Welcome and thank you for joining me.
I'll be talking about the great silence.
Every sound arises from silence and eventually dissolves back into silence.
Whether we're aware of it or not,
Silence is always with us.
Everything is surrounded and permeated by silence.
Silence is the matrix of all experience.
Our minds are naturally object-seeking,
So we don't always notice the omnipresence of silence.
The natural unconscious tendency is to immediately connect to objects,
Whether those objects are sounds,
Aromas,
Tactile sensations,
Thoughts,
Or visual objects.
The Zen doctrinal or philosophical version of this all-pervading silence is ku in Japanese,
Which means emptiness,
And which is the basic reality of all phenomena and all experience.
In the Heart Sutra it is said,
Shikhi Sokuze Ku,
Ku Sokuze Shikhi.
Form is nothing other than emptiness.
Emptiness is no other than form.
Who is ever-evolving?
It's the ever-evolving nature of reality,
Sometimes described as infinite becoming,
Or the pregnant gourd.
In Shikantaza practice,
Or just sitting meditation,
We put the mind in neutral.
By sitting with no objective concentration,
No goal,
No expectations.
In other words,
No object seeking.
We notice how mind continuously object seeks.
But we are in neutral and don't intentionally seek objects.
We allow for the continuously rising and dissolving of all experiential moments.
In this neutrality,
We begin to experience this all-pervasive silence despite the presence of objects of perception,
Such as sounds in the environment or thoughts in the mind.
We begin to be aware of this deep silence both internally and externally.
We begin to realize that the silence has always been there,
Even before we ever sat down to meditate.
Even before we ever even thought about meditating.
This silence has always been in the background.
In sitting practice,
We allow awareness of its presence into the foreground.
In practice,
This means that we don't have to silence our thoughts.
We don't need to be concerned with external sounds.
We simply need to notice what is happening right in the present,
Whether internal or external,
And sit in the deeper silence of the thought or the sound.
When we sit,
We can take some preparatory steps to help cultivate this frame of mind.
And we establish a harmonization of body,
Breath,
And mind.
Let's put this into practice.
So let's begin by first checking the posture.
Erect spine,
But not rigid or stiff.
Make sure that you're comfortable.
This is very important because if you're not comfortable,
The source of the discomfort will inadvertently become the object of meditation and this practice is objectless,
As I mentioned before.
Don't let discomfort or pain become an object of meditation.
So again,
Make sure that you're comfortable.
Once you find a comfortable posture,
Just have a sense of the whole body.
Just sitting right here,
Right now.
Now let's focus for a moment on the breath.
At your own pace,
After the next exhalation,
Begin to take a slow,
Deep breath in as if filling the tummy,
The ribcage,
And the chest.
Then let it out slowly and quietly through the mouth,
Gradually exhaling completely,
Squeezing out the last drop of air until you feel the tummy contract.
Then let the next inhalation come in by itself.
As if the breath is breathing you.
Let go of any control.
Sometimes you will notice a short breath.
And at other times a long breath.
And at other times,
Breathing will not be in your awareness at all.
This passive relation to the breath is important because this physical experience sets the tone for your relationship to the mind.
That is,
Just as you passively notice the rise and fade of all thoughts without judgment.
You are simply allowing the mind to silently breathe the thoughts and you were just noticing.
If you need to reset yourself,
Simply start over,
Check your posture,
And do a round or two of the breath practice.
Let's give it a try.
I'll ring the bell three times to start the meditation.
We'll sit silently for a while,
And then I'll ring the bell once to end the practice.
Thank you for your presence and for your practice.
I realize this was just a short practice to demonstrate the technique and for us to all have a chance to try it out.
So I encourage you to practice for longer periods of time on your own,
Or you're welcome to join us on Friday mornings,
7 a.
M.
At Eastern Daylight Savings Time for group shared practice right here on Inside Timer.
Take care and be well.
