Feb 20 2009
Zen
In Zen practice, we need to make a distinction and at first it can quite often seem hazy and cloudy. There is thinking about Zen practice and then there is practice itself and this involves, zazen (Zen meditation/focus).
Thinking has the power to create experience but it’s not the experience itself. Zen experience is about stilling the mind as much as we can in order to experience Zen, which is “no mind” or “no thought”. However, many practitioners elect to aim for single-mindedness, which is a focus on the moment of now, and not the “no-mind” or “no-thought”. In this way we have Zen and the art of… archery, motorcycle maintenance, archery and so on…
In reality, we cannot remove ourselves from the moment of now, so the belief in the past or future, cannot be reality, but fantasy, which we refer to as memory or anticipation of what is to come. When we experience this reality of the moment of now, it is not the same as thinking about it. And the experience comes from the actual practice of focusing the mind in zazen.
When we first start the practice of zazen, we need to be aware that our nostalgic past and anticipation of the future is going to challenge us strongly. And this unconscious reaction isn’t surprising when we think about it – who wants to, lose one’s mind? This goes against our conditioning.
In Zen, we just need to be patient and accepting of this challenge, observing all its objections, whilst being aware of the moment of now. Sometimes we will be completely drawn in by the enticements of the ego-mind and lose our Self there, and then there will be glorious moments, when we experience mindfulness, where only the present exists and we have ceased to analyse for a while. It is those short moments that make a thousand years of zazen well worth practising.
