Meditation and Jainism

Author(s): Pratapkumar J Toliiya, Parul P Toliya
Publisher: Vardhaman Bharti International Foundation Bangalore

Page 12

“THERE ARE TWO CHIEF SCHOOLS OF ZEN TEACHING EXTANT IN JAPAN TODAY--THE "RINZAI" SCHOOL, KNOWN AS THE "SUDDEN" SCHOOL AND THE SOTO OR "GRADUAL" SCHOOL. ...................SOTO STRESSES "QUIET SITTING', THE PRACTICE OF "OBSERVING ONE'S MIND IN TRANQUILITY". IT AVOIDS THE SHOCK METHODS OF RINZAI, THE CRIES AND THWACKS WITH A STICK TO FOCUS THE BE, GINNER'S ATTENTION. BOTH SCHOOLS ARE. CONCERNED WITH GAINING LIBERATION FROM TENSION AND CONFLICT. WITH ACHIEVING PEACE IN LIFE, THOUGH NOT IN ANY PASSIVE SENSE, RATHER WITH AN INCREASED--YET THOROUGHLY RELAXEDDYNAMISM."
"ALTHOUGH, AS ALREADY NOTED, IN THE ZEN VIEW, HUMAN BEINGS POSSESS A TEMOPRARY INDIVIDUALITY, THIS TEMPORARY LIMITED INDIVIDUALIYT IS NOT A "TRUE" SELF OR ANY MAN'S "REAL": SELF. TO DISCOVER THE TRUE SELF, TO GET RID OF THE LIMITING AND EXCESSIVELY DOMINANT EGO, AND TO LEARN TO LIVE IN THE NOW. ALL SCHOOLS OF ZEN EMPLOY TECHNIQUES OF INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP MEDITATION. THE ZEN SITTER MUST REMAIN "AWARE",; MUST, INDEED, LEARN TO CULTIVATE THE "MIRRORLIKE AWARENESS THAT CAN ALONE LEAD HIM IN DUE COURSE TO HIS GOAL : "BECOMING CONCENTRATED BUT NOT IN THOUGHT"
-HINDUISM, BUDDHISM, ZEN BY NANCY WILSON ROSS
This latter author records Dogen, orginal founder of the Soto School, a philosophic genious, a Japanese Scholar, a mystic and a teacher, elaborating the Zen way more convincingly through the subject of TIME which was located in Dogen's teaching, "HERE IN THIS VERY BODY". One could experience a "rewarding and
5