Writing this from the midst of sesshin I am freshly aware of the gift of relaxation that allows us to be whole, to know our wholeness.Sesshin (Zen retreat) means to touch the heartmind.
We cannot touch and be touched when we are tight and stressed and moving at 60 or 70 miles an hour – perpetually running to the next thing and planning many more after that. Attending sesshin reminds us to slow down and then to stop. It’s challenging. The habit of rushing around and chewing on the bone of past and future, the habit of being more in our thinking mind, cut off from bodymind, runs deep and is reinforced in daily busyness.
I hear from people so often about how they feel guilty just putzing around, or sitting doing nothing, not being “productive.” Adding an overlay of guilt is stressful and it, too, restricts blood vessels and makes the breath more shallow.
We cannot touch and be touched when we are tight and stressed and moving at 60 or 70 miles an hour – perpetually running to the next thing and planning many more after that. Attending sesshin reminds us to slow down and then to stop. It’s challenging. The habit of rushing around and chewing on the bone of past and future, the habit of being more in our thinking mind, cut off from bodymind, runs deep and is reinforced in daily busyness.
I hear from people so often about how they feel guilty just putzing around, or sitting doing nothing, not being “productive.” Adding an overlay of guilt is stressful and it, too, restricts blood vessels and makes the breath more shallow.
So even if you don’t attend a retreat, a daily practice of zazen consists of putting aside, for the time being, everything. Just be a body wholly sitting, breathing, relaxing, opening, emptying, listening – a sabbath well earned by every being in this modern world. Please don’t neglect your zazen practice.
Mushin