Intimate Merging is Zazen

When I was training with Lödö Garūng Rinpoché, we were discussing Zazen, and he told me very directly: Zazen is not "meditation." Thinking about it that way, he said, was a mistake causing many to get away from the intention of our practice.

Instead, he invited me to experience the practice through the Tibetan word "Gom..." pointing more toward familiarization... becoming intimate with... learning to remain with what is already here.

In this Way, sitting quietly... being with the breath... being with this moment as It is, rather than being preoccupied with what It is not... nothing particularly mystical has to happen.

What becomes noticeable is what is already here when the activity of separation quiets.

That simple shift revolutionized my practice.

Without trying to stop thought, suppress anything, or create some special state, the volume level of thinking naturally dropped from a seven or eight to maybe a three. The constant commentary... the magical Ginsu knife of naming... measuring... comparing... protecting... separating... became much less intrusive.

And what became noticeable when all that separating activity quieted?

The closest experience I can offer is Yū (融)... Interfusion... merging... dissolving... integration... unobstructed meeting... the "Is-ing" of Being.

Inside and outside...

self and other...

observer and observed...

what I want and what life is actually presenting...

They didn't disappear. They simply stopped being so intrusive... stopped distracting from the immediacy of being here as one undivided event.

Zazen doesn't manufacture awakening or some so-called "enlightenment." It's simply becoming quiet enough to notice the intimacy that IS already here.

一We Are the Practice Itself