Ep. 292: Sitting on 7-7-26
Jul 8, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min · 10 segments
- Speakers
- BernieHost
- Top entities
- Thought×5Zazen×3Buddhism×12The Buddha×2Dōgen×4
Jul 8, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min · 10 segments
So, in a text called the Fukkan Zazengi, written by the person who brought Zen Buddhism from China to Japan in the 13th century, Dogen, the author of this text, said that the most important essential art of Zazen or meditation was non-thinking.
and i think it immediately raises a question like what non-thinking is it's not thinking but it's also not not thinking okay um so thinking would be just identify with your thoughts which is what we usually do throughout the day we think and we are identified with what we think We are actively thinking.
We're thinking about ourselves.
We're thinking about the things we are doing in the world.
We're planning.
We're worrying.
We're remembering.
So we're very familiar with thinking.
So we may not have ever looked at it clearly.
Precisely because we're so identified with it, we may not actually understand what thinking really is, but we do it all the time.
And so I think we just step back a little bit.
We can understand that.
A lot of people think that when we meditate, the point is to not think, but that's a mistake.
A lot of people talk about Buddhism, meditation, mindfulness as a way of just like stilling the mind or calming the mind.
Some people even think like making the mind stop, you know, making thoughts stop, whatever.
That's also a mistake.
mistake.
The point of meditation is not to stop thinking.
That cannot be emphasized enough.
And just really let that sink in.
If you think that meditation practice is about stopping your thoughts or even quieting them or slowing them down, you know, you are making a mistake.
So, in a text called the Fukkan Zazengi, written by the person who brought Zen Buddhism from China to Japan in the 13th century, Dogen, the author of this text, said that the most important essential art of Zazen or meditation was non-thinking.
and i think it immediately raises a question like what non-thinking is it's not thinking but it's also not not thinking okay um so thinking would be just identify with your thoughts which is what we usually do throughout the day we think and we are identified with what we think We are actively thinking.
We're thinking about ourselves.
We're thinking about the things we are doing in the world.
We're planning.
We're worrying.
We're remembering.
So we're very familiar with thinking.
So we may not have ever looked at it clearly.
Precisely because we're so identified with it, we may not actually understand what thinking really is, but we do it all the time.
And so I think we just step back a little bit.
We can understand that.
A lot of people think that when we meditate, the point is to not think, but that's a mistake.
A lot of people talk about Buddhism, meditation, mindfulness as a way of just like stilling the mind or calming the mind.
Some people even think like making the mind stop, you know, making thoughts stop, whatever.
That's also a mistake.
mistake.
The point of meditation is not to stop thinking.
That cannot be emphasized enough.
And just really let that sink in.
If you think that meditation practice is about stopping your thoughts or even quieting them or slowing them down, you know, you are making a mistake.
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