Zen practitioners intuitively understand that inner calm can easily come from sitting in stillness. A common practice for beginners to meditation is to simply sit quietly for 20 or so minutes to see what happens. During this time a person may experience many new and beneficial areas of awareness.
One new awareness they may encounter is that this is probably the first time they’ve ever sat still and focused on themselves for 20 minutes straight. How sad and strange is that? We have never even spent 20 minutes to focus on our own experience of life in a concentrated fashion, and yet we wonder why our emotions, relationships and futures are less than we hoped for or have gone out of control? When did we first choose to ignore ourselves? How can we create the life we want, when we don’t give enough attention and study to the one tool we have in our lives (ourselves)?
Most notice that as they try to sit in silence that their self-talk never stops. They find their mind chatters endlessly and that the bulk of their thoughts are negative. How do we even survive this never-ending onslaught hour after hour, day after day, and year after year? How did we never noticed it before? Why is it so harsh and negative? (Later in Zen practice, we learn how to gain better control this, reduce it, and direct it. More on that later.)
Others notice how much they struggle with simply sitting still. Why is it so hard to sit still for 20 minutes? Try it and you’ll find out! What does it say about us that we are this uncomfortable just being alone with ourselves (without any distractions) for 20 minutes?
Still other people notice a deep and abiding sense of serenity that they drift into and have rarely (or never) experienced before. With a little practice, everyone will soon easily experience this serenity and learn how to find his peaceful state more quickly.
