Wind In The Warehouse

As we relax the thinking mind, our awareness can expand into a vast, spacious stillness. We can rest in it, breathing the mind clear of thoughts as the wind sweeps leaves from a huge empty warehouse, sweeping it clean. Dispersing thoughts gently with the outbreath, we relax ever deeper into the natural state of our original mind, expansive, at east, and content.

Jan Chozen Bays MD is a longtime Zen teacher, author, and pediatrician. She is an abbess and teacher at Great Vow Zen Monastery, Oregon.

Transcript

Ominous sounds Our human mind has two basic functions,

Thinking and awareness.

We were born into awareness before we had words in our mind.

Our experience was wide open awareness.

As soon as we had words in our mind and began thinking,

Then the thinking function took over.

Because our mind is trying to protect us and keep us safe,

Much of the thinking function is flavored with anxiety and fear,

Which are very expensive fuels for life.

In our Zen practice,

We reclaim what we call original mind,

The mind before thinking,

Before comparing,

Before judging,

Before the inner critic,

The mind of pure open awareness.

This is not easy at first.

The thinking mind might even believe it's dangerous.

We have to invent various ways to open up the mind of awareness,

Rest in it,

And discover that far from being dangerous,

It's a refuge.

A place of contentment and ease.

There are many creative ways to open up the awareness function of the mind.

And to let go of thinking.

Zen is a practice that I call wind in the warehouse,

Which you're welcome to ignore and hear my words just as sound phenomena or to experiment with.

You imagine as vividly as you can that your mind is like a huge empty warehouse.

At night,

Everything is still,

Quiet,

Vast,

Empty.

All the activity of the day completely settled.

And thoughts are like dry leaves that keep skittering into the warehouse and begin to pile up.

But each out-breath is like a gentle wind in the warehouse that blows them back out,

Scatters them like dry leaves,

And sweeps the warehouse clean.

So that we can rest in the peaceful,

Dark quiet of the warehouse,

Which is our mind.

Zen is a practice that I call wind in the warehouse.

Noticing when thoughts begin to edge their way in and dispelling them with the out-breath.

They are not necessary now.

They are not necessary now.

They are not necessary now.

They are not necessary now.

Relaxing in the natural state of the mind.

Vast,

Empty,

Peaceful,

At ease.

We make this our foundation.

Dispersing thoughts that creep in with the out-breath.

And taking refuge in the original mind,

The natural mind.

The mind of the ancestors.

Reviews

I bow deeply to your meditation

Loved it 🥰

Thank you, I was finding it hard to quiet my mind today and this approach was so helpful

Hi Jan! Lovely to find you on Insight Timer 😊

Thank you for this practice - this is a great image for Original Mind 🙏