Zen and Zen-time

A two part questionaire

Part the First

I am curious as to what Zen is thought of in so far as a description or definition. Were you to describe it to me, what would you say and why would you say that?


Part the second

Zen-time. What is it to you and how do you, if you do, achieve it?

i cant tell you what zen is.... but if i ever reaach it (which would be killer) i will let you know.... i think i want to go study meditation with the dahli lama (seriously) but they prolly wouldnt take me hehe

but if it what i think it is, it could do me a world of good
basically finding inner peace with yourself and also your inner strengths... in a spiritual manner

"A school of Mahayana Buddhism that asserts that enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition rather than through faith and devotion and that is practiced mainly in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Also called Zen Buddhism."

Above is a dictionary definition. It is interesting that some of the zen sites I looked at after seeing this question do not have concrete definitions. It appears to be one of those concepts that is difficult to explain and evades definition, like the concepts of love or hate or God; or perhaps one has to already understand some of what it is in order to define it.

Actually I am not talking about the Buddhism aspects of Zen, but of Zen itself. What I would like to know is if anyone has their own personal definition of Zen and why they have that definition.

Zen-time is another concept akin to, but differing greatly from, Zen itself, I think.

Surely there must be more than just She of the Glowing Hineee and the Queen of the Pollsters have an opinion on this.

With as diverse a membership as is present here there should be more than just two opinions.

Come on people, what do you THINK?

Oh, yeah....no reference to the hour of research I did to try to answer your question, or to the thought I put into your subsequent response. Poor Lucille gets tagged for her amarillo journalism,"Queen of the Pollsters" not for her years of education in philosophy......

I too would like to see more response, as the research I did do opened up a vast field of which I was totally unaware. Thank you, Wes; for the question.........

Well, I must say I am somewhat surprised that almost NO ONE has had anything to say about these interesting subjects. Most especially since the Existentialist Coleopteran Society has become so vocal of late. Seems it would fit right in with their charter.

Ho hum.

Better late than never, I suppose.

and since I think it's a good topic...

I had a few classes that covered meditation and the like, and zen was mentioned, although never well-described. I think the instructors intentionally left it up to us to figure out what it meant to ourselves individually. I guess I equate it with a state of mind in which I am focused and feeling very balanced. Concentrating on physical, natural things seems to be rather important to achieve that state of mind. I think that's where the whole idea of zen gardens comes from... being surrounded by nature and raw materials makes it easier to concentrate since everything is relatively simple and grounded to the earth.

Anyway, that's just my interpretation. Maybe someone else thinks zen is that funny feeling you get in your mouth after eating a lot of Captain Crunch.

Originally Posted by wilomn

Surely there must be more than just She of the Glowing Hineee and the Queen of the Pollsters have an opinion on this.

With as diverse a membership as is present here there should be more than just two opinions.

Come on people, what do you THINK?

Hey Wes, can I get a nick-name?