Expert: Joe McSorley - 4/25/2007

Question
Hi Joe,

I've been practicing for about 10 months now: nightly sits at home and once a week at a Zen center.

We are taught various ways to clear the mind and control incoming thoughts. Understood. But what does it mean to meditate on a subject? It would seem that one can't follow the breath, strive to clear the mind AND meditate on something at the same time. Is meditating on a subject a different procedure?

Thanks for your time,

Loren  

Answer
Hi Loren,
  I don’t know what in particular you are being taught in the Zen center so I’ll do my best at this.  Whenever we learn anything we have great difficulty in the beginning to pay attention to all the things we need to do to get it right.  Whether it’s driving a car, playing a sport or knitting there is the initial stage of being very self-aware of what we are doing.  In the beginning of exercise we are often told to ‘keep breathing’ even though it is the most basic of biological functions.   After we continue in a discipline we lose sight of the breathing or posture or whatever; it becomes unconscious and natural.  It is the same with meditation, we lose the awareness of breathing and sitting, and we become those things, no longer practicing them.  When you first learn to drive a car or play an instrument it is overwhelming trying to do all the things you need to at once.  After a while you don’t even think about them.  I am sure you have experienced this in other areas of your life so perhaps you can relate it to meditation. Constant practice is important to reach this stage.
   I don’t know exactly what they are telling you when it comes to meditating on a subject.  It may mean that they want you to keep ever present on the thought of a subject so that your mind does not wander or you do not self reflect.  It is important to understand the object of zen meditation.  Zen meditation is not an attempt to detach or to rise above but an attempt to stay in the moment. Koan practice, mindfulness and zazen are all attempts to stop the mind from its self-reflective state and keep it still, in the moment. This is very difficult and takes quite a bit of practice.  The idea of a koan is something that cannot be settled logically or thought out but you must grasp it.  This blocks the mind from reflecting on it.  Mindfulness is the same thing, keeping yourself ever in the moment.  All of these methods are an attempt to stop the self-reflection and set up the conditions for a break through into awakening.
 If you practice enough you will lose yourself to the practice. The ox herding pictures are a wonderful depiction of this process.
 I hope this helps you.
             Take care,
                        Joe