Meditation

Practice

In This Section...
Meditation Overview
Breathing
Practice
LecturesIn Seido Karate, each class begins and ends with a short period of zazen. In the beginning of class, it is used to clear the mind and to focus it on the training ahead. After class, it is used to reflect on what was covered in class and what needs to be studied, as well as to prepare the student to return to the outside world.

Meditation has something to offer every Seido student, regardless of personal religious beliefs or cultural background. At its essence, meditation is inseparable from our physical training. And, in its purest form, meditation is basis for our individual spiritual development.

In Seido, the basic form of meditation is zazen or seated meditation. Zazen has demonstrable physiological benefits, including lowering the heart rate, reducing blood pressure, improving oxygen exchange in the lungs, and improving glandular function. However, our reason for doing zazen goes beyond these physical benefits.

Zazen is a means to study the self and to improve our lives. The "self," or our own self-image, is essentially a creation of our egos. In looking clearly at ourselves, we can make our egos drops away and, ultimately, the self is forgotten. We find our vision unclouded and we experience true freedom. We can then use this freedom to be more productive, compassionate individuals at work and at home. This is the purpose of doing zazen. The only goal, as in our karate training, is constant, sincere practice.

When you sit, the two major issues are how your weight is supported and the alignment of your body. Your weight is best supported by a tripod or pyramid. When kneeling on the floor or a cushion, your two knees and your buttocks form the points of the tripod. When seated on a chair, the supporting tripod is formed by the soles of the feet on the floor and the buttocks on the forward edge of the chair.

Once you are seated, the most important thing to consider is the alignment of the spine. Forget the old military adage "back straight." The spine should not be held rigidly erect and it would be too tiring to sustain this position for very long. Think "long": the spine should be allowed to stretch freely along its length, thereby ensuring that there is no compression anywhere to cause discomfort or to block the flow of energy. There will be some natural curvature to the spine, particularly in the lower back, and your pelvic area should be tilled slightly forward. If you put together the idea of lengthening the spine and tilting the pelvis forward, two things should happen. First, your vertebrae should align themselves on top of one another, assuming you suffer from no inherent displacement. Second, your internal organs will be properly aligned in the vertical plane. This will ensure that your stomach area is not compressed, which would prevent proper breathing.

When seated, tell yourself "chin in." Your chin should be tucked in slightly, and you should try to imagine that you are trying to support the ceiling with the top of your head. Try it. You'll see that if you try to tuck your chin slightly and push with your head, the effect makes you want to lengthen the spine.

Finally, there will be problems associated with individual issues of where and how we hold our tension. Doing zazen can put us in touch with things about our posture that we never noticed before. Most people hold one shoulder higher than the other. People who carry their tension in the cervical (neck) area and upper areas of the back carry their shoulders near their ears. In a person who centers tension in the stomach, there is a tendency for the pelvic area to slump, so that the spine curves outward when viewed from the side. People with hip problems tend to sit on one hip, thereby negating the principle of a tripod. And everyone has problems with flexibility in the knees and ankles.

What should you do? Don't worry. Be aware of the problem each time you sit and try to correct it. But don't become obsessed with it. Remember you are trying to find a natural equilibrium, but you may have been in an unnatural position for many years. It will take time and practice to overcome these imbalances.

When you sit, you shouldn't be too concerned with what to wear. However, loose-fitting clothes are best. In particular, tight trousers that constrict the waist or legs should be avoided. Gi pants are excellent for exercise and meditation because they are cut full in the legs and because the drawstring waist can sit loosely.

All the seated postures, to some degree, place stress on the front part of the knees, which must stretch and hold that position. There are two solutions you may use to alleviate this problem: a seiza bench or the combination of a zabuton (a thick, rectangular mat) and a zafu (a pill-shaped cushion). Experienced practitioners can sit without these aids, but it is not necessary to do so. These aids elevate the body slightly, removing some stress from the knees and preventing slumping of the spinal area. In addition, the zabuton cushions the bones just below the kneecap from contact with a hard floor.

When doing zazen, the hands are kept in a position called the "cosmic mudra." Put the blade of your right hand, palm up, on the hara, the spot about four fingers below your navel. Place the left hand inside the right hand and join your thumbs so that the tips are touching lightly. This hand position is called ho-in in Japanese (meaning "neither mountain nor valley") and has been found to help direct the focus inward.

The eyes are not closed during zazen because we are more alert and aware with our eyes open, and we are less likely to daydream or doze off. The eyes are kept half-open (hangan), and their focus should be soft and slightly downward, directly in front of us.

When you sit, you must sit somewhere. The place where you sit will, particularly as a beginner, affect how you sit. It is best to establish a place, no matter how small, to sit every day. It can be a corner of a room, or a separate room, or it can be outside. Make sure that the place is clean, free from dust, airy (but not in a direct draft) and bathed in natural light (but not too bright). You should be neither too warm nor too cold. If you sit outside, you must find a place where you can sit unobserved and undisturbed by people or stray animals.

Take a few measures to ensure that the time you sit will be high-quality time. Disconnect the telephone and doorbell. Use no music, although it is possible, with supervision, to use certain meditative types of shakuhachi (wooden flute) music. Pick a time when things are quiet. In a city, this is difficult. Good times are at dawn, before the city wakes up, and dusk. Dinnertime is good, in particular, since most people will be eating quietly. Try to ensure that your ten minutes of zazen will be fully ten minutes of sitting only. The main thing is to sit every day. If you are fastidious about this, even for ten minutes, you will progress and perhaps you will decide to sit for longer periods.