Zen Yoga
Zen Yoga
Zen Yoga
Zen yoga refers to a variety of physical and energetic practices that can be found
Zen Yoga
within the Zen Buddhist tradition, and increasingly taught in the West. Some Zen
temples include a taiso (exercise) period, often early in the morning, including Practice emphases
yoga-like postures, quick repetitive exercises, and/or more flowing exercises alignment, energy or qi/ki,
reminiscent of Tai Chi.[1] These exercises are designed to open and unblock the mindfulness, meditation (Zen or
body in preparation for sitting meditation, develop a deeper awareness of the Dhyāna), awakening or kensho.
body, and as an opportunity to practice "becoming one” with what’s happening Related schools
in the moment (expressed in Japanese through the terms narikiru – become one –
Hatha Yoga, Qigong, Dao Yin, Oki-
or ima-koko – now-here).
do yoga
Contents
History and origins
Origins with the Buddha
Hatha and Yantra Yoga
Evolution into China and Japan
Modern Zen yoga in Japan
Principles
Alignment
Energy
Awareness/mindfulness
Matt Shinkai Kane teaching Zen
Practices/schools
Taiso at Gyokuryuji temple, Japan
Zen Taiso
Oki-do yoga
Zenways school
Zen yoga with Aaron Hoopes
Zen Yoga with Tatjana Mesar
Shosan Victoria Austin
Zenyoga association
References
External links
He taught that there are no absolute "things", there are only processes in a constant state of change (annica); that there is no fixed
or permanent essence or soul (annata); and that suffering is inherent to life (dukkha) (the Three Marks of Existence). In the
Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha described four foundations (or bases) of mindfulness – mindfulness of the body, of sensations, of
the mind, and of dharmas (i.e. phenomena, thoughts, arisings), and is recorded as saying, "There is one thing that leads to
happiness in the present and liberation in the future; and what is this one thing? It is mindfulness of the body." (Anguttara Nikaya,
sutta I, 21.) Thus mindfulness of the body is the direct way to liberation and the end of suffering. Zen yoga practice is primarily
concerned with the body and sensations, and observing life as a process in a constant state of change, so is in direct line with the
Buddha's method of awakening.
Furthermore, when going forward & returning, he makes himself fully alert; when looking toward & looking
away... when bending & extending his limbs... when carrying his outer cloak, his upper robe & his bowl... when
eating, drinking, chewing, & savouring... when urinating & defecating... when walking, standing, sitting, falling
asleep, waking up, talking, & remaining silent, he makes himself fully alert.
In this way he remains focused internally on the body in & of itself, or focused externally... unsustained by
anything in the world. This is how a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself.
...I stopped the in-breaths & out-breaths in my nose & mouth. As I did so, there was a loud roaring of winds
coming out my earholes, just like the loud roar of winds coming out of a smith's bellows... So I stopped the in-
breaths & out-breaths in my nose & mouth & ears. As I did so, extreme forces sliced through my head, just as if a
strong man were slicing my head open with a sharp sword... Extreme pains arose in my head... There was an
extreme burning in my body... And although tireless persistence was aroused in me, and unmuddled mindfulness
established, my body was aroused & uncalm because of the painful exertion... But with this racking practice of
austerities I haven't attained any superior human state, any distinction in knowledge or vision worthy of the noble
ones. Could there be another path to Awakening?
The word hatha can also be seen as a combination of two separate "Bīja mantras" or single syllables – "ha" representing the
masculine or solar energy and "tha" as the feminine or lunar energy. Thus Hatha Yoga is the practice of bringing balance to the
two opposing forces.[4] The first occurrence of the term 'hatha yoga' is in fact found in the Buddhist Guhyasamāja tantra dating
from the 8th century.[5]
Yantra yoga (or Trul khor) is the Tibetan Buddhist parallel to the Hindu or Vedic Hatha yoga tradition. The discipline includes
similar body postures (asanas) and pranayama practices, and includes mantra practice and visualisations. Originating with the
mahasiddhas of India, it was brought to Tibet in the eighth century by the great master Padmasambhava and transmitted to the
Tibetan Dzogchen master Vairochana. Its practice is nowadays found in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
As the Buddhism of Bodhidharma fused with the prevailing Chinese philosophies and practices of Confucianism and Taoism, it
became Ch’an (from Sanskrit dhyāna, meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"). Over the centuries, Ch'an spread to Japan
where it become known as Zen, taking with it the rich combination of physical and energetic practices known variously as yoga,
Qigong, and Tao Yin.
Dating back to around the fourth century C.E., Yogācāra (literally "yoga practice") is one of the two main philosophical systems
that underlies Zen, and includes the Lankavatara Sutra mentioned above. It contains a sophisticated psychology of awakening and
emphasises the practice of mindfulness. This mindfulness leads not to an experience but to a total shift in the way we relate to all
experiences. This shift is referred to in the Yogācāra tradition as parāvṛtti, "turning around”.
