Our minds are in a permanent state of action, always racing around erratically, constantly begging you to stimulate it, to think something, to do something, despite all our attempts to truly center ourselves, to meditate and to be content with zero activity.

Zazen, a form of seated meditation is at the very heart of Zen practice. To be enlightened by the ten thousand things is to recognize the unity of the self and all things. The Buddha sat in meditation to realize his enlightenment, for 2,500 years this meditation tradition has continued, passed down to us from generation to generation. The essential aspects of zazen are fairly easy to communicate.

The minute we try to understand the idea of the “sound of one hand clapping” we limit our thinking, box ourselves in and miss the entire objective of this teaching experience.

Zen means doing anything in perfect harmony, even making perfect mistakes, being defeated perfectly and succeeding perfectly. It means that one is mindful of their full action, you detach from the emotion of the moment and become aware or mindful of your actions. Zen is also about letting go, but letting go in perfection, if you know you are going to fail then fail perfectly.