of mindfulness expert. I only have my own experience and my rather modest reading on meditation to talk about, but I think it can be helpful for those who have tried it and “failed” or who don’t really have any inkling on what meditation is about.

Walking Crosswise to Reality - A Zen Buddhist Perspective

If speaking of aims and achievement is appropriate, the aim of the practitioners of Buddhism is to achieve satori. Though considered an ineffable concept, satori has been explained or expressed as enlightenment, awakening, realisation, non-dependence[1] and liberation from suffering,[2] a complete reordering of the individual in his relation to the world.[3] According to Hakuin, “Buddha means ‘one who is awakened.’”[4] Various branches of Buddhism have their own methods for attaining satori, including deep study of the sutras and its commentaries, and meditation. Reacting against these traditions, the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism presents a radical take on how satori can be gained. The Rinzai school is one of two major sects in Zen Buddhism in Japan. This paper will examine the ‘crazy’ practices of the Rinzai school, which aims to disrupt the minds of its adherents, sometimes literally shocking them into a sudden awakening.

What they do realise or are awakened to is that there is after all no-thing. They will then be able to see, experience and live the true reality beyond the phenomena that we are ordinarily confronted with. I will contrast this notion of true reality with Kant’s transcendental idealism, which definitively explains why it is not possible to go beyond the phenomenal realm to the noumenal, and why Rinzai Zen Buddhism’s radical shift might suggest a way to do so.

The Nature of the Atman

What is the nature of reality, according to Indian philosophy? To answer this question, I turned to the Upanisads, which is considered the source of Indian philosophies and religions. According to Radhakrishnan, the aim of the Upanisads is “not so much to reach philosophical truth as to bring peace and freedom to the anxious human spirit [...] express[ing] the restlessness and striving of the human mind to grasp the true nature of reality.”[1] To investigate the nature of reality, the Upanisads philosophically analyse the nature of the self or Atman in Sanskrit, which means breath or vital essence in the Rg Veda. It could also be understood as the Self, with a capital S – the ultimate and true Self, or Soul.[2]