In modern times, Zen masters Hogen Daido Roshi[8] and Harada Tangen
Roshi,[9] in particular, have advocated and taught yoga practices to complement
their Zen training. One student of Hogen Daido Roshi recalls that he constantly
imparted the importance of mixing moving Zen (do-zen) into Zen practice:
"...there are four kinds of Zen: sitting, standing, lying, and moving. We should
practise them all. Whatever we do, we must do it fully, mindfully,
wholeheartedly, one thing at a time without being attached to or involved in it.
When we practise moving Zen, the quality of our daily lives becomes very
different.”[10]
In Zen, the inseparability of the "body-mind" is often stressed, together with the
Calligraphy brushed by Zen master
need to retain our flexibility for life. Hogen Roshi taught that "By doing yoga
Shinzan Miyamae Roshi, with the
and zazen, we can begin to appreciate the real state of our body and mind, both
characters do-zen
of which are stiff and unpeaceful. We should not hate them. Please, let them be
as they are. Taste their special bitter taste".[11]
Principles
Zen practice in general, and Zen Yoga in particular, emphasize three intertwined areas – physical alignment, the flow of energy in
the body and awareness or mindfulness (Japanese “nen” 念).[12]
Alignment
Physical alignment is highly emphasised in Zen. The founder of the Soto Zen school, Master Dōgen (d. 1253) wrote in his zazen
(meditation) instructions:
First of all, we must sit with the spine erect, not leaning left nor right, forward nor backward. The nose must be in
a vertical line with the belly button and our ears are to be in level with our shoulders.
By practising Zen yoga we therefore prepare the body for prolonged upright sitting. Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki teaches that we
must then carry this alignment out into all activities of our daily life:
So try always to keep the right posture, not only when you practice zazen, but in all your activities. Take the right
posture when you are driving your car, and when you are reading. If you read in a slumped position, you cannot
stay awake long. Try. You will discover how important it is to keep the right posture... The state of mind that
exists when you sit in the right posture is itself enlightenment.[13]
Energy
One of the reasons why correct posture is so emphasised is because it powerfully influences both our mind-state and our energy.
Underlying Zen is a conception of the human system as an energetic phenomenon. This energy or ki is seen as something that can
be enhanced or depleted. Moreover, the courses of energy flow are not random but follow particular directions and routes called
“myaku” (Jp.; or meridians). This energy has two basic dimensions – one that influences our health, wellbeing and emotional
state, and one that takes us beyond any particular state to a condition of non-dual awareness.[12]
1. Problem-solving – boosting our health & wellbeing, making life better, and feeling more alive.
2. The condition in which we realise that there was never a problem in the first place.
Energy and consciousness are inextricably linked – when we change our energy, we change our consciousness and vice versa.
One of the traditional Japanese names for yoga is do-in (from the Chinese Tao Yin), which translates as “guiding and stretching”.
Through the yoga practice we stretch the body and energy routes, and guide the energy in beneficial directions. Intention is
ultimately the means through which this guiding happens. The manifestation of intention may be through the breath, through
imagery or simply through focused attention.
Much modern yoga practice aims to open and energise our wellbeing energy circuits (energy channels that operate in the world of
opposites – left, right, back, front, etc.) without touching on the non-dual areas. Although it is a worthwhile and noble aspiration
to attain optimal health and wellbeing, the practitioner nevertheless remains in the world of duality – the world of this and that, of
me and the universe. Zen is emphatic that within this worldview there is no happy ending to the story of life, no liberation from
our fundamental suffering. However healthy and emotionally balanced we are, we remain in a condition of separation, where the
Universe is seen as huge, threatening and ultimately indifferent.
This is just a worldview. It is possible to live in a place which is beyond this duality, which is the main aim of Zen practice.
Awareness/mindfulness
The third aspect of Zen yoga is the application of awareness or mindfulness (Japanese, "nen" 念 ). As mentioned above, the
Buddha is recorded as saying, "There is one thing that leads to happiness in the present and liberation in the future; and what is
this one thing? It is mindfulness of the body."
How do we find this happiness and liberation? Strangely enough it is through coming face-to-face with our unhappiness and
reactivity – in this case as they manifest in the body. Makko-ho,[14] a traditional Japanese sequence of stretches, literally means
"the practice of facing things". These are a set of curative exercises originally developed from temple prostration practice in the
1930s by the pioneering Japanese yoga teacher, Nagai Wataru, then taken up and extended by Shizuto Masunaga, populariser of
shiatsu massage.[15]
The most important Zen master in the last 500 years, Hakuin Zenji had a saying that "Buddhas are like water and ordinary people
are like ice". In Zen yoga practice, postures and movements are used to bring the body into focus so that we can notice any
tightnesses or restrictions. The student is then directed to bring their non-judgemental attention to these blocked or closed areas,
and it's this simple awareness that causes the ice to begin to melt. All we need is an attitude of curiosity and non-judgemental
kindness.
