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Yeah in the vipassana tradition check out 'Mahasi style noting'. In Zen, look up 'do nothing' or 'just sitting' - I don't know the traditional language. Shinze
by dbtc 5y ago
Yeah in the vipassana tradition check out 'Mahasi style noting'.
In Zen, look up 'do nothing' or 'just sitting' - I don't know the traditional language. Shinzen Young has really good content on youtube IMO.
Focusing on a single point is called 'anapana' in the vipassana tradition and is used as a way to calm the mind - like sharpening a knife - before moving on the the juicier stuff.
It's sort of paradoxical but by giving attention to every passing thought/sensation, eventually they slow down and everything becomes much calmer, quieter, and clear.
- lanstin 5y agoShikantaza is the traditional Japanese for just sitting in Zen. The approaches of increasing ones ability to focus awareness or openning awareness of all salient reality flow back and forth as one practises.
- kranner 5y agoAnapana(sati) is a specific kind of onepointedness exercise on following the breath; there are many, many more. (Literally, āna is inbreath, āpāna is outbreath, sati is 'remembering of'). What the (Goenka) Vipassana tradition teaches as Anapanasati is an overly specific extrapolated reading not supported by the Anapanasati Sutta itself. Scholar/monk Bhikku Analayo has published on this topic extensively. Many others have actually. The sutta itself is so vague that you can interpret it in any number of ways. Thai Forest Bhikku Buddhadasa even managed to fit Pranayama-like active breathing into his teaching of this sutta.