“Those who see the worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma see no Dharma in everyday actions. They have not yet discovered that there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma.”
—Dogen

hat I love about Zen meditation is that it’s not about the meditation. What I mean by this is, meditation – seated formal meditation – is not dependent upon having a particular experience while meditating. Your body can be in pain, you could be fidgety, distracted, bored, full of energy, annoyed by the jackhammer across the street, or trying to stay awake. All experiences are welcome.

What I’ve seen is an assumption that we are to be calm, peaceful, and without thoughts during meditation. This is the ideal and everything else is “wrong” or a “mistake.” This harmful assumption is what is discouraging people from a meditation practice. It’s causing them to avoid it, quit, or become disappointed by their results. It’s even preventing them from starting in the first place.

Meditation is not like going to a spa, a movie or Disneyland. The point isn’t to have a special experience during those few minutes. In my experience, meditation is a training ground to practice learning to direct your attention. The voices will come in to distract you and you bring your attention back to the breath. Sometimes you’ll catch onto those voices quickly and come back right away, and other times you’ll be lost for most of the meditation. The bell will ring and you’ll go, “Where the heck was I?” That’s fine. The moment you catch on – you bring your attention back. If you’re like everyone else in the world, you’ve have had a lot of years and experience staying lost and distracted by the voices. It’s unreasonable to assume that a decision to sit for 5 minutes every day this week is going to instantly enlighten you.

That’s why it’s called a practice.

You’re training your attention while seated formally so that when you get up, brush off your Zafu, bow, and walk back out into the world, you are continuing to practice mindfulness.

This is what I call “Everyday Zen.” It’s when there is no separation between what happens while you’re sitting facing a blank wall, counting your breath and when you’re out in life interacting with the world. You’re practicing being present, attentive, deliberate, mindful, and conscious all the time.

In this way, the world gets folded into practice instead of making time for practice to fit into your world. A very different relationship.