Perhaps the biggest resolution at New Year’s is to get fit — start exercising, start eating right, and all that jazz.

But resolutions never last. As you might already know, I’m not a fan of resolutions.

Instead of creating a list of resolutions this year, create a new habit.

Habits last, and they lead to long-term fitness (and more). They require more patience, but they are worth the wait.

As some of you know, fitness habits are what started me along the path to changing my life. I quit smoking, started running. Then I started eating healthier, became vegetarian (now vegan), quit the junk food addiction, started doing other types of workouts (bodyweight, weights, Crossfit, anything that was fun).

And six years later, I’m nearly 39 years old and in the best shape of my life. I have less bodyfat than any time since high school, more muscle than ever in my life, and I can run and hike and play longer than anytime in the history of Leo. That’s not to brag, but to show you what can be done with some simple fitness habits.

Reshaping Through Habits

The appealing thing about many fitness programs is that they promise quick results. You see testimonials from people who have gone through the program and lost 30 lbs. and gain a washboard stomach in just 4 weeks!

That’s all complete crap.

First, most people won’t achieve those results. Second, and more importantly, if you do get quick results, you’ll reverse those results very quickly … because you haven’t created new habits. You’ve just done something intense and unsustainable for a short period of time. That’s nearly worthless.

You should be focused on long-term results, and more importantly on a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle starts with changing your habits and ends with long-term results.

Changing habits takes time. I recommend one habit at a time, and give yourself about a month per habit. That takes patience, but you shouldn’t try to see amazing results in just 30 days. You should enjoy your new lifestyle, which will be an amazing result in itself that you can achieve immediately. In a matter of months and years, your body and health will change too.

Let’s say you change one habit at a time, one per month or so. You’ll have 12 new habits every year. Even if you only formed 6 habits that stuck and that you loved, you’d be amazed at what kind of changes those 6 habits would create in your life and fitness. If you did 6 habits a year for three years, you’d be transformed.

If you don’t have the patience to change one habit at a time, or focus on enjoying your new habits rather than getting quick results, you should stop reading now.

Which Habits to Choose

So let’s say you’re just starting out … what habit should you start with?

My favorite habit is daily exercise, but if you’re looking to lose weight probably the most important habits relate to eating.

In truth, which habit you choose first matters very little in the long run. You will be changing many little habits over the course of the next few years, and the order of those habits is unimportant. What matters is that you start.

Here are some habits that I’d start with, if you haven’t created them yet:

• Exercise for just 5 minutes a day, adding 5 minutes per week. Make it a fun exercise.
• Drink water instead of sweet drinks.
• Replace fried foods with vegetables.
• Eat fruit and nuts for snacks.
• Eat lean protein, including plant proteins, instead of red meat.
• Add strength exercises to your routine — pushups, pullups, squats, lunges.
• If you’ve been doing all of the above for awhile, add some weights — compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, dips, chinups, overhead presses and rows.

I’ve found that losing weight is simple: eat lots of veggies and plant or lean protein, reduce calories, do some kind of cardio, lift some weights to preserve muscle.

Gaining muscle is also fairly simple: eat lots of veggies and plant or lean protein, increase calories, do some kind of cardio to preserve heart health, lift heavy weights to grow muscle.

The weights should be compound lifts and heavy, the cardio should be enjoyable. Getting “toned”, btw, is just gaining muscle and losing the fat that covers the muscle, whether you’re a man or woman.

Forming the Habit

These are my top principles for forming habits. If you’ve read my writings on habits before, this won’t be new to you, but often it’s good to review these principles for things you’ve missed:

1. Make it social. This is an incredibly powerful too. I highly, highly recommend Fitocracy to everyone, as it’s a way to make exercise fun and social (invite code: ZENHABITS). It turns fitness into a game, and you log your exercises, get points, encourage others, complete fitness quests, get props for workouts you’ve done. Other great ways to make your habit change social: report on your daily progress to friends and family through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or email, find a workout partner, get a coach, join a running group, join online fitness forums, join a class.
2. Do one habit at a time only. People often skip this one because they think they are different than everyone else, but I’ve found this to be extremely effective. You increase your odds of success with just one habit at a time, for many reasons: habits are hard to form because they require lots of focus and energy, having many habits means you’re spreading yourself too thin, and if you can’t commit to one habit at a time, you’re not fully committed.
3. Make it your top priority. People often put off fitness and diet stuff because they’re too busy, too tired, to stressed out by big projects or the holidays, etc. But in my experience, those are great reasons you *should* be exercising. So make your new diet or exercise habit one of your absolute top priorities for the day. If you don’t have time, you need to make time.
4. Enjoy the habit. This is extremely important, and most people ignore it. If the habit is fun, you will stick with it longer. And even better, if you are enjoying it, you immediately win. You don’t need to wait for a bunch of pounds lost or other results — you get instant results because you’re enjoying the change. I find activities I enjoy, I join challenges or races to make exercise fun, I enjoy a conversation with a friend during a run, I eat healthy foods that are delicious (berries — yum!) and focus on savoring those foods. Focus on the enjoyment, and don’t make the habit change a big sacrifice.

