A friend of mine visited the wonderful Zen master, Katagiri Roshi, shortly before he died. She asked Roshi if he could tell her the essence of Zen practice—which is the kind of question you ask a Zen teacher when they’re dying. And so, he picked up the cup that was next to his bed and haphazardly tossed it down on the table, and said, “You can do things like this, or…” He picked it up off the table again, held it in his two hands and placed it down really beautifully and with gentle care. He continued, “…or you can do them like that.” And that was his teaching. This kind of care, this kind of respect, is the ground for a wise meditation practice.

“Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary, and then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question. I will tell you what it is. Does this path have a heart? If it does, it is good. If it doesn’t, it is of no use.” – Don Juan, Carlos Castaneda’s teacher

The respectful attention that we can establish in meditation brings connection, ease and healing to our life. To do this, the Buddhist foundations of mindfulness invite us to bring care to our breath, to our walking, to our eating, to develop awareness of the body, mind, heart, and the Dharma, or the laws of nature. 

This is a natural process. When you sit in meditation, as soon as you begin, you can sense yourself reconnecting with the body. There’s a settling down process that happens, the breath starts to get a little quieter, softer. From here, you can listen in, bringing a simple respectful attention to the subtle movements of the breath and body. Then you can bring that mindful loving attention to anywhere it’s needed, without trying to manipulate or control experience, just letting it be as you listen in carefully. 

At first as you feel the breath, the attention will wander away a thousand times to thoughts of other places. You start to sense that what you’re being asked to do is to come back to the present over and over. Then as you repeatedly bring a loving awareness to the breath, you will also notice other strong sensations, emotions and patterns of thought arise. Like breath waves, these can also be acknowledged with loving awareness, and named gently, “sadness”, “aching”, “planning”. They can be allowed to rise, exist and pass away all in the quiet space of mindfulness. When they pass you can return attention to the breath.

Here we are, this moments experience, this next breath.

A metaphor traditionally used is that of training a puppy. The untrained puppy runs around, chews on things and makes messes. And so you ask it to “SIT, STAY”. Does it listen? Maybe for a second, and then it runs off.

But puppies can be trained. And so can our mind. With consistent practice we can train our attention to be here now. Gradually and steadily we can notice our breath and all the waves of experience with loving awareness. As we tune in, this reconnects us with the innate wisdom of our body, mind, heart, and Dharma. As we continue to practice these teachings, we can open to the peaceful loving freedom that is our birthright.  

With metta,
Jack

If you enjoyed this article, listen to the full Dharma Talk which inspired it: Heart Wisdom Ep. 253 – Healing Through Meditation: An In-Body.