Buddha discovered seated meditation Zen based practice; Zen practice returns to the same seated meditation.
By Swami Vivekananda every general man of the world have very little knowledge about himself, they know only 2 to 3 percent about him.
There are three serene venues for yoga at Zen Resort, namely a 120 sq meters yoga pavilion surrounded by landscaped tropical gardens, a sunrise tree tops mediation center overlooking rice fields and a sunset yoga deck overlooking natural forest with views of the Sea of Bali.
The Ayurvedic health and beauty spa at the resort offers over 30 authentic treatments as well as traditional Balinese massage, healing baths and beauty treatments by qualified ayurveda professionals from Kerala, India together with a team of trained Balinese therapists. The resort’s resident yoga master also offers special pranayama and meditation classes based on the principles and practices of Swami Ram Dev, a world renowned practitioner and exponent of easy to do yoga, pranayama and meditation exercises that have been proven to be highly beneficial in not only achieving and sustaining good health but also curing many diseases and ailments. The teachings of Swami Ram Dev have influenced millions of people across India and every morning tens of millions join in his daily television exposition of yoga, pranayama and meditation exercises and advice on healthy eating.
The architecture throughout the resort is traditional Balinese with each building resembling a Balinese temple. The fourteen air-conditioned sea view villas look out onto verdant landscape and down to the sea with sunset and sunrise views. The mature landscaped gardens and skyline infinity swimming pool merging into the rice fields below and the marine landscape beyond are hypnotic in their tranquility. Each of the villas includes an elegantly furnished double bedroom with a private terrace and a parlor leading to an open air designer garden bathroom.
Zen Resort’s talented chefs present a variety of nutritious dishes featuring Asian, European and Ayurvedic vegetarian cuisine as well as catering for individual dietary requirements. All meals are served in the tropical gardens with spectacular views over natural forest, rice fields and the sea of Bali.
The resort’s serene and beautiful landscaped tropical and Zen gardens offer an ideal environment to read, slumber, think and dream. An hour’s nature walk through an eco-forest rich with indigenous herbal and medicinal plants leads to Banjar Natural Hot Springs for a rejuvenating bath and on to a 6th Century Vihara Buddhist temple for some sacred meditation. There are also two temples in front of the resort dedicated to the Moon and the Goddess of the Sea. The resort’s expert guides are also available to advise and to organize visits to local villages to experience the ceremonies and the Balinese culture and traditional ways of life and living.
Just a 200 meters walk along a paved pathway with vineyards on one side and rice fields on the other leads to the secluded Puri Jati seashore with one of the world’s richest micro marine environment to snorkel and dive and a place at take off at dawn for a sunrise dolphin sail. Within an hour’s drive from the resort there is spectacular scuba diving at Menjagan Island, eco-forest nature walks and rice field trekking around Munduk, Gitgit Waterfall and Ulundanu Temple of Bedugal and a day trip to the active Mount Batur volcano and the temple of Tirta Empul and Goa Gajah, the elephant temple.
The sitting postures are illustrated in several books on Zen meditation, includingThe Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau and Taking the Path of Zen by Robert Aitken.
The suggested sitting postures are:
1. Full-lotus posture.
2. Half-lotus posture.
3. Quarter-lotus posture.
4. Burmese posture.
5. Kneeling or seiza posture (using cushions or a low bench).
6. Sitting in a chair.
In all of these postures, it is suggested that you keep your spine straight, the buttocks are thrust out and the chin is tucked in. The hands are held close to the body in the "cosmic mudra," where the left hand rests on top of the right, with palms open and up. The joints of the two middle fingers are resting on top of the other. The tips of the thumbs are lightly touching.
The ears are in line with the shoulders, and the tip of the nose is in line with the navel. The belly should be relaxed and allowed to "hang out" slightly. The eyes should normally be half-closed, and the gaze should be at about a 45-degree angle to the body. If you're agitated at the beginning of meditation, you might begin with your eyes closed completely to help calm the mind. If you become sleepy during meditation, you might open your eyes wide to help yourself wake up. The crown of the head should point at the ceiling.
The knees should rest on the mat or floor. There should be no space between the knees and the sitting surface.
If sitting in a chair, you should sit on the front edge of the chair with your back erect, as described above. The feet should rest flat on the floor and the legs should be held apart slightly.
Once the sitting posture is achieved, rock back and forth a few times to establish your point of balance and a feeling of relaxed stability.
Take a few deep breaths, allowing the lungs to expand fully, and then exhale fully.
As your breath settles back to normal, breathe through the nose, with the tongue lightly touching the palate behind your teeth.