Final Recommendations

Many people set fitness goals for the year. I’ve done it myself, but lately I’ve found that I can get fit without them. For one thing, when you set goals, they are often arbitrary, and so you are spending all your effort working towards a basically meaningless number. And then if you don’t achieve it, you feel like you failed, even if the number was arbitrary to start with.

You can create habits without goals — I define goals as a predefined outcome that you’re striving for, not activities that you just want to do. So is creating a habit a goal? It can be, or you can approach it with the attitude of “it doesn’t matter what the outcome of this habit change is, but I want to enjoy the change as I do it”.

So enjoy the habit change, in the moment, and don’t worry what the outcome of the activity is. The outcome matters very little, if you enjoy the journey.

The journey to fitness can have an infinite number of paths, and setting your path in advance by setting goals is limiting. Allow yourself to change course on a whim, without guilt of not achieving a goal, and you’ll find new paths you’d never have anticipated when you set out.

But the most important step of the journey is the first one. After that, the most important step is the one you’re presently taking. So take that step, and enjoy it.

http://zenhabits.net/2011/

Zen Meditation Techniques

Body Position

Sit in a comfortable position with the spine erect. Your body should be at ease and stable, so that you can focus on emptying the mind without worrying about physical discomforts. You can use a meditation cushion for comfort and stabilizing your lower body.

Breathing Technique

Meditation helps to empty the mind. Normally, our monkey mind is full of incessant chatter. So, to focus the mind one needs to concentrate. Beginners can do this by starting with breathing exercises. Start with an exhalation, and count this as one. Continue to breathe deeply and keep counting with each exhalation till 10. To start, practice this breathing technique for about 15 minutes.

As you gain expertise, stop counting and simply focus on your breathing. Increase your meditation period to 30 minutes. With practice, your mind will slowly empty itself of worry, stress and even thought. Do not worry if you falter once or twice in your meditation practice. This is normal for even seasoned meditators. The key to success is perseverance. Slowly, your mind will become more disciplined and relaxed.

Relaxation Music

Many people prefer to meditate in silence. But for some, silence can be oppressive. Such people can use Zen relaxation music to stimulate an atmosphere conducive to meditation. Nature sounds, such as the sound of ocean waves, can also be helpful as these are rhythmic and continuous. Some people find that nature sounds are more helpful in calming their minds compared to silence.

Conclusion

Regular practice of Zen meditation can provide stress relief by soothing and calming the mind. Zen meditation has been practiced for hundreds of years in Japan, Tibet, India and other Asian regions. Today, it is becoming popular all over the world for its undeniable mental and physical benefits. So, practice Zen meditation daily to beat everyday stress.

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In addition, they also train their minds to focus into becoming a champion on whatever they do in order to attain fruition from their efforts. Most of these people though suffer from repetitive strains of injuries, muscle cramps, spasms, and other conditions that at times cause them to step out of the spotlight.

Zen Body Therapy is a holistic healing and recovery modality that was created to improve the condition of the mind and body by fighting off psychological and physical agony. The therapy possesses various techniques derived from popular therapies from the East and the West.

Usually done in ten sessions, the therapy is effective and highly successful in providing medical treatment to most of the patients who had this type of therapy program. This is true due to the given statements and testimonials of past patients whose health were improved and positively changed by the Zen Body Therapy.

For those who are not familiar with the natural health care, it is composed of ten meetings where each session deals different health issues and areas of the body in order to straightly address the problem. After finishing the series of appointment with the massage therapist, patients were satisfied and impressed with the results of the therapy.

The question regarding who can benefit from the therapy basically depends on the condition of the person. First of all, a good massage therapist always considers the safety of his or her clients first before the monetary gains. Patients who have health issues that are contraindications to the treatment should not be allowed to proceed or have a therapy session.