Zen master Julian Daizan Skinner Roshi, teacher of Zen yoga, says that "rather than causing our ice to melt into an inert puddle,
this liberated water becomes more like a fountain; it has shape, dynamism and energy but nevertheless there’s an ungraspable
quality."[12]
The Yogacara philosophy (one of the two main philosophical systems that underlies Zen) emphasises that, as the individual
begins to open and become more free, flowing and dynamic, they come to inhabit a different world which takes on a similar
quality.
Practices/schools
Zen Taiso
As mentioned above, some Zen temples include a taiso (exercise) period somewhere within their daily (or if not, retreat)
schedule. Taiso practice routines differ from popular modern yoga classes. Rather than focussing on “sun salutations”, “warrior
poses” and muscular flexibility, the quality of mindfulness and honing in on releasing energy in the body’s meridian lines is
deliberately emphasised.
According to the experience of one Zen monk who studied in a variety of contemporary Japanese and Korean Zen monasteries,
both monks and laity practice a variety of yoga-like practices ranging from individual stretching (lunges, hip releases, and chest
openers) to temple-wide taiso routines held every morning.[16] He recalls "These routines focussed on consciously and mindfully
relaxing areas of the body through stretching (in particular areas that needed extra care owing to long hours of sitting). The
practice also worked directly with the body as one’s object of focus, and the corresponding awareness incorporated in the process,
was viewed as extremely powerful.” Ultimately, the time spend doing temple yoga, both individually and as a group, was taught
to be the ideal opportunity for attaining awakening (kensho) through mindfulness of the body.
In Japan, if the temple holds formal taiso sessions, they would often be held at the beginning of the day, say 4am each morning
for 20-25 mins. See here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyEDRWrm3nI) for an example. At Bukkoku-ji (where Tangen
Harada was the Roshi – see above), they took the form of a mixture of quick repetitive exercise (everyone counting together) with
poses held for longer times. These poses were incorporated to isolate openings in for example, the stomach and spleen meridians
for a back bend, the liver and gall bladder meridians for a wide-legged side bend, and so on. They were integrated with a specific
purpose in mind and were to be done with awareness alongside breathing in the hara (belly).[16]
Temple taiso routines, however, vary according to the temple and teacher. At the Weoljeong-sa (http://www.woljeongsa.org/)
temple in South Korea, for example, the monks spend an hour or more each morning doing taiso under the direction of the lead
monk while on their 3-month winter retreat.
Oki-do yoga
Oki-do yoga is a system originating with the Japanese teacher-healer-philosopher Masahiro Oki. It is a unique blend of traditional
Indian hatha yoga with Zen meditation, dancing, physical games, martial arts, and chanting. The training method emphasizes
balance between opposites: tension and relaxation, heat and cold, stillness and movement.[17]
Masahiro Oki is credited as the first person to use the term "zen yoga".
Zenways school
Zenways (http://www.zenways.org) is an organisation set up by Zen master
Julian Daizan Skinner Roshi in 2007 to promote and encourage activities and
practices that enhance human wellbeing and awakening (satori or kensho).
Zenways offers a 200hr Zen yoga teacher training course, together with
meditation and mindfulness teacher training courses, workshops, retreats,
meditation classes, and opportunities for zen study.
Over the years of his Zen training, Daizan Roshi studied yoga-style physical
movement in Zen temples in Europe, USA and Japan. He synthesises his
Daizan Roshi teaching a Zen yoga
knowledge of these disciplines into a Zen yoga practice that combines physical
class at the ZenYoga studio in
challenge with mental and spiritual development. He teaches regularly at London
“Yugagyo Dojo” (ZenYoga) (http://www.zenyoga.org.uk), a Zen training place
he established with his students in London. With more than 5000 hours of yoga
teaching experience, Daizan Roshi offers a yoga teacher training programme to help teachers to find an expression that is
authentically their own and will bring them success when they teach.
Zenyoga association
Non-profit organization dedicated to practice, study and teaching of Zenyoga with headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia. The group
goes back to the mid-seventies and was founded by Zarko Andricevic,[19] Chan master and one of the five Western Dharma-heirs
of the late Chan master Shifu Sheng-yen, as an affiliate to Buddhist Centre[20] in Zagreb.
