What is a Zafu?
A Zafu is a fluffed cushion 35 cms in diameter and 20 cms in height. It is a Japanese word meaning a seat made from cattails. Cattails are wetland plants.
Zafu is a symbol of Zazen practice. The Zazen practice is the heart of Zen Buddhism.
What is Zazen practice?
Zazen means seated meditation. It aims at calming the body and the mind through meditation. It helps the practitioners to gain insights into the working of nature and come close to reality.
The method for practicing Zazen are:
- Concentration:It is the initial stage of Zazen which involves training in concentrating on the breathing.
- Koans:They are tools used by Zen masters in their teaching.They are short stories or riddles which cannot be understood by applying logic. Intuition comes in handy here. To realize the truth through Koans, a student needs a mode of intense concentration while he meditates on it.
- Shikantaza:When a student learns to develop concentration and meditates using objects of meditation like Koans, he is trained to master meditation with the help of any object. He uses the power of concentration to focus on all the phenomena happening around him in the present moment. This type of meditation is Shikantaza.
Whether it is the stage of concentration, Koans or Shikantaza, the posture of the practitioners during the meditation is seating with folded hands and legs with an erect spine. Zafu is the seat the Zazen practitioners use during this meditation after performing Gascho.
What is Gashho?
Zazen practitioners bow before their teacher, fellow practitioners and the Zafu before and after the meditation. This practice is called Gascho.
The position of Gashho is to bring the palms together with the fingers pointing upwards. Gascho is a gesture symbolizing prayer, greeting, thankfulness, request and reverence.