Sit and forget. A practice of just sitting.

Sit and forget

Just sit and forget. An old practice from the buddhists and daoists. Forget your conventional life. Your believes, ideals, reasons for living or whatever you are about in the life that you as your named person leads. This sounds maybe overwhelming and it is maybe not so easy to do that instantly when you sit down. It needs a very careful, delicate approach to begin with. Getting into a calm state can be challenging enough. Often focussing on the breath or counting breathcycles helps to get into a calmer state.

And then as Lao Zi once seem to have said: A thought becomes a word, a word becomes a habit, a habit becomes character But this goes for all senses. Taste, smell, feel, seeing, hearing. If you imagine to forget about all those senses ….. there is a whole lot to forget ! Think of how much your daily life is based on or attached to these senses. Thousands of things ! So this practice might slowly and gradually bring you back to your true nature or to become one with the Dao. Dao is the process of reality itself, the way things come together, while still transforming. So when you sit and try to let go of all these thousands of things and start glimpsing on the flow of your inner nature. You might see that it is constantly changing. A formless state. It is a practice that you can do for the rest of your life. Perhaps you can say it is the core of your life. There is no end or beginning. The body, mind and Qi keep you busy ;-)

Practice

A practical example would be a 20 minutes session with the following guidelines.

• sit and relax the body. from your head down to your feet.
• observe the state of your mind and body
• Don’t stop, start, end or begin with anything. Just observe
• You are either attached to something or try to push away something or are neutrally calm. Don’t identify with any of these. Just observe.
• Keep a calm state by looking or observing inside. Where is calm and quiet ? Most of the time it is in the lower abdomen. Follow your breath there. If your mind is actively destracting you then count your breaths. Breath in, breath out. Count 1. Up to 10 and start over again.

Experiences and effects

What kept me interested was to find out what it actually meant for me to be silent. Sitting as quietly as possible. That was, and is, for me the great spiritual quest. How calm do I become…how much will I detach from the ego ? Just to name a few .. So every time I sit is a different experience. Becoming quiet and enter a state of silence is let’s say the mystical part. I use all sorts of tips and tricks that I’ve learned or picked up over the years to get into silence but every time I sit is different. The state of your being is continually changing. Changing from moment to moment. This is what is often called be in the present moment. To become calm and get some insight in your own being is the present moment. In your mind and body you become more aware how reactive you are to all sensations that are just there all the time. In every moment. But you are just trying to leave them alone for a while and become silent …. or to stay in the present moment. And that changes from sitting session to sitting session..

Direct effects of this practice is that you gain inssight of the mind. You start to see your mind from a distance, which opens up a lot of awareness. Your deepest secret fears or anger start to surface. You might want to get in touch with an experienced meditator to talk about these things at some stage. I personally joined different meditation centers. You also develop patience. Then more on the religious or spiritual path… More detachment of body and mind and go beyond your current existence or life and enter a state of nothingness or emptiness.

These are just expressions of my being at this moment. It is what I can put in words about sitting in forgetfulness on a cushion. There is so much more to talk, write or think about on this topic and in relation to other meditation sitting practices but that is something for later maybe. A very much related article to read is centerline Which is more from a Qigong point of view.