Zenyoga, as taught by Zarko and other longtime teachers and mentors - Mira Punik, Mirjana Halsey, Ela Vukelja and Karmen
Mihalinec - is an extension of threefold training within the Chan tradition of Buddhism - that is, it aims to bring the body, breath
and mind in order or harmony. It rests on the notion that "meditation in movement" is a valuable companion to "meditation in
stillness" of a more formal Chan practice, especially practice of Silent Illumination[21] or mochao in Chinese tradition.
Since 2003 Association runs a two-year teachers' training school consisting of over 650 contact hours, including a seven-day
Chan meditation retreat. The school is registered on 500 level with Yoga Alliance since 2005.[22]
Zenyoga is currently taught in a number of locations in Zagreb, in Pula, Rovinj, Samobor, Krk Island, Rijeka and Split.
International affiliates include groups in Celje (Slovenia), Berlin (Germany) and Cape Cod (USA).[23]
References
1. Jones, Richard Gensho (May 2014). "Yoga Helped Me to Find the Buddha Way". The Middle Way. 89 (1): 23.
2. Berzin, Alexander. "Indian Society and Thought before and at the Time of Buddha" (http://studybuddhism.com/en/
advanced-studies/history-culture/buddhism-in-india/indian-society-and-thought-at-the-time-of-buddha). Retrieved
20 June 2016.
3. "Hatha Yoga" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/256851/Hatha-Yoga). Encyclopædia Britannica.
Retrieved 18 August 2014.
4. "Yoga Questions Answered" (http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/820). Yoga Journal. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
5. Berzin, Alexander. "What Is Guhyasamaja Practice?" (http://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/vajrayana/t
antra-advanced/what-is-guhyasamaja-practice). Study Buddhism. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
6. Garfinkel, Perry (2006). Buddha or bust: in search of truth, meaning, happiness and the man who found them all
(https://archive.org/details/buddhaorbustinse00garf) (1st ed.). New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-1-4000-
8217-9.
7. Kit, Wong Kiew (2002). The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu: The Secrets of Kung Fu for Self-defense, Health and
Enlightenment (1st ed.). Boston, Mass.: Tuttle. ISBN 0-8048-3439-3.
8. http://www.openway.org.au/teachers.html#Hogen
9. http://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/TangenHarada.html
10. Daido Hogen Yamahata (2002). Shingan Francis Chauvet (ed.). Folhas caem, um novo rebento [Falling Leaves,
a Shooting Sprout]. Lisbon: Assirio & Alvim. p. 28.
11. Daido Hogen Yamahata (1986). K. Carne (ed.). The Other Shore. Oxford: Parchment Press. p. 40.
12. Skinner, Julian Daizan (May 2014). "A View on Zen and Yoga". The Middle Way. 89 (1): 31.
13. Suzuki, Shunryu (2011). Zen mind, beginner's mind: [informal talks on Zen meditation and practice] (New ed.).
Boston: Shambhala. p. 10. ISBN 1590308492.
14. https://web.archive.org/web/20140904185349/http://www.zencenterofdenver.org/stretches_for_zazen.aspx
15. http://www.itmonline.org/arts/shiatsu.htm
16. Kane, Matt Shinkai (May 2014). "Expressions of Body-based Buddhist Practice in East Asia". The Middle Way.
89 (1): 3.
17. http://www.okidoyoga.org.uk/
18. Hardach, Sophie (2008-02-25). "Zen Yoga founder adds Japanese twist to ancient practice" (https://www.reuters.
com/article/2008/02/25/us-japan-zen-yoga-idUST1251120080225). Reuters News Agency. Retrieved
2012-03-10.
19. "Budisticki centar Zagreb" (http://www.budisticki-centar.hr/onama.php?id=17). www.budisticki-centar.hr. Retrieved
2017-10-02.
20. "Budisticki centar Zagreb" (http://www.budisticki-centar.hr). www.budisticki-centar.hr. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
21. "Shikantaza and Silent Illumination" (http://chancenter.org/cmc/1995/02/01/shikantaza-and-silent-illumination/).
chancenter.org. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
22. "School Profile | Yoga Alliance" (https://www.yogaalliance.org/SchoolPublicProfile?sid=1325&lid=1325).
www.yogaalliance.org. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
23. "Zenyoga" (http://zenyoga.hr/vjezbanje/gdje-vjezbati/). zenyoga.hr. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
External links
The Zenways school (http://www.zenways.org)
The ZenYoga studio in London (http://www.zenyoga.org.uk)
Zen Yoga Studio in Berlin, Germany (http://www.zenyoga-berlin.de)
The Okido Yoga UK webpage (http://www.okidoyoga.org.uk)
Zen Yoga Training Videos (http://www.artofzenyoga.com/?page_id=207)
Eight-Form Moving Meditation Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPlnJeg0R6M)
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