What does Zen mean and how do you ‘capture’ it?

Zen simply means to be fully alive. Zen is a form of Buddhism, and its essence is the direct experience of life. In the West, Zen is often synonymous with simplicity, mindfulness and equanimity. Sometimes it is a religion, sometimes a philosophy. At its core, Zen is the art of insight into the nature of one’s own being and shows the way from enslavement to (personal) freedom. Zen is meditation. These are just a few of the explanations of Zen that seekers of the term, or of the concept of meditation, come across. Zen.

Zen, hygge, happiness …

Zen is also described as a state of mind that allows us to enjoy, holistically, consciously and presently, a cup of hot cocoa, for example, or a moving book, or that stolen moment of peace in a busy day (incidentally, this is how the Danes, who claim to be the happiest nation in the world, describe the meaning of the word ‘hygge’, and ‘hygge-ish’, or ‘Zen-ish’, can also be a loving task, such as a beauty routine). But according to Alan Watts, the late British-American philosopher and populariser of Eastern philosophies (in his book The Way of Zen), we should not stop at feeling happy, but should strive to feel truly happy.

Zen is also supposed to bring us calmness, equanimity, mindfulness, wisdom, harmony, order, as well as austerity and insensitivity. Zen is also characterised by minimalism, which constantly holds up a mirror to man, reminding him of transience and self-absorption, and of the confused, distracted and restless spirit that is always accumulating. Zen minimalism, on the other hand, points to man’s greatness, which also lies in his ability to recognise and transcend his small ego (MORE).

But it is certainly like my philosophy teacher Stjepan Palajsa, whose lectures I have the opportunity to listen to at the New Acropolis, says – it is impossible to talk directly about philosophy and Zen. How can we tell what Zen is, for example, if we don’t feel it? And how can we say what philosophy is if we don’t live it? Words are simply not enough in the case of such profound topics. And that is why stories and myths are very useful, giving us teachings and ideas, the understanding of which can bring us a little closer to answering the question of what Zen is.

One of the stories that the Pālaisa teacher told us in his Zen lecture is about a great warrior and a wise man, the former asking the latter where the boundary between heaven and hell is. The wise man thinks and provokes the warrior with a counter-question, asking if he is not the great warrior, and if he is, he should know something like that. The humiliated warrior gets angry at this and draws his sword, saying that he will deal with the insulting wise man. But the wise man beckons, “Well, this is where hell begins…” and when the warrior grasps the lesson and puts his sword away, he adds, “… and this is heaven.”

But how to ‘capture’ Zen?

So I would say that one way to Zen can be meditation, but once you feel Zen, that unique moment is truly comparable to an indescribable feeling of freedom. Happiness. Fullness. Harmony. All at once. Can you imagine? Have you ever experienced this? Have you even tried? “But how fun?” That is an absolutely legitimate question. Especially if the individual is perhaps in a slightly worse (emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, etc.) state. (Given the serious illness my loved one is overcoming, I am sadly all too familiar with this questioning.)

Well, and the very honest answer to that is that yes – maybe the path to Zen really isn’t always clear. What is clear, sometimes it is completely obscured! Maybe even at some point in life it really isn’t. Because perhaps at some point in life something else (let’s call it the basics, whether physical or mental) needs to be ‘fixed’ first, so that we can function to the point where the life energy and the inner spirit take us back on the path of finding Zen again. Because in the end, in my humble opinion, it is really just a path to the self. To our higher nature. And we all have the latter, whatever our (emotional, mental, spiritual, physical) state. Perhaps the bridge leading to it is only ever a little fragile. Maybe it is also broken. Maybe it is not even built yet.

Hope – Activation – Zen

But there is always hope. Hope, which our friend wrote to me in a recent email that it is the most beautiful thing. “Because it is pure emotion. Because it is a sincere emotion. Because it is full of love and acceptance. And there is no whiter energy. So great to have hope, because that’s the most powerful medicine.” (Thank you, dear Dasha.)

Hope should thus lead to activation – either to ‘build a bridge’ to higher consciousness, or to learn meditation techniques, or to. other methods that might lead one to Zen. Because – as biochemist and physiotherapist Špela Jakša says – every human being is an individual. He is unique. And if this is true for, for example, nutrition and balancing hormones, it is certainly true for the search for Zen.

But let this search not lead to the pursuit of happiness, as we are daily led to do by the various (cheap) advertising messages that flash at us from all sorts of devices and billboards. For just as happiness cannot be bought, neither can Zen be captured. But we can allow ourselves to feel it. The simplest, yet hardest thing we can do to do this is to just – be. To stop. To enjoy the moment. To feel our own breath. To breathe. To exhale. The beating of the heart. To relax the muscles. To relax the body. Liberation of the mind. Inhalation and exhalation. /…/ Zen.