Recreation is rooted in to re-create: to bring back to life, to create anew. Consciously or unconsciously, many people are hoping for just such a fresh start from a vacation. More than simple relaxation and sightseeing, we may be longing for a deeper sense of renewal, a chance to somehow recreate our lives and ourselves. The problem, of course, is that whatever we do and wherever we go, even to the most exotic setting, we bring along the deeply ingrained mental and emotional habits of a lifetime. No matter how lightly we pack our bags, unless we also lighten up this mind baggage we will drag along a burden that can drain our energy, dull our senses, and cut us off from others and from ourselves.

A famous Zen story tells of a Japanese professor in the late 1800’s who went to visit master Nan-in. First, the old master served tea. He filled his guest’s cup to the brim-and then kept on pouring. The tea spilled over the sides of the cup, until the astonished professor could no longer hold his polite silence. “Stop!” he cried. “No more will go in!” Nan-in then quietly replied, “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

If our minds are clogged with concepts, with the debris of past experiences and worries about the future, how can we live freshly or fully, at work or at play? Isn’t this what we most need: a vacation from the tiresome routines of our own self-preoccupied minds? The question then naturally arises: How do we ‘empty our cups’? How do we jettison this invisible baggage: the compulsive judging, opinionating and fretting-and the deeper, more pervasive angst that haunts so many lives? As Heidegger put it, “Anxiety is there. It is only sleeping. Its breath quivers perpetually through man’s being.” How do we manage to get “time off” from this?

In their personal list of ‘refreshing’ activities, the average American would probably not include meditation. And yet many have experienced the enormous benefits of a daily meditation practice; and an increasing number are taking time each year to attend one or more longer retreats. Such people have discovered for themselves that the practice of turning inward, back to the source of their being, holds the key to the deepest sort of refreshment for the human heart and mind. For it is here, at the core, that we tap into the true wellspring of joy and aliveness within us.

There are, of course, many kinds of meditation, just as there are many reasons for taking up a meditation practice. All forms have value as long as we don’t slip into mere escapism, or use them to simply repress thoughts or feelings. (If a regular meditation practice causes someone to feel more cut off rather than more connected, something is definitely wrong.) Some types of meditation are designed to simply reduce stress levels; others–like those practiced by students of the martial arts–are taken up with the single goal of increasing concentration in order to improve performance. Many people have heard of ‘mindfulness’ meditation, and many have found this type of awareness practice a great aid to staying more present and centered in the midst of the ups and downs of life.

Some practitioners focus their minds on a particular quality such as ‘loving kindness,’ in an effort to develop this quality in themselves. Tibetan Buddhist meditation makes use of a wide range of practices, including the repetition of and visualizations of archetypal figures. While some traditions emphasize meditation more than others, no religion can claim a monopoly on it, since contemplative practices are common to all the major religions. And many meditators have no particular religious affiliation at all.

Zen meditation, or zazen, is not a process of adding something: no image or concept, however uplifting, is held in the mind. Strictly speaking, therefore, it is not “meditation” at all, but a direct, dynamic method of helping us to ‘empty our cup’ moment by moment. As one of the old masters remarked, “Even a precious thing is not as good as Nothing.” This ‘nothing’ however, is not nihilistic blankness, but the vibrant, potent matrix of all phenomena, ourselves included. Rooted in an unshakeable faith in the essential perfection and wholeness of all existence, zazen is far more than ‘stress reduction.’ This penetrating practice offers a clear and radically simple way to return to the Zero Point, a way walked by countless men and women over two and a half millennia, since the time of the Buddha. It is a practice that stirs our depths and opens us to a world-our own “ordinary” world-of startling freshness and wonder.

While Zen is to be practiced in the midst of all our daily activities, it is grounded in a sitting discipline that involves taking some time each day to stop all other activities and to just sit,-to just be. Given the frantic pace of our consumer culture, this is a revolutionary act! A period of sitting generally lasts from twenty to thirty minutes, once or twice a day: the more one sits, the more quickly one experiences the benefits. Most people find it far easier to maintain a disciplined practice by sitting regularly with others, so finding a meditation group can be a great help.

Someone new to Zen is advised to sit in an upright posture, eyes half-closed, and to attend with their entire being to either counting or experiencing the breath, neither engaging in nor fighting off the inevitable thoughts that arise. This breath practice stabilizes and strengthens the body-mind, helping us learn to dive beneath the tossing waves of the discursive intellect, into the silent, radiant depths of our being. Although eventually a more seasoned practitioner may take up a koan (a penetrating inquiry into the fundamental ground of being), assigned by a Zen teacher who works with this method, breath practice is a time-honored way to unify body and mind. A focused daily practice helps us to be more spontaneously present in the moment, and it brings up to consciousness deep, latent forces. As one master said, Zen practice is “the use of the unused.”

Sunya Kjolhede and Lawson Sachter can be found out at Windhorse Zen Center in Alexander NC. Visit their website www.windhorsezen.org, or contact them by phone: 828-645-8001 (or 645-8003).

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