Zazen Notes

I wrote in a recent correspondence:

My practice is getting more interesting.  I think I mentioned that I took up meditation in the first place because I was unhappy with my mind—I didn’t seem to be able to avoid a tendency to carry on thinking, past when the thoughts were fresh.  Now I see that I can turn my ...  read more

I wrote:

When I sit, I can feel the singular location [of self] generate stretch in the ligaments from the sacrum to the sit-bones, and in the ligaments from the sacrum to the pelvic tuberosities (where the hamstrings attach). If the stretch in these ligaments is even, activity is generated in the legs that returns ...  read more

When I was a teenager, I was not happy with my mind. Fifty years later, I think I see that there’s a natural rhythm in awareness, a rhythm that Gautama identified as his “way of living”. In particular, mindfulness of the cessation of habitual or volitive action with regard to the movement of breath allows a natural rhythm in ...  read more