The History of Meditation: Part 5 by Orna Ross

Taoism

Religious Taoism is concerned with the pursuit of immortality and acquisition of magical powers but philosophical Taoism is a mystical set of teaching, best represented by  Lao-tzu (The Old Master) legendary author of Tao Te Ching and his follower Chuang-tzu, who together are said to be the founders of this belief system.

Little is known of the life of Lao-tzu , or even if he actually existed.  He was believed to have been a contemporary of Confucius, in the sixth century BCE, but scholars have since dated his work to the third or fourth century BCE. According to legend, he was custodian of the Imperial archives and lived his life in accordance with the Tao and Te (the supreme way and its expression). The defeat of his emperor meant he had to leave court and travelling west he came to a mountain pass, where he was stopped by the Guardian of the Pass.

On realising who he was, the Guardian asked him Lao-tzu to write a book of enlightenment for him in order to be allowed to pass through the gate. Lao-tzu, in response and in a single sitting, composed the Tao Te Ching, whereupon the gate was opened for him and he passed through and was never heard of again.

The story of its origins reflects the spirit of the book. The Tao is the way and allows us to pass through the gate but the Tao is beyond description and Lao-tzu emphasises that he only calls it this because he has to put a word on it. In the very first lines he insists:

 

The Tao that can be told

Is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named

Is not the eternal Name.

 

The unnameable is the eternally real.

Naming is the origin

Of all particular things.

 

Unlike zen, Tao meditation has no rules about what should or should not be done during a session or how to do it. Rather Tao is defined by the application of the principle of rigorously doing nothing. This is the wuwei-principle, wuwei being the complete absence of intentional action in rigorous stillness. This opens a space through which “nature”, or “the universe” or what we are calling in this book “creative consciousness” can freely and spontaneously unfold).

This is a process familiar to all writers and  artists, the sensation of a creative force moving through them and their work flowing of its own accord. Within the Tao are the two polarities it calls yin and yang. Yin, the feminine principle is passive, receptive, dark and soft while yang, the masculine principle, is active, dynamic, light and hard. The intermingling of these complementary principles gives rise to the world in a cycle of flowing into being and ebbing away. All things exist because their opposite exists.

The yin-yang symbol expresses the creative impulse of the universe — a circle for ultimate reality divided into black and white, each containing a smaller circle of the other. Their interaction is one of continual change and transition and the balance between them is the Tao. This creation symbol is often used for Tao meditation.

Although there are no rules, typically Tao meditation is performed in a relaxed, quiet standing position, similar to the tadasana (mountain) pose in yoga.

Next week: Ancient Greece & Rome

The History of Meditation: Part 4 by Orna Ross

Our meditation series continues…

Buddhism

Yoga and Buddhism are sister traditions which evolved in the same culture of ancient India. They use similar terms and follow similar principles and practices. Many people are apt to regard Yoga and Buddhism as more or less the same. The differences that have existed between the two systems historically are less obvious to us than their commonalities.

 

Buddhism is an entire spiritual tradition born from the benefits of meditation. The many forms of the tradition that exist today all grew from the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, known as The Buddha after he attained enlightenment.

Having experienced extremes of worldliness (he was born to the elite) and asceticism (he renounced his background to endure fasting, extreme elements, and illness), he finally accepted that neither teachings, nor asceticism gave him the knowledge he sought. He then sat to mediate under a Bodhi tree where, after being tempted and attacked by demons, he finally attained enlightenment and came to understand the causes of suffering and how to eliminate them

Like yoga, Buddhism is more a way of living than a religion, offering an array of spiritual practices from moral precepts to a wide range of meditation methods. The understanding and practice of meditation is core. The practice of concentration comes first, involving focus on a single object, concept or process such as the breath, a physical sensation, the idea of compassion or any attribute of the Buddha. This prepares the mediator for vipassana (the path of insight) in which the mind is opened out of concentration.

Vipassana involves the moment-by-moment practice of mindfulness, directing attention to the present, to what is. This is a key concept in the linking of meditation and creative consciousness.  Coming into the moment always creates a gap in the stream of thought and also in the stream of time. Nothing truly creative ever comes into this world except through that gap.

Yoga and Buddhism are both meditation traditions devised to help us realize the truth of consciousness. They both see the suffering and impermanence inherent in all birth, whether it is animal, human or god, and seek to alleviate it through developing a higher awareness. Both emphasize the need to dissolve the ego, the conceptual mind, the attachment to “me” and “mine” and enable a connection to a reality that is not limited by such separateness. Both traditions emphasize enlightenment or inner illumination to be realized through meditation. Both systems also recognize dharma, the principle of truths like karma and unity as basic laws of the universe that we must come to understand. And both also share  ethical values like non-violence, truthfulness, non-attachment and non-stealing.

There are differences, however.  Vedic systems are built upon fundamental principles like the Self (atman), the Creator (ishvara), and Godhead (brahman). Buddhism rejects all such as mere creations of the mind itself.  Many scholars see Buddhism as a modification of vedanta, while others see it as a revolt against. Vedanta eventually absorbed Buddhism in India, which by the seventh century had ceased to be a major religion in the country. Vedantic teachers saw  the Buddha as an incarnation (avatara) of Lord Vishnu, like Rama or Krishna, but rejected aspects of Buddhist philosophy, particularly its denial of a creator.

Zen

Zen is form of Buddhism with which we are most familiar in the West. Over the last century it has established a huge following, much as it did several centuries ago in China and Japan. The word “zen” has entered our language to describe a certain minimalist taste and aesthetic.

Today the two main schools of zen are soto and Rinzai, all of which place great emphasis on zazen (sitting meditation). The cornerstones of zazen are posture, breathing and attitude. While the beginner is often encouraged to focus on the breath, pure zazen involves simply sitting in a state of quiet awareness, doing nothing, without purpose or aim. Thoughts and images are allowed to come and go, floating through like clouds in the sky, observed but not owned. Zen is the original of the kind of meditation that scientists call Open Monitoring Meditation (OMM).

Zen has strict rules for meditation and suits those who find freedom in discipline.   Its founder, Bodhidharma, is traditionally depicted as a fierce looking character with protruding eyes, scowling. Legend has it that he was so enraged after falling asleep during meditation that he sliced off his eyelids to about it happening again.  The first tea plant then sprouted where his eyelids fell and ever since zen monks have taken copious cups of tea, to keep them alert during their long hours of meditation.

In keeping with this strictness, zen lays down very specific rules for meditation. The ideal posture is the lotus position, or if this is too difficult, the half-lotus. The trunk is held upright and the chin drawn in, the eyes kept slightly open, looking down about 1m ahead, holding a loose gaze. The hands rest in the lap, left above right, with the tips of the thumbs touching. Correct breathing -– deep, calm and even -– is said to follow naturally from correct posture and from these two flows the correct attitude of mind, which is the opening out of one’s attention to become conscious of whatever is happening internally and externally in the moment, the allowing of all to be without comment or interference.

Zen can only be truly appreciated through practical experience and training.

Next Week: Taoism

The History of Meditation: Part 3 by Orna Ross

The Bhagavad Gita (Song of God)

In 1785, A British printer named Charles Wilkins made the first translation of Sanskrit into English when he published a version of the Bhagavad Gita (the Celestial Song). This work, the best known and most influential of all Indian scriptures, portrays a single loving god in the form of Krishna and the warrior prince, Arjuna.  The action takes place somewhere between 1000 and 700 BCE (though it was composed around 500 BCE), in a battlefield not far from present day New Delhi, just before a deadly fight between two sides of the same warring family.

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