Athletes are by far the usual beneficiaries or patients in a Zen Body Therapy program; however this may vary from places to places as some areas have more clients who are just average individuals. Active people always have a tendency to break something.

Most of the athletes since the early centuries are prone to injuries on the soft tissues due to the excessive amount of pressure massage rocks and stress put on the body during the activities that they participate. Boxers usually damage their tissues from the constant beating by the enemy.

Runners are commonly threatened by the constant pressure on their lower body which can usually result to damages on the hamstrings, feet, and even the bones. Basically, it depends on the sports that they are into and the amount of activity demanded by the event.

Aside from athletes though hot stone, any person in need of medical attention and has passed the qualification for the therapy can be beneficiaries of the health advantages that can be received from the therapy. Older patients who are approved to take Zen Body Therapy as a part of their medical care can also enjoy the effects and benefits of the alternative medical care as long as they make sure that they acquire it from a certified therapist.

There are many different forms of Zen Meditation. One of which is called Zazen which means to study the self. In Zazen meditation, particular importance must be paid to how we are seated in preparation. The seating position must allow total body stability and total openness, allowing the breath to flow effortlessly and easily.

Other important factors of preparation you should pay attention to are to keep your mouth closed and breathe through your nostrils only. Your eyes should gaze down at the floor about 3 feet in front of you. The eyelids will naturally be half closed in this position. Place your dominant hand in an upright position on top of your other hand which is also facing upwards, knuckles lined up and touch your thumbs lightly together. This is called the cosmic mudra. This position of the hands is believed to focus our minds inward.

Once achieving all these vital positions for successful Zazen meditation, it’s time to focus on what is called the Hara. The Hara is positioned two inches above your navel. This energy centre is believed to be the centre of the body’s spiritual and physical manifestation. The more you practice on focusing on this point, the more you will be drawn inward and hence studying the self.

Begin rocking gently back and forth finding your centre of gravity. Once you have found your centre of gravity, rest in this position. Continue focusing on your hara and imagine that you are breathing into this energy centre. Now start counting one through to ten in your mind. Each time you have an interrupting thought within your count, acknowledge it and then begin counting again. With practice you will be able to continue focusing on the count without any interruptions of distracting thought.

Once you have been able to achieve the counting without any interruptions, you will notice that you are more aware, Zazen now begins, and you begin to open up. Now focus on the inhalations and exhalations. Start to count each inhalation and exhalation. Continue to count until you can just comfortably focus on the breathing without the need to count. In this part of the meditation, thoughts will arise at random; let each thought run its course from the point of being the observer. Observe your thoughts. These thoughts need to arise and may occur several times during your meditation but allow them to happen until they resolve themselves. Then return to the count of the inhalations and exhalations.

This is Zazen meditation, with practice the arising thoughts will lessen and you will truly be focused inwards and on the self. Just remember to allow the thoughts to arise, allow them to run their course. They need to be brought to your attention in that moment then allow them to abate.

Please visit my blog at http://astralflyer-meditationforbeginners.blogspot.com/ or http://astralflyer-astralflyer.blogspot.com/

Well, first of all Zen is in fact many things and yes; indeed, among those things Zen is a bona fide religion. Buddhism, though some like to claim as more of philosophy or a way of life, is a religion. It is not just a ‘spiritual philosophy.’

Among its tenants are the concept of reincarnation, heaven and hell, Gods and spirits, unique angel-like creatures called Kannon, and demons, there is a world too in which the dead dwell and come back to earth from once a year.

It presupposes that every human being is full with latent Buddha nature that will someday bloom into enlightenment. At the peaceful end, all humans will achieve enlightenment and there will be no more need for human existence on earth, which is equated with suffering.

I mention the above particularly because these details of hell and angels usually get passed over when people try to describe Buddhism, which Zen is of but one sect of and naturally adheres to the same major beliefs.

I know these things because I have lived in Japan for twenty years, and although the Japanese are not religiously devout at the moment, they see Buddhism as religion, not philosophy.

Why is Zen so popular? I think mainly because of the minimalist Zen aesthetic, which swept Japan in the middle ages. The rock gardens, haiku, ink painting, and tea ceremony- basically all of what we now consider traditional Japanese art- all come from Zen.

So do the martial arts that the samurai and ninja used to defeat their foes. In a way, Zen had such a pervasive effect on Japanese culture that it’s not outlandish to say that Japanese culture is Zen culture.

