Adjustment(Concentration Meditation)

Adjustment
The foundation student who wishes to study the dharma of all the Buddhas in all the universes in all time should make a firm promise to wish all beings relief from suffering. To receive the highest teaching of Dharma his wish needs to be solid, like a diamond. He needs to be brave and make progress through the teachings without care for body or even life, he must be resolute never to turn (or even glance) back until all the Dharma has been completed. After he’s made this promise, sitting with correct mind in total awareness, the trainee meditates on the truth of every way of thinking and doing i.e. that all senses, subjects and objects are nothing more than illusions, everything is artificial, everything comes from mind. If you understand the artificial mind (in that it has no nature) all illusions will be destroyed. Everything is artificial, all ways of thinking are artificial, all ways of doing are artificial, all Dharma is artificial, everything is artificial. There is no truth, only mind. With this mind free from all pollution, all birth, death, re-birth and re-death along with the reasons for them, will stop. By meditating on this, the trainee can really start the Zen training.
What is adjustment? If we take the example of a clay worker mixing powder and water, the mixture mustn’t be too thick or it will go hard and it mustn’t be too thin or it will go soft, it must be just right so he can continue with his work. Like a violinist must patiently tune each string so he can make a nice melody. In the same way, a Zen trainee has to adjust his mind. There are 5 things that need adjustment so the trainee is ready to receive training, and the situation of Samadhi can arise. If the adjustments are not made, blocks will overcome and obscure the mind so that perfection will find it difficult to manifest.
1st Adjustment – FOOD
There needs to be a clear line drawn between food and desire. For the trainee, food is to supply the body and support the practice of Zen only. For many people food has become a kind of hobby, something to do when you’re bored. A kind of socializing, be it Christmas dinner, a romantic meal for two, a business lunch, the list goes on and on, food is firmly integrated within the lives of all of us living in the modern world. The trainee needs to dissolve this viewpoint. By eating too much, we cause our internal energy to be pressed against which can make a block for our meridians and make sitting meditation at the very least uncomfortable. By eating too little, we cause the body to feel weak and soft without force, the mind feels empty and thoughts become unstable. Dirty eating can lead to a confused mind; by eating incorrect food we bring about the right conditions for sleeping illness to stir within us (the word incorrect here is primarily concerned with meat and odorous vegetables i.e. garlic, onion and leak. The Zen diet is a vegetarian one).

2nd Adjustment – SLEEP
Sleep is a block, an unwise affliction which obscures the light of our mind. Do not allow this habit to run free. Too much sleep not only makes a block for our training, but also causes us to lose ‘gongfu’ (gongfu relates to time, energy, understanding and experience). By sleeping too much we unwind our wisdom. Kindness, mercy and compassion gained by training also start to disappear. So………unconscious, mindless, corpse like sleep needs to be taken only as we need it. We should try to understand that everything in life is ephemeral and will not be here forever. Then, the mind will be clear, energy will be comfortable, the trainee can awake perfection and Samadhi will become a truth.
The next adjustments to be discussed are 3-body, 4-breath and 5-mind. These 3 are always taught as one as they are inextricably linked.
3 Adjust the body
For the new beginner he must learn the different skills of going into, staying in and getting out of Zen concentration. He must carefully observe all actions whether it be moving, staying still, sitting or lying down, all should be soft, smooth and slow. If the actions are rough and wild it will cause the breath to be rough and wild which in turn will effect the mind, thoughts will be scattered making focus and concentration very difficult. Sitting with a troubled mind makes a real block for achieving the peace, joy and comfort which we are working towards. At the beginning simply let the senses come back, let them gather and settle like the dust in a big old attic room, let the rough breath and the confused, scattered mind concentrate on one thing. When sitting, our aim is just to make the body prepared, so that all conditions are conducive to training.
The positions of lotus and half lotus will be discussed in a later section, for the time being, the necessary directions are that clothing should be loose and comfortable (skin tight jeans may feel like a 14th century torture device after sitting for an hour), if your wearing a belt it’s always a good idea to loosen down a few notches. Hands and feet are better if kept nice and close to the body.
Make the body correct- 1st sit upright with your back straight and slightly stretched. Although stretched, the posture needs to be without force and struggle. After this, relax the body but make sure that there is no movement of the hands or feet. This stretching and relaxing should be repeated 7-8 times until the posture is correct i.e. straight and relaxed, not stretched and not slouched. 2nd adjust the neck and head. Eyes should be facing forward with the head up and the chin tucked in. The tip of the nose should be pointing to the belly button, this is achieved by tucking in the chin, not by dropping the head down, it’s important that the head is upright. Once the position feels right and everything is stable, breathe 3 times, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. Inhale slowly and softly without control, meditating clean air flowing through all the meridians, then exhale meditating on the dirty, bad, dark energy leaving the body through the mouth. During sitting meditation the tongue is placed softly just behind the top teeth, the eyes are almost closed with just a tiny gap allowing in a slither of light, the body is stable like a rock (remember that rocks do not move). When Zazen the key is not to be too loose and not to be to tight.
When beginning Zazen the posture is very important and no step should be skipped over. These adjustments are very easy to say but difficult to do, time and patience are needed to achieve good results.