As you may have heard, our term Zen is derived from, and synonymous, with the term Dhyana
The etymology goes : Dhyana -> Chan -> Zen.
(And Dhyana is basically meditation)
So when we say Zen we mean Dhyana.
Dhyana is a self-cultivation and seeing technique. You do the technique and then you see, and become... more.
(This seeing has of course spawned whole cultures of philosophy, literature and scholarship but, all that smoke aside, it's the seeing that matters.)
Dhyana, in it's original usage, was the central technique in a more general seeing-technology called Raja Yoga (Raja translates to king and Yoga to method, so basically King's Method). (They split dhyana into 2 techniques, meditation wiht a seed and meditation without a seed, which correspond to the Buddhist samatha and vipassana, more or less). It was invented some-odd thousands of years ago. It involved meditation, moral and physical disciplines and self-cultivation.
But Raja Yoga is just one self-cultivating seeing-technology of many. There is a whole catalog of seeing-technologies. All kinds of different methods for exploring a bigger world.
Raja Yoga : Direct cultivation of awareness.
Karma Yoga : Good deeds.
Hatha Yoga : Physical culture.
Bahkti Yoga : Loving devotion.
Jnana Yoga : Studying knowledge (popular in /r/zen).
Kriya Yoga : A program of pranayama, mantra, and mudra.
Kundalini Yoga : Awakening and doing stuff with "kundalini energy".
...and lots more!
Call them magic. Call them mental-health therapy. Call them a really interesting phenomenon that bears further study. Any way you slice it Yoga is impressive stuff.
Submitted November 19, 2017 at 12:08AM by woodrail http://ift.tt/2AbSyfT
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