By: Dinah Jackson

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This article was written by Dinah Jackson who enjoys writing about Pokemon and travel. We sell every Pokemon plushie that you can imagine. We have hundreds of Japanese Pokemon Pokedolls, stuffed toys, plushies, figures, binders, deck boxes, sleeves, charms, straps, dice bags, and thousands more very rare Japanese Pokemon items. Direct from Japan to your door.

In other words, most Japanese are not aware of Zen’s glorious history in Japan and probably were not taught it. That is a whole other story though.

Briefly, long ago Zen was a major Buddhist sect in China, where it is no longer extant. It made its way into Japan and grew very quickly, becoming eventually by far the largest sect of Buddhism in Japan and finally grew so large that it had profound influences on the whole culture.

Of these, probably the biggest impact Zen has had on the world is through aesthetics. To the Western eye, the Zen aesthetic is both minimalist and elegant. It also very impressive in accomplishing an effect that is far larger than the input that went into the making of the art.

In a word, Zen is deep, just like the simple circle one looks through to look down a well. Finally, Zen inspired art like most art is replete with symbolism, sometimes unabashedly obvious (like the rock gardens that represent islands in the sea).

Zen art is also highly ritualized, though that may not be apparent to the viewer. A classic example that is made for participation however is the tea ceremony. There is so much protocol that sometimes people feel quite nervous when they try it the first time.

Japanese arts are friendly to the novice and encourage participation. Whatever your proclivity, be it haiku or ikebana, you can easily find an inexpensive sensei nearby to show you the ropes. In the Zen aesthetic, the doing is the art, the result the artifact.

By: Alexandra Hasinski

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This article was written by Dinah Jackson who enjoys writing about Pokemon and travel. We sell every Pokemon plushie that you can imagine. We have hundreds of Japanese Pokemon Pokedolls, stuffed toys, plushies, figures, binders, deck boxes, sleeves, charms, straps, dice bags, and thousands more very rare Japanese Pokemon items. Direct from Japan to your door.

Zen meditation is the path of awareness. It uses concentration techniques to pull your attention out of your thinking to be present in the moment.

The normal state of a human being is to be completely identified with your thinking. So if you are sitting by a pond and you are thinking about having to go to work tomorrow, you are not really aware of yourself sitting by the pond, you are more involved with work tomorrow. You are thinking about driving to work, what your boss might say to you, the tasks you have to perform and the worries around it, what you might have for lunch etc.

All of these thoughts are very real to you. You could say you are living in a “dream world.” Because although you are sitting by the pond, your experience is of going to work tomorrow. You have a second or two where you are aware that you are sitting by the pond and then you get lost again in your thoughts about work.

Thinking always takes you away from the present moment. So by using a simple Zen meditation technique, you can learn how to bring your focus away from your thinking into the present moment.

And when it comes to what is here when you are present, your experience of sitting by the pond is just the tip of the iceberg. You can experience yourself beyond the body, beyond the mind as awareness itself. What the Zen teachers would call “Buddha Nature.” And this experience is one of incredible peace and inner joy.

So to learn how to meditate using a Zen meditation technique, first find yourself sitting comfortably without back support. You do not need to sit in a tough yoga position. You can simply sit on the edge of a chair with your back straight. Your can use a rolled up towel underneath the base of your spine to help keep your back straight.

Now close your eyes and bring your attention to your breath. Allow your belly to gently rise and fall as you breathe, as though you are breathing the air into your belly. Do not force your breath in any way. Allow yourself to breathe naturally.

Now count your breaths. First silently count to yourself “1″ as you inhale and “1″ as you exhale. Then “2″ as you inhale and “2″ as you exhale.” Continue this way until you reach 10.

What will happen is you will lose your focus and get lost in your thinking. When this happens, just gently bring you focus back to your breathing and start counting the breaths starting with “1″ again. Do this until you can easily count 10 breaths without getting caught up in your thinking.

After you can do this for 10 breaths, do it again but this time we will move to a more advanced Zen meditation technique. Count the inhale starting at “1,” but then on the exhale, let yourself relax into stillness. Then count “2″ on the inhale and let yourself rest in stillness on the exhale. Again, practice this until you can count your inhales up to 10 without losing count.

When you can do this, go to 20. Then 30. Then 50.

Now an even more advanced Zen meditation technique. Count every other breath. So you count “1″ on the inhale, and then rest in stillness for the exhale. Then rest in stillness for another inhale and exhale. And then count “2″ on the next inhale. Do this again until you can count to 50 without getting lost in your thinking.

Don’t beat yourself up if it is harder than you thought. It is not something that can be perfected in 5 minutes.

