If we don’t persist steadily over time in a daily practice, we lose our life – the wholeness, the vitality and ripening that zazen brings to the daily world. If you sit zazen, you know this for yourself. Each day we start anew streaming along in the present moment. Being in the present moment is all we have. Past and future are concepts. Even memories unfold in this present moment. The only moment we experience directly for ourselves is right here now. We do this for ourselves because we are the only one who can. When a strong person moves their arm, they cannot depend on someone else’s strength. So it is with the energy of our own awareness. The potency depends on using it regularly. Not just sitting there like a bump on a log, daydreaming, but alert in our whole body and our senses on the seat of zazen, be it cushion, bench, or chair. When we cultivate with the entirety of the life of the self, we are naturally bringing ourselves wholly into every moment, whether on the seat of zazen or into the day’s activities.
