Draft Talk On Zazen, Part II

To minimize inputs, we sit in a quiet room, facing a wall. Because we want to remain awake and alert and not to go into a trance, we keep the eyes open but we see only an unchanging wall. One guy told me that he could see the quality of the light changing on the wall during evening meditation but I am not that observant. We hear silence and maybe an occasional faint background sound. However, any loud or persistent noise would interfere with meditation.

Practicing nonattachment to natural thoughts means:

sitting without deliberate thought;

remaining relaxed and alert;

noticing that a thought has arisen unbidden;

letting it come and go;

not holding onto it;

not continuing it or adding to it;

not getting caught up in it;

not trying to suppress it;

sitting with it, accepting its presence, until it passes;

not changing natural thought into deliberate thought.

 

Practicing does not mean always succeeding but does mean persevering. Most of the time, all that is present in meditation is you and your thoughts, not anything else, so why do this? If you see no point in it, then you will not do it. My job is not to tell you to do it but to say that, if you would like to approach some understanding and control of natural thought processes, then zazen might help.