Sitting is Really Something in Being Really Nothing

We emerge from the wombs of our mothers ready to grasp and to suck. Evolution has provided us with powerful urges to nourish ourselves, to reproduce our kind, and to attain a measure of security. Our society has taught us to advance ourselves through hard work and to measure our success in the acquisition of material goods. We are as relentless in play as in labor, seeking education or entertainment whenever we are not working. At the beginning of the 21^st century our lives and those of our children are more complex and stressful than ever. There seems to be no respite from activity. And in the compulsiveness of our business we have brought the planet to the brink of destruction.

And yet…

Twice a week I serve as Do-an (bell-ringer) for the midday zazen period at the Santa Cruz Zen Center. Twice a week, at some point during the period, I am struck by the radical nature of what I and my fellow trainees are doing for those eighty minutes—or, rather, what we are not doing. We are not doing anything. We are not seeking anything. We are not holding on to anything. We are not comparing ourselves to anyone. We are not wishing we were somewhere else. We are not planning or scheming. We are not projecting our thoughts into an imagined past or a non-existent future. We are simply enjoying the upwelling and passing away of phenomena in whatever forms they may take. We are allowing the ten thousand things to celebrate themselves through us.

Is that not amazing?