You can’t consider Zen without considering Buddha, and you can’s consider Buddha without considering a young Indian prince named Siddhartha Gautama.

 It was about 470 B.C. when Siddhartha Gautama, upset about all the suffering in the world, left his wife, child and privileged life to try and make sense of it all.

 Six years later, he did. As he was sitting under a bo-tree (a kind of fig tree), he understood the meaning of life and became recognized as a Buddha, which means "The Awakened One."

Tony Scott's Music for Zen Meditation and Other Joys is like medicine after a hard working day. When you're meditating, this music fills the gap of silence.

For 40 years, Buddha taught that the best way to enlightenment and avoiding suffering was through self-restraint and self-discipline.

Zen Buddhism takes the Buddha’s teaching to another step, saying the way to become enlightened is simply through telling yourself you are enlightened. Non-enlightenment, Zen teaches, is just an illusion. Remove it, and you will become enlightened.

A Zen garden can be a space of calm, tranquility and beauty amidst our hectic ives. Those who would like to incorporate a bit of the Zen feeling of tranquility into their everyday gardens will appreciate Zen Gardening by Sunniva Harte. You will learn to create a controlled and harmonious environment, nourish the spirit, relieve anxiety and make room for quiet reflection.

Here are some Zen poems and quotes that may help you reach enlightenment:

Followers of the Way,
the one who at this moment
stands alone, clearly and
lively right before your eyes
and is listening,
this one is nowhere obstructed.
Unhindered this one
penetrates everywhere
and moves freely;
entering all kinds of situations,
is never affected by them
-- Rinzai (d.866)

For all these years,
my certain Zen:
Neither I nor the world exist.
The sutras neat within the box,
My cane hooked upon the wall,
I lie at peace in moonlight
Or, hearing water
Plashing on the rock,
Sit up: none can
Purchase pleasure such as this:
Spangled across the step-moss, a million coins!
- - Shutaku (1308-1388)

Each night, I gaze upon a pond,
a Zen body sitting beside a moon.
Nothing is really there, and yet
it is all so clear and bright.
I cannot describe it.
If you would know the empty mind
your own mind must
be as clear and bright
as this full moon upon the water.
-- Chiao Jan (785-895)

Tune your body like a fine instrument, an integrated whole, working from the inside out with Hilary Burnett's Zen Stretch. This program of stretch and strength choreography promotes a total mind body effect of power, balance, and flow. Release tension, increase motivation and add joy to your exercise routine.

The realm of
buddhahood is not some
external world where there
is a formal "Buddha."
It’s the realm of the wisdom
of a self awakened sage.
-- Ta Hui (12th century)

A solitary winter lantern
Casts a feeble shadow
Wind blows through
My flimsy hut and
Covers me with snow
I remember sitting
Cross legged on Wutai;
A makeshift door amid
The thousand year old ice.
-- Han-shan Te-ch’ing (1546-1623)

All day long people
Repeat the word prajna aloud,
But do not know their
Self-natured prajna.
They are like one who
Cannot satisfy their hunger
By only talking about eating.
Just talking of voidness
Will not enable one to
Perceive one’s nature for
Myriads of eons, and there
Will be no advantage in the end.
-- Altar Sutra

The fundamental teaching of Buddhism is nothing but the doctrine of One Mind. This Mind is originally perfect and vastly illuminating. It is clear and pure, containing nothing, not even a fine dust. There is neither delusion nor enlightenment, neither birth nor death, neither saints nor sinners. Sentient beings and Buddhas are of the same fundamental nature. There are no two natures to distinguish them. This is why Bodhidharma came from the west to teach the Ch’an method of “direct pointing” to the original true Mind.
-- Han-Shan Te-Ch’ing