Radically intimate attention describes the heart of zazen. When exploring the intimacy of just sitting, in the silent center of every momentary experience, right at the heart of the silence in zazen, we embody radically intimate attention. Do you recognize this in your own experience? It’s something that is natural to us all that we may not notice. Zazen reminds us of this.
Even though zazen embraces everything that floats through what we are aware of during the physical stillness in sitting, it’s not until you pause thinking, that instantaneously, you notice silence. You can notice this even when moving the body, as in walking. This is true. Silence lies at the heart. Try walking through your daily activities and play with this. Observe it. Experience it. Alternate placing attention on sound – the crunch of grass and gravel underfoot, of birdsong, of the garbage truck outside the window, conversation between people passing by, or a distant siren. And then withdrawing attention, placing it just in the very flowing center of awareness, in intimate silence. Inmost. Just simply an unrestricted field of silence in motion.
Zazen teaches us to claim awareness, right here, with whatever is. Reaching into every breath and functioning in stillness and in activity.
