Here's How A Month Of Zen Meditation Changed My Life
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On a trip to Japan last year, one of the places I visited was Kyoto, home to over 2,000 Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. During one of my daily walks exploring the city and its forested borders, I came across the Ryōan-ji temple, one of the most beautiful Buddhist temples in the world. As you would expect, the temple grounds were full of tourists and locals enjoying the cool May breeze. There were also a handful of Buddhist monks actively engaged in Zen meditation. While meditating, these robed monks seemed impervious to any distraction, a huge feat considering the number of people on the grounds that day. Impressive, yes, but no doubt a mastery gained because, well, what else are monks going to do all day?
But then as I continued roaming the temple grounds, I came across a Japanese woman decked out in a clearly expensive business suit sitting cross-legged on the ground, with her heels and purse placed at her side. She too was meditating exactly as the monks were—eyes closed, effortless breathing, seemingly impervious to the noise of the people around her. I watched her for 10 minutes, and she didn’t open her eyes once, nor move much at all. Then finally she opened her eyes, smiled at me, and got up, where a smartly dressed assistant who I hadn’t noticed before bowed and then led her to a black luxury car where a driver was likely waiting to take her off to some business meeting.
That’s the day I first became interested in Zen meditation. It was the day I realized that it’s not just for monks and new-age hippies. Indeed, recent scientific studies support the facts that the 1,500-year-old practice that originated in China and then spread to Japan, Vietnam, Korea, and, more recently, to the West, has real-world mental and physical health benefits that everyone—not just monks—can benefit from.
These studies have shown that meditation like the kind practiced in Zen Buddhism can do everything from ease anxiety and stress to lessen the perception of pain to make us more focused and productive at work.