The Zen way is to recognize the mind’s antics as just makyo. Once I start to judge, I am reinforcing it and will produce even more makyo.

Experiencing my experience is the only way to transcend this mind crap. Making it OK to be not OK just through observation.

Whatever abilities I have created, whatever material wealth, whoever I love the presence of in my life is  an attachment and transient. They are not the treasures my belief system insists they are. In zazen, there is only the energy behind the breath. That energy is universal and in reality I am one with it. That is my true treasure!

But….I need to work through all the conditioned makyo and the only way to do that is by experiencing it as witness.

During zazen, my mind brings up that I want to get on with my life.  

I have unmasked a plan. 

To have a plan I am making a comparison, a judgement.

A plan to get on with my life instead of living it as Zen wants me to do…

Living totally in the here and now, because that is all there is. 

The breath in zazen brings me to the present moment. 

Desire only brings more desire and with it frustration, because the desiring mind, never has enough!  In zazen, I seem to be constantly reminded of this!  But to say desire is wrong, is just another value judgement. So I don’t want a desireless mind…  Unless I do!  Circles within circles.

In Zazen, the mind goes on thinking thought after thought, yet this is OK. It needs to be OK to just sit and witness; getting to experience Self as observer.

A feeling of correction occurs, but this does not come through logic, but through the spirit of Zen that touches us in an instance. It is beyond explanation. Even the word “correction” isn’t it!

For it is wordless.

It has to be experienced to know it.

This is the essence of Zen practice, to just be aware. There is no correct or incorrect way to reach such awareness for it is beyond all that sort of judgement. 

There is no path, for it is “path-less”.

Just be with whatever there is…

Without seeking, for it already exists.

Witnessing the mind does not involve any desire for enlightenment for how can I be what I already am? 

Just allow the mind’s antics to unfold. Notice what is ego, and see if you can get what is not ego.

In my zazen, I witness how the mind tries to seduce me into entanglement with its plans and decisions of past and future. 

There is nothing to get when we already have it!

It came up in my zazen this morning that what I was achieving in stilling my mind and focusing on the breath was no-thing at all.

For a moment my mind seemed totally still, there was really nothing at all! No thoughts or ideas, just the breath entering and leaving my body. Then suddenly, every trivial thought under the sun bombarded my mind and I recognized I was actually getting a feeling of fear. Fear from nothing at all? There was also a fascination because I was totally observing this mental phenomenon as if it was somebody else.

During this dream-like state, I remembered the Buddha’s word for this no-thing was shanyata and this word seemed much softer and more acceptable than no-thing. The empty void I was experiencing continued behind my chattering mind and then I had a prominent thought that I had experienced this no-thingness before. I had been in this space before I was born and I am and have been OK in spite of it. And my mind stopped again and only the breathing was there until my timer signalled the end of my sitting.

This period of 45 minutes I had been sitting in zazen, had gone in a flash and will never return again. It was truly timeless. There is only now.

The practice of zazen isn’t strictly speaking a meditation, more of a mind focus. It is the basis of Zen practice which is the intention of becoming mindful, recognizing that there is only now, that the past is gone and future is not yet.

It is the intention of a Zen practitioner to use the mindfulness practised in zazen into the tasks of every day life, meaning that the profound can discovered in the mundane.  There are many Zen stories and one that I feel illustrated this beautifully is…. There was once a student of Zen who asked his master, “how can I become enlightened”, to which the master replied, “Chop sticks, carry water… enlightenment”.

If we can become focused totally on mundane tasks “carrying water and chopping sticks” to the exclusion of all other thoughts, then we are mindfully in the here and now. At one with all and our perceptions of separation will disappear.

When I am totally present, focused on the here and now, I am totally detached from what was and from what will be. I can stay on the path to enlightenment if I can stay focused on what is.  This is my objective in zazen. I then need to extend the present mindfulness of zazen into my daily activities. This is to experience the path of true Zen.

The only thing that stands in my way of spiritual awareness is denial, the ultimate scepticism. In contrast, “I-don’t-know-ness” is a sign that my mind is open, so a wait-and-see, is a good philosophy. But…

When I get the feeling “I thought that would/would not happen”, I have the opportunity to realise that I have only pretended to be open-minded because I have been in anticipation of a result. Merely observing these traits and attitudes in meditation provide the impetus to de-structure them, which is part of the process of opening my mind more and more to ultimate reality.

Meanwhile, until I fully experience the domain of ultimate reality, my mind, through the Law of Attraction will bring me my goals and wishes, so my zazen is a powerful and useful tool to examine and edit what exactly I am wishing for!

Zazen is about focusing the mind.

Life circumstances are much less important than we think they are – they are just karma, the effect of our previous internal imaginings, feelings and thoughts.

It is the here and now thoughts and feelings that are important for they form our future life circumstances.

Through zazen we can focus our mind totally on any intent that we create in the here and now, creating a healing and letting-go of past karma.

The here and now, is therefore more important than anything that exists in time. The here and now is timelessness – it always is.