Once you reach 50, you should be deep in meditation. You should be able to let go of the counting and simply be present, allowing your experience to be as it is and watching. You are no longer concentrating on a certain object, but witnessing your experience in the moment, without trying to control it or change it in any way.

Here you allow whatever is here in the present moment to be and you simply watch. Without pushing anything away, without holding on to anything. You watch what arises and you let it go, remaining present and aware.

But you can still keep your attention on your breathing if you feel the need.

Eventually, you will not need to use counting. You will learn how to meditate without needing a technique. You will naturally rest in awareness, free from the mind.

So now you know how to meditate using a simple yet very powerful Zen meditation technique. To make your meditation practice 10 times more effective, check out the link below.

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Learn How You Can Easily Experience Profound States of Meditation and Bliss Simply By Listening to Music For Free Samples Visit the How to Meditate Deeply Website

It is recognized and practiced by different religions worldwide. Contrary to what majority of people think, meditation is not about one’s religion or connected to any religion at all. Anyone and anybody can do it the way he or she feels comfortable doing.

How should meditation be done? First, you need a quiet place where you will not have any distractions. You don’t need to go up high the mountains to be able to do this. You can even do meditation at the comfort of your own home. When doing this at home, you can change the décor or set up in the room you intend to do the meditation. You can also set up some aromatic scents to help you relax and set the mood.

HoloThink came up with a product that will help an individual who wants some meditation. Deep Zen Meditation’s purpose is to help achieve one’s goal on awareness through pondering. The easiest way that our brain could be stimulated is through the ears. Low sounds are necessary for stimulation and these are usually outside the range of a person’s normal hearing. Deep Zen meditation utilizes binaural beats. Binaural beats can achieve this stimulation.

What the Deep Zen package does is it mixes the binaural beats and the proper frequencies then turns these into a pleasant and enjoyable music. These sound frequencies being used in the Deep Zen Meditation by HoloThink has an effect on the auditory system. Despite the fact that the tones are mixed up already, these tones are still unpleasant to listen to on their own. The music here is then masked with rainfall and chime sounds. The chimes are noisier than the rainfall.

The Deep Zen audio package use MP3 and are designed for listening from 20 to 30 minutes every day. The sound frequencies have an effect on our auditory system and the brain tunes in to the sounds thereby creating wave patterns. These wave patterns are important for deep relaxation. Deep Zen meditation is able to hit the Theta Brain Wave frequency.

The Theta Brain Wave frequency is believed to help increase memory and focus, provides immediate relaxation and relief from stress, provides mind clarity and calmness, and improves intuition and balancing of hemisphere activity that can lead to over-all improvement of the brain.

Deep Zen Meditation is created by HoloThink. An interested individual may purchase the product for $77 and it is via MP3 download. It is not an e-book therefore, this is ideal for people who are auditory by nature. HoloThink recommends that you listen first to Total Tranquil for 14 days before proceeding to Deep Zen Meditation unless you are well experienced with mediation already. HoloThink offers 56 days guarantee.

How one perceives at a product or service has a psychological effect on the person’s concentration and way of thinking. If we perceive a product as ineffective but have tried using it, it is highly possible that you will never feel its good effects. There are different ways on how to be able to meditate successfully and without any distractions. Deep Zen meditation is one of them and is worth the try.

By: Peter Hill

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Peter Hill is a writer and reviewer of personal development and Holothink Deep Zen meditation programs. He has an informational website with articles, tips and free Holosync meditation MP3s. For more information be sure to visit the Holothink Deep Zen meditation website.

Zen gardens consist of gravel or sand that seems like water, rocks and plants The idea is an organized space for kicking back. It is a common myth that monks mediate in these gardens. They actually meditate in front of a wall. This does not matter however, an organized space means rest. It is an retreat of calm in an otherwise nuts world. I will now tell you how to make one.

