During Zazen,
We take refuge in the sitting posture,
Fully attentive,
Fully absorbed in the embodied awareness of this present moment.
Body and mind come to peace,
With gradually increasing the depth of the exhalation.
The mind calms down,
And we can find comfort,
Peace.
It's important to go to the end of the out-breath,
Before taking in a new in-breath.
It's just like the seasons,
If we don't have an autumn and a good winter,
There cannot be spring and a summer.
Dogen says,
Until your mind and your body are fully in peace,
Comfortable,
We cannot truly be happy.
One day,
A monk asked Master Unwon,
What happens when the foliage of the trees falls,
And the branches become naked?
In other words,
What happens when our thoughts,
Our opinions,
Our ideas,
Emotions,
Our attachments,
Our mental complexities,
Our desires,
When they fall away?
Master Unwon responded,
Tai Ryo Kui Fu,
Which means,
The body manifests the precious wind.
This precious wind is like the wind in autumn,
Fresh,
Pure.
It blows through the trees,
And takes away all the leaves.
This fresh wind is cooling.
In Zazen,
We can see how all the things happening in our lives,
In the world,
Are often heated.
We get upset when the washing machine doesn't work,
When things don't go the way we wish for,
When people have different opinions than we have,
When we become judgmental,
When we regret things,
Or in contrary,
When we yearn for things that are out of our reach.
All of these mental processes put our mind on fire.
But a mind on fire cannot cool down a mind on fire.
This cooling down needs to come from a step backwards,
A step inwards.
Instead of looking at the outer horizon,
Exploring the inner landscape.
Often everything in the outside world seems to be more important,
More urgent.
We forget about the importance of this cool wind,
But in fact,
It's not that important what has already passed,
Or what may happen in the future.
The change happens here and now.
The transformation from overheating to a cool,
Calm,
And clear mind happens naturally when we take refuge in a peaceful,
Comfortable body.
Cooling down the mind with the breathing out.
It is Zazen,
Zazen itself,
That becomes then a manifestation of this precious wind.
Being well anchored in this embodied awareness of the present moment.
