Soto Zen Meditation in Daily Life
Meditation Can be Applied to One’s Whole Life, with Positive Results
Meditation is not just something that is done for a few minutes every day and then forgotten. The technique can be applied to everything else one does, so that the stillness which is the mind of meditation can continue throughout the whole day…or one’s whole life.
How to Meditate in Everyday Life
In the article Soto Zen Meditation, is a description of how to do formal Soto Zen Meditation. Basically, one just sits, and when the mind wanders, one brings it back to sitting still. The technique is the same for other activities. If the meditator is working, he or she just works. Perhaps he is sweeping the floor, or cleaning the car. He just sweeps, or just cleans. If he finds himself getting caught up in thinking how boring cleaning is, or what he’ll do next, or what he’s having for lunch, he simply allows those thoughts to go on by, and comes back to just cleaning. When eating, he just eats, when resting, he just rests.
What About More Complicated Activities?
Especially in the beginning, meditation is easiest to do for simple activities…like sweeping or cleaning. It is far harder when one is trying to type, answer the phone, and listen to the kids, all at the same time, for example. But it is still possible. The meditator simply does what she has to do, rather than adding an extra activity – like panicking, for instance. Or maybe she realises that actually all these activities could be done more effectively if she did them one at a time; multi-tasking is not always a good idea!
But meditation in this way takes practice. In the early days, it is best to try to use this kind of working meditation for simple activities, and accept that it will be more difficult when life gets complicated. But like many things, the more one does it, the easier it gets.
And Then What?
Soto Zen Meditation has always been considered very practical. The reason is that it can be done at any time, during any activity. So the results obtained from regular meditation practice are increased if the practice is kept up throughout the day in this way. The meditator finds that he is calmer, more content, and less inclined to get upset about things. He will probably find that he works more effectively, and that his relationships improve. But all this takes some time, and he should not expect instant results, or indeed expect anything at all!
Then suddenly, one day, he will realise just how much this simple practice has done for his life.
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