Does Zen And Meditation Go With Islam?

[uniquemuslim]

AOA,

Got a question here. Do zen habits such as meditation which allow one to improve and relax go with Islam? I man that prayer is kind of zen, because you are solitary and focused and at the end you reflect on yourself and how to improve yourself.

Thanks,

Salam

[TheLastMessiah]

Meditation and Praying is pretty much same thing. Both requires concentration and both helps to bring peace to your mind. I can give you an extensive answer to why Zen was deprived from Islam but i cba

[Hussian]

Meditation and Praying is pretty much same thing. Both requires concentration and both helps to bring peace to your mind. I can give you an extensive answer to why Zen was deprived from Islam but i cba

Can you give us the answer?

[peace seeker]

zen is a modern word that is derived from the word 'chan' used for 'chinese' buddhism.

the reason why zen is so popular and successful, is because the message of original buddhism is so well preserved in china, while it basically disappeared in india, it's place of origin.

the birth place of chinese buddhism is supposedly the songshan mountain range in central china, which is really beautiful. supposedly the same area was also the birthplace of taoism in china. this is all stuff i read, but don't take my word for it.

concerning meditation: other words for meditation is remembrance, thinking, contemplation, reasoning, waiting, being patient, being centered, etc, which is in line with Islam as we know. ( such as Prophets habit of going meditating in caves )

also, in chan / zen buddhism, they consider physical movements and every-day chores as a form of meditation as well. physical meditation. much like kung fu being a form of meditation. kung fu is used mostly to refer to self defense arts, but another meaning is making tea. making tea is one of the most important traditions in the world of chinese meditation. they have tea houses instead of coffee houses everywhere.

here from my mac's dictionary: definition of "meditation":

meditate |ˈmedəˌtāt|verb [ no obj. ]think deeply or focus one's mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation.

• (meditate on/upon) think deeply or carefully about (something): he went off to meditate on the new idea.• [ with obj. ] plan mentally; consider: they had suffered severely, and they began to meditate retreat.DERIVATIVESmeditator |-ˌtātər|nounORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from Latin meditat-‘contemplated,’ from the verb meditari, from a base meaning ‘measure’; related to mete1.

so we can also see that the word 'meditation' originates from 16th century supposedly, while buddhism and islam are older than that.

May Allah guide you and teach you truths from all truth-filled religions towards Allah swt insha Allah

all the best & looking forwards to further contributions on this topic.

(wasalam)

[Renaissance_Man]

Excellent answer by peace seeker. I too remember reading somewhere that the Prophet (saw) used to go to a cave to meditate before becoming a prophet.

To add to it, there are dozens of different meditative practices and meditation is understood differently depending on religious/cultural context. I think the salient difference between Zen meditation and Islamic practices such as reflection (fikir) and remembrance (dhikr) is the latter centers on Allah while the other is more for self relaxation and stress release.

[guest022017a]

the question is what do you wan to meditate about? and when it comes to practicing Zen what are you trying to achieve out of them?

[eThErEaL]

AOA,

Got a question here. Do zen habits such as meditation which allow one to improve and relax go with Islam? I man that prayer is kind of zen, because you are solitary and focused and at the end you reflect on yourself and how to improve yourself.

Thanks,

Salam

Islam has its own methods and ways of spiritual improvement. 5 daily prayers. Dhikr. Salawat. Supplications. Istighfar. Etc. The Dhikr is most effective when a Spiritual Master himself gives them to you and tells you how to recite it. Each Master has his own unique method which is "graced" by God; the Master may tell you what to meditate on and what not to meditate on. Everything revolves around God's grace here. In fact finding a true Master itself is by the grace of God. Nothing can be done with our own effort and planning (there is always an ego, if not apparent then hidden).

If you Are a Buddhist then by all means you should do zen, but find a Zen Master (an authentic one, not those new age "gurus") and do it, don't do it on your own for it will be futile if not injurious to your soul. If you are a Muslim you should find a Sufi Master (Shia or Sunni, doesn't matter) and stick to the Islamic tradition alone!

Take care

Ethereal

Edited January 23, 2013 by eThErEaL

[Ali.Isa]

On 12/3/2012 at 4:11 AM, uniquemuslim said:

AOA,

Got a question here. Do zen habits such as meditation which allow one to improve and relax go with Islam? I man that prayer is kind of zen, because you are solitary and focused and at the end you reflect on yourself and how to improve yourself.

Thanks,

Salam

Alaikom as Salam, no dear @uniquemuslim zen habits do not go with Islamic/intellectual prayer-salat -; one may think it is like zen but no. Salat takes you to Allah and ascension and zen takes you to descension to hell and the devil will not take responsibility and will say i just did the invitation and did not force you people. Prayer is not just about focus and concentration it is also about emotions and by the way emotions is the core while focus is secondary. focus should be used for emotions and together with it, and not focus on your self but focus on emotions that is in your self and emotions for focus, both is 'part' of us. Everything should be used properly for something for example ones brain you can not use it both as a brain and heart and liver and kidney, no, so how can you use your mind for everything and say mind is me and i think on myself or mind is something other than me and i use it to focus and think on my self. Why not say mind is part of me and it is specifically used for another thing in me that is my spiritual heart that harbours feelings and emotions. Imagine people having high focus but when the name of Imam Hossein is MENTIONED THEY DO NOT BECOME SAD LIKE Prophet Zakariya Peace upon Him and tears do not come from their eyes because their hearts are cruel-heart hardness - and their heart is not soft.

As dear sibling @peace seeker said the zen is originally from india and we all know basically that the devil-shaitan - has made these things to worship him, he did not prostrate to Adam Peace upon Him, but he wants us to firstly worship him and secondly sacrifice for him that is killing humans as past idol worshippers did. So Kabalah and satanism and all these fake mystical schools have things in common and watered from one source.

On 1/14/2013 at 10:24 AM, yukapuka said:

the question is what do you wan to meditate about? and when it comes to practicing Zen what are you trying to achieve out of them?

Do you/we choose what to achieve out of it, do you not believe in that certain movement  with your finger example moving your finger up has a fiqh rule and nothing is away from it-fiqh - and akhlaq has encircled fiqh, that both are based on certain Aqaed, and it leads one to certain way and not another way. You probably know if you example take a zikr from Ayatollah Qazi and he says you should do it 100 times each day under one year and the last day of the year you just on your own say the zikr one time extra or less all your efforts is void. So maybe in physical world if you take a medicine more one time in last second maybe it not harm but can we say same about the spiritual world.

Another thing what if in the middle of zen this and that we say specific zikr that we get from this so called zen master, that we probably do not know what it means, but wait what if it means a name of specific high rank devil that we call O *** help me... and should we do than that we bring them in our life and destroy our life. So we have our own Maraje and we should go near them, we have martyrs that we should know.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Ali.Isa