Zazen in a Nutshell
Prefaces help focus before Zazen.
Sitting zazen is a form of "going to work"
stepping back from ordinary mind,
wit its distractions, ambitions, and anxieties
just being with whatever comes up,
Its effort is directed toward effortlessneww
And once you get into it
There is joy and gratitude in
your inmost experience.
One teacher likens it to offering oneself
to a lamp whose source of fuel
zazen somehow accesses
as though plugging ourselves into the universal energies.
Honghzi said, a thousand years ago,
you must purify, cure, grind down, or brush away
your tendencies, preferences and predelictions
through which you have fabricated your habits.
Nothing belongs to you, not even your body,
If you are to reach your essence.
That may be not you, instead the universe
Openness endlessly becoming energy/matter, space/time.
Smile to yourself, and appreciate every moment
just noticing the changing moment.
More, on handling
Basic Instruction
Thinking, and Distractions
Back to Mind and Meditation