Let me just add to this topic of "
not adding a thing" ...
In its wider meaning,
--all-- activity (or inactivity) in life is Zazen ... and this is sitting, reclining, walking, running, mountain hiking, doing homework or housework, changing diapers, scratching one's nose or buying new tires.
Nonetheless, we also must spend time "
on the Zafu" each day.
Although all is "Zazen", only Zazen is Zazen.
In fact, we sit
because we may resist sitting, because it is pointless, there is nothing to achieve, it is frequently boring. We sit whether we feel "sublime peace and wholeness" or "outer tumult and inner division".
Why?
Well, all of this "
self-world-life" is inherently, says the Buddha, experienced as
disappointing, resisted with friction, thought of as divided and tumultuous, restless, boring (or overly stimulated), unpleasant, painful, going round in circles.
Thus we sit (without getting "attaining" about it) because "
on the cushion" is the "flight simulator" for this whole (often bumpy) voyage to
no where to get, no place not now, always arriving as we move on.
It is practice in flipping that switch that was flipped in the park by the mind. It is the "cooking school" for learning to put the
egg back in the once shattered shell, realizing that taste that was right on the tip of the tongue, yet there all along. 8) ... So the "sitting" part of sitting should not be neglected.
The most
self-world-life shattering, as well as the
simplest, of fruits of this Practice will all be found in that kitchen! The great voyage is revealed, this
self-world-life encountered, seen right through then reconstructed with a Buddha's eyes.
We've had several good threads ... some recent ... on sitting when one does not feel like sitting ...
viewtopic.php?p=24562#p24562
viewtopic.php?p=33050#p33050
viewtopic.php?p=30908#p30908
viewtopic.php?p=28885#p28885
And the Zafu is calling ...
Gassho, J