Make a place to sit down—
Then Sit down, and be Quiet.²
Most of our problems disappear if we Sit
Silent, still, and alone for one hour per day.³
We learn by being just
The rich lens of Attention.⁴
The point is to move not away from or to—
But constantly in the place where mind Centers.⁵
In meditation—I am becomes It Is.⁶
To meditate is to bring the body & mind
Back into this Present Moment so that
We don’t miss our appointment with Life—⁷
Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is
Always in the immediate Moment—in digging the
Present—in grooving with the Eternal Now.⁸
We don’t sit in meditation
To become good meditators:
We sit in meditation to be more Awake.⁹
One minute of Sitting—
One inch of Buddha.¹⁰
¹ Hermann Hesse tr. Richard & Clara Winston, Magister Ludi
² Wendell Berry, How to Be a Poet
³ Philip Whalen, All About Art & Life
⁴ Mary Oliver, Entering the Kingdom
⁵ George Evans, Eye Blade
⁶ Ursula K. Le Guin, Mountain Ways
⁷ Thich Nhat Hanh tr. Sherab Chödzin Kohn, True Love
⁸ Alan Watts, The Essence of Alan Watts
⁹ Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart
¹⁰ Manzan tr. Stark & Ikemoto, One Minute of Sitting