Meditation and Buddhist Practice

[Deoster]

Something I'm curious about but don't have as much hands-on experience with personally is meditation and Buddhism put personally into practice. I thought, given Amlux has talked about it a bit and other people here might have an interest/experience with it as well, it'd be good to start a topic about meditation and Buddhism generally.

To begin with, for those who meditate: how do you do it and why do you do it that way? I'm thinking of things like lotus position or not, open/closed eyes, focusing on breathing vs. mantra vs. just mindfulness and awareness. I know that different schools like Zen and so on will have different answers here, so what's informed the decision to follow one school rather than another?

[Amlux]

To begin with, for those who meditate: how do you do it and why do you do it that way? I'm thinking of things like lotus position or not, open/closed eyes, focusing on breathing vs. mantra vs. just mindfulness and awareness. I know that different schools like Zen and so on will have different answers here, so what's informed the decision to follow one school rather than another?

I talked about it a bit, but I'm in the Zen tradition and I always do lotus position with hands crossed in my lap. But the truth is that Zen doesn't emphasize the sitting style a ton. Here's a good resource: How to Sit. The important part is keeping your eyes open. This is sort of hard at first, but you don't want to stare with bug eyes. You're supposed to keep your eyes very relaxed and not really "look" with them, just passively absorb visual data. Kind of like when you're "spacing out." And then just focus on your breath. Count it if you want. That's what I was taught at least and it's the extent of what I do.

I also chant the Heart Sutra before meditating like I do in my streams. It helps center me and get me mentally prepared. But I've never tried mantra stuff.

As for why I chose the Zen tradition, it was mostly a matter of convenience as that was the sangha that was near me. And it has a strong history in Japan being very tied to Japanese art and history. But it was also brought to the US by D.T. Suzuki and had some genuine interactions and influences with the Transcendentalism of Americans like Thoreau and Emerson, so it feels like a very "genuine" lineage for me as an American to follow in that sense.

[BookReader]

I know very little about Buddhism, but I meditate by just laying in my bed covered with a blanket with my eyes closed, so not quite sophisticated. I do it so I can come to my own conclusions regarding questions I have, I believe most people would be better off just being bored and thinking rather than watching a dozen video or reading self-help books to find themselves.