In 1975, I was given the opportunity through a martial arts instructor to experience meditation for the first time.
I remember being asked to imagine that I was a feather in the wind, allowing myself to be carried where the wind would take me.
I recall now just how natural it felt to sit in this way, allowing for myself some time away from the TV and other daily activities.
Nearly thirty-five years later, I'm still sitting, no longer imagining myself however as a feather being tossed through the sky, but rather continuing the deep and profound look into my being by just sitting with whatever happens to arise within my immediate, present moment experience.
I must admit, that for a long time, I never really knew just exactly what I was doing or why I was doing it.
Somehow I continued my meditation practice through the years, perhaps as I reflect back, it was just a feeling that I could perhaps one day arrive at some place where I might be able to understand myself and the world more completely.
It was not until the mid nineties however, that I was introduced to Soto Zen at a retreat center in the mountains of North Carolina that I came to understand what I feel to be the true essence of meditation.
Soto Zen holds as its central path, something called Shikan Taza, or "just sitting.
" Facing the wall, we are facing ourselves; welcoming and watching whatever fantasies, pleasures or old personal demons that may show up.
Meditation is fundamentally the art of becoming more familiar and intimate with one's self.
Through this process of getting to know ourselves more completely, we are eventually led to confront the previously hidden aspects of our mind/psyche, aspects that have remained out of site for various reasons, which might include a sort of self protection from early traumatic events, etc.
When these hidden memories or feelings at last emerge, we are given the opportunity to move beyond any limitations that they may be sustaining within our lives through fully experiencing them for what they are..
..
memories/feelings, modes of the human experience, nothing more.
When we at last see the true face of what seems to be causing our suffering and are able to begin to become less identified with it, we have had placed before us the silver tray of true transformation.
We now have the great opportunity to transform, as a shaman might say, "Our wound into a gift", a source of power that can carry us forward with greater peace and courage, and, at the same time, being given the insight, wisdom and strength to be of greater service to the world.
I remember being asked to imagine that I was a feather in the wind, allowing myself to be carried where the wind would take me.
I recall now just how natural it felt to sit in this way, allowing for myself some time away from the TV and other daily activities.
Nearly thirty-five years later, I'm still sitting, no longer imagining myself however as a feather being tossed through the sky, but rather continuing the deep and profound look into my being by just sitting with whatever happens to arise within my immediate, present moment experience.
I must admit, that for a long time, I never really knew just exactly what I was doing or why I was doing it.
Somehow I continued my meditation practice through the years, perhaps as I reflect back, it was just a feeling that I could perhaps one day arrive at some place where I might be able to understand myself and the world more completely.
It was not until the mid nineties however, that I was introduced to Soto Zen at a retreat center in the mountains of North Carolina that I came to understand what I feel to be the true essence of meditation.
Soto Zen holds as its central path, something called Shikan Taza, or "just sitting.
" Facing the wall, we are facing ourselves; welcoming and watching whatever fantasies, pleasures or old personal demons that may show up.
Meditation is fundamentally the art of becoming more familiar and intimate with one's self.
Through this process of getting to know ourselves more completely, we are eventually led to confront the previously hidden aspects of our mind/psyche, aspects that have remained out of site for various reasons, which might include a sort of self protection from early traumatic events, etc.
When these hidden memories or feelings at last emerge, we are given the opportunity to move beyond any limitations that they may be sustaining within our lives through fully experiencing them for what they are..
..
memories/feelings, modes of the human experience, nothing more.
When we at last see the true face of what seems to be causing our suffering and are able to begin to become less identified with it, we have had placed before us the silver tray of true transformation.
We now have the great opportunity to transform, as a shaman might say, "Our wound into a gift", a source of power that can carry us forward with greater peace and courage, and, at the same time, being given the insight, wisdom and strength to be of greater service to the world.
Source...