Keep Sitting
Through it all, even when you think you can’t bear it, spending some time each day
in zazen can become a valuable anchor for your soul and a sanctuary for your mind.
Sitting puts those tidal waves on freeze frame, or at least helps you to see them from
above for a while, rather than from underneath. Even if you sit for only two minutes,
you can stop the action and regroup, find your center, breathe, and remember where
you are—right here, right now.
No matter what the weather of your life is like at this moment, sitting and focusing
on the now can bring clarity to your being, and even gladness. You’ll remember who
you are, and then you’ll remember how life is: ultimately interesting, ever-changing,
full of waves and sea creatures, storms and calm, other ships, some armed with har-
poons and others with white flags, each ship only what it is, rocking and shifting just
like you are by the movement of the sea or the stillness of the doldrums, full of the
beauty of diversity and the beauty of unity, and the lovely, intricate shifting and
blending of the two.