Sitting is essentially a simplified space. Our daily life is in constant
movement: lots of things going on, lots of people talking, lots of
events taking place. In the middle of that, it's very difficult to sense
that we are in our life. When we simplify the situation, when we take
away the externals and remove ourselves from the ringing phone, the
television, the people who visit us, the dog who needs a walk, we get a
chance--which is absolutely the most valuable thing there is--to face
ourselves. Meditation