Just Sit

 Just sit . Notice where you feel hard and sit with that....

Author unknown

In my renewed committment to meditate more purposefully I created the above video. At the same time, I was reminded of the above words from a gatha or prayer or guided meditation...  not sure what you actually would call this...that I often recite. I am also not sure who actually wrote these words but over the years I have heard a lot of people use them, and too many have claimed them as their own. 

Regardless...this is a perfect recitation to listen to or recite as one is practicing the zen art of "just sitting", as I am once again inspired to do, thanks to an introduction to the way app.com.  I am no Zen master like Henry Shukman is...far, far from it but as a certified meditation and mindfulness teacher, and as someone who has attempted to meditate for many years, I am inspired to do a series of guided practices on "just sitting". Of course, lacking the Zen lineage holding, I encourage you to listen to someone who does hold it. Check out The Way App.com

The first line of that Gatha, or whatever it is, is "Just sit. Notice the hardness and sit with that..."

I would like to focus on that one line. The practice of just sitting is all about being still and noticing what is in your present experience at the moment...noticing and allowing...all of it, including our own internal or external resistance to sitting and resting in the moment. The hardness, of course, is our resistance manifesting as tight and tense muscles, a nervous system ready to fire us into fight or flight at anytime, the hard walls of our selecting and prefering minds that decide what can come into our experience and what cannot, and the holding back from reality. What are we resisting? We are resisting external and internal triggers that remind us of the stuff we stuck and stored deep inside us, that Life is constantly offering us. This very human protective response is like a hardness...a closing off...a creation of a hard steel wall between us and reality, between what is outside and what is inside, between us and that which we are...love and peace. Hmm!

So, that is my next meditation attempt.  Focusing on that one line.

All is well.