1. Area selection – It shouldn’t be too shaded. IT also doesn’t really have to be a big area, more often than not small zen gardens work well. Better in fact.
2. Light colored wood is very effective when building the sand or gravel baths. Essential. You can also use metal or rock but I believe light colored wood really has the jump.
3. The final thing you need is weeds and things growing up through the sand or gravel. To stay clear of weeds and such a very good plastic ground sheet must be laid before putting down any gravel or sand.
4. Fill the gravel and sand baths. Ensure that it is even.
5. It doesn’t make any difference what they seem to be just so long as you like them but get some rocks for visual fun. Don’t put in a lot though. You could perhaps pop in some statues like Buddhas.
6. Try to make the sand look like the ripples of water by raking It. Sounds basic but that is the entire purpose. It unwinds the mind and seems to be gorgeous.
7. Get a water fountain or water feature. Not a big elaborate one. Just a basic one so you can hear water as you chill.
8. Depending on how much place you have you have to have some furniture. A bench set can be wonderful. Just be certain that it is really comfortable. This is all about minimalist ideals though so keep it very simple
9. Place some flowers, great smelling flowers like lavender work best as will shrubs. Again nothing too opulent, just uncomplicated.
10. Enjoy

It may sound easy but this may take time. It will certainly be worth it in the end. Once it is ready zen gardens are extremely low upkeep. That is the whole point of them seriously. A shorter period weeding a longer period unwinding.

Life is far too stressful. Gardening is a way to de-stress. Zen gardens are another great way. I’ve created a website on patio furniture, gardening and particularly wrought iron patio furniture.

Source: EzineArticles.com

There are many religions in the world, which preach the virtues of patience humility, brotherhood and universal solidarity.

One such popular religion is Buddhism, which was founded by the followers of Siddharth Gautama, who came to be known as The Buddha. Zen Buddhism is a branch of the Mahayana Buddhism. The name ‘Zen’ is actually derived from the Sanskrit word dhyana, which means meditation. In Chinese, it is referred to as Chan.

Zen is a Japanese word derived from this Chinese word. The definition of Zen enlightenment can be stated as ‘the state of mind where an individual gains awareness of his true nature’. When one thinks of Buddhism, or in that matter Zen Buddhism, the images of Buddhist monks in yellow robes, meditating, tending to plants or arranging flowers in the pagodas conjures in the mind. But what is the true meaning of Zen enlightenment? Let’s take a look at this concept.

Unfolding Zen Enlightenment

Zen, which is a school of Mahayana Buddhism, emphasizes on meditation and existential wisdom. This art of meditation is known as zazen, and practice of dharma (or divinity) for attainment of holistic awakening and awareness regarding oneself and humanity. As mentioned earlier, Zen is the Japanese word for dhyana. Though practiced in India, Zen Buddhism slowly spread to Japan, Vietnam, China and Korea. It became more widespread in Japan in the 12th century. This school of Buddhism was further branched into Rinzai and Soto.

This sect involves the teachings of the Buddha and emphasizes on the importance of Buddhist meditation to attain Zen enlightenment. It signifies that in this state the mind is able to gain understanding without the help of any media – like words, scriptures or ceremonies. It also claims that attaining enlightenment is not only for the selected few, but all human beings are capable to achieve this state by concentrating and practicing self control. Zen enlightenment can be achieved by man through his own strength.

Gautama Buddha explained the true meaning of what is enlightenment through his teachings. It was said that Zen enlightenment could be achieved while introspecting oneself. It also teaches the importance of oneness, subtlety, eternity and non discrimination. Following these virtues can help an individual attain spiritual healing. According to the Buddha, enlightenment could be achieved by mere silence.

This enlightenment or bodhi, which is said to be sudden, reveals the truth about love and wisdom. It means to be one with the universe rather than being carried away by individuality and illusion. The main concept is to understand that the entire universe is made of same particles which are inter related to each other. The mind can be controlled to think accordingly. In this enlightenment, one can control pain, turn on bliss and live a contended life. Hence it is said that Zen enlightenment is the ultimate road to achieve happiness.

Zen Enlightenment Quotes

The followers of this sect preached the importance of meditation to attain spiritual awakening. Given here are some beautiful quotes about Zen enlightenment, which reveals the meaning and importance of life to mankind.

“Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draws it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.”

“We do not learn by experience, but by our capacity for experience.”

“One who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand on the battlefield.”

“As one lamp serves to dispel a thousand years of darkness, so one flash of wisdom destroys ten thousand years of ignorance.”

“True wealth is the ability to let go of your possessions.”

“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”

“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.”

“It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives. If we find we cannot help others, the least we can do is to desist from harming them.”

“Contentment that derives from knowing when to be content is eternal contentment.”

“Do not conquer the world with force,
for force only causes resistance.
Thorns spring up when an army passes.
Years of misery follow a great victory.
Do only what needs to be done.
Without using violence.”

Attaining Zen enlightenment helps one discover the inner self and unravel the true meaning and secrets of life. This overview about Zen enlightenment is just a tip of the iceberg. Hope you found this article informative.

By Marlene Alphonse