Word: zen
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...basically proved that meditators are really, really focused. In India a researcher named B.K. Anand found that yogis could meditate themselves into trances so deep that they didn't react when hot test tubes were pressed against their arms. In Japan a scientist named T. Hirai showed that Zen meditators were so focused on the moment that they never habituated themselves to the sound of a ticking clock (most people eventually block out the noise, but the meditators kept hearing it for hours). Another study showed that master meditators, unlike marksmen, don't flinch at the sound of a gunshot...
Increasingly it is being detached from Buddhism. Along with the more obscure Zen techniques (such as sitting for hours in positions that look painful to me and asking to be hit with sticks if you feel you are about to doze off), Americans are trying Vipassana (which begins by focusing on your breath), walking meditation (at first walking really, really slowly and then being hyperaware of each step), Transcendental Meditation (or TM, repeating a Sanskrit syllable over and over), Dzogchen (cultivating a clear but even-keeled awareness) and even trance dance (spinning with a blindfold on for an hour...
...changed due to the Buddhist church’s becoming increasingly sectarian, accentuated on the a wider variety of subject matter and style. This ranges from the furious deities of the Esoteric tradition to moralistic paradise and hell scenes of the Pureland school to the simple ink play of Zen. Through January 4, 2004. Hours: Monday through Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. $6.50 adults, $5 students/seniors, free with Harvard ID. Arthur M. Sacker Museum, 485 Broadway...
...Memorial Day weekend, the San Antonio Hyatt Regency opened SPAhhhT after being deluged by requests from parents. Since then, nearly 700 kids have visited, indulging in 25-minute facials at $40 a session and henna tattoos ranging from $4 to $20, depending on the design. As opposed to the Zen-like calm of the resort's adult spa, SPAhhhT's treatment rooms are tricked out in psychedelic colors and play disco music. Hyatt has started similar programs at eight of its other hotels...
...credits both his creative and material success to his enlightenment. "Many artists in Singapore feel very stifled", he observes. "Singaporeans are materialistic; they don't read Plato or Shakespeare, they only read numbers." However, Tan doesn't feel restricted by Singapore's uncreative environment. He explains that Zen has helped him free his mind, and "when you have a free mind you can live in Singapore or a prison cell ... you can live very lavishly but you can also live in fasting." And with that, he offers to treat me to dinner at Au Jardin the next time we meet...