Renoir, Seated Bather
Cat sits in the sun.
Dog sits in the grass.
Turtle sits on the rock.
Frog sits on the lily pad.
Why aren’t people so smart?Those who follow Tao are fond of pointing out the wisdom of animals. When they see a cat sitting motionless in the sun or a turtle who stretches her head upward in a still pose, they say that these animals are meditating. They know how to be still and conserve their internal energy. They do not dissipate themselves in useless activity but instead withdraw into themselves to recharge.
It is only people who label meditation as some sort of odd religious activity. This is not the actual case. Something like meditation happens when we sleep, or when we are absorbed in reading a book, or when we “daydream” and become so lost in a thought or an image that we do not notice what is going on around us.
There is no reason to think of meditation as something out of the ordinary. Quite the opposite. Meditation is the purest and most natural expression we can have. When you next look at a cat or a dog sitting still, and admire the naturalness of their actions, think then of your own life. Don’t meditate because it is a part of your schedule or is demanded by your particular philosophy. Meditate because this is natural.
There’s a great story in Wu’s Golden Age of Zen of how Huai-jang, who had been a disciple of Hui-neng, paid a visit to the young Ma-tsu:
“Before he [Ma-tsu] was twenty, he was already a professed monk. After his profession, he went to the Nan-yueh Mountain, where he practiced by himself sitting-in-meditation. At that time Huai-jang was the Abbot of the Prajna Temple on Nan-yueh Mountain. Seeing Ma-tsu, he recognized him by intuition as a vessel of the Dharma. So he visited him in his cell, asking, ‘In practicing sitting-in-meditation, what does Your Reverence aspire to attain?’ ‘To attain Buddhahood!’ was the answer. Huai-jang then took up a piece of brick and began to grind it against a rock in front of Ma-tsu’s cell. After some moments Ma-tsu became curious and asked, ‘What are you grinding it for?’ ‘I want to grind it into a mirror,’ Huai-jang replied. Greatly amused, Ma-tsu said, ‘How can you hope to grind a piece of brick into a mirror?’ Huai-jang fired back, ‘Since a piece of brick cannot be ground into a mirror, how then can you sit yourself into a Buddha?’
“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion” — Henry David Thoreau
Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you” — Nathaniel Hawthorne
“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.” — Bill Watterson
“We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking. We move along the surface of things… but there are times when we stop. We sit sill. We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or its memory. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.” — James Carroll
“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dream. Wandering by lone sea breakers, and sitting by desolate streams. World losers and world forsakers, for whom the pale moon gleams. Yet we are movers and the shakers of the world forever it seems.” — Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy
“All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”
— Blaise Pascal
“We dance around the ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows”
— Robert Frost
“Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.”
— T.S. Eliot
“Sit in reverie, and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I sit a lot, of course — in front of my computer. I am rarely able to just sit and do nothing at all. I think it is part of being an American – we are always supposed to be busy people, always doing something. People will usually ask, after who you are, “And what do you do?” We are not allowed to simply be in our society. We must be productive, useful people or we are made to feel we are nothing at all.
I think this is a major sickness in our society. Even when people have nothing to do, they have to be entertained – watching television or listening to their ipods on the train or bus, instead of just being content to observe the world around them. I am always struck when I walk into someone’s house and the only thing of any interest in a room is the gigantic television screen – like something right out of 1984.
My animals are quite smart about sitting. The cats love to sit in the window and soak up sunshine, or in my lap to soak up my warmth. The dogs usually prefer lying down to sitting, but they do their own meditation while lying around my feet. My own meditations are typically sitting in the garden, staring at the flowers or hummingbirds or just enjoying the warmth of the sun, when it is out, which it certainly isn’t today.
Today I think I shall do my sitting at Panera, enjoying some soup for lunch. I’ll probably take a book along so I don’t look like I’m just staring at people, but the real fun is watching other people.
I have to admit, meditation is difficult for me. And I don’t think it should be. It should be easy and natural, but it isn’t. So, I enjoy the Tao in my own way. Because, really, sitting isn’t the point. The point is to feel your inner self connected with the Tao. If sitting and meditating is what helps you feel connected, then great. If it isn’t, then find what does help. And then try the meditation again, and see how different it feels.
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