It's okay.
A few times in this series on Zazen for Beginners (we are all always beginners), I used the analogy of clouds of thoughts and emotions drifting through an open, clear, boundless blue sky.
I said, in Shikantaza “Just Sitting” Zazen, we do not resist the clouds, do not attempt to silence the thoughts and emotions forcefully. Instead, we just do not engage, and return our attention again and again and again to the clear sky, and the the breath, and allow the clouds to drift out of mind with clutching at them, and without resistance to them. Be focused on “everything and nothing at all,” just as the sky covers all the world without thought or discrimination.
When thoughts and emotions come, or when we face hard circumstances in life, we learn to approach them in a new way. Rather than fighting, resisting and resenting their existence so much, we answer them with -not- reacting. Instead, we yield, let go, allow, let them be.
In doing so, a surprising thing happens …
By not fighting, resisting and resenting so much, a strange and wonderful thing happens: they loose their power, or a certain clarity appears in the situation. Though we do not reject our thoughts and emotions, do not try to change them, suppress them, judge them or push them away… “bad” thoughts will change, will be experienced quite differently, and sometimes fully drop away. When we just allow the hard life situation, somehow a certain simplicity and "okayness" about it all may come. The resistance, anger and feeling of lack will dissipate and evaporate, sometimes completely.
To illustrate this process, I will talk about sitting with three common thoughts and emotions that may fill our heads during Zazen or at any moment of life: anger at someone, greed for something, and fear about the future.
Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 15 to 35 minutes is recommended.
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