I learned to become less concerned with what my practice should or could be, and more simply dedicated to, as Suzuki would say, making my ‘best effort in each moment’.

if you walk through fog long enough, you’ll eventually be soaked. Slowly, you begin to inhabit the texture of your own life more completely. Eventually, you stop trying to be elsewhere. You begin to realise the Way was never hidden up a mountain. It’s right here, buried far beneath your own ideas about who you should be.

The Way is easy. Just avoid choosing.’ He then added, ‘but as soon as you use words, you’re saying, “This is choosing,” or “This is clarity.” This old monk can’t stay in clarity. Do you still hold on to anything or not?’ (My translation.)

his means forming the sitting posture as if it were happening for the very first time, feeling the actual rate and depth of the breath, bringing attention to where discomfort arises and, perhaps, moving gently and deliberately to relieve it.

This kind of attention isn’t always easy. Sometimes we’re able to be present and sometimes we’re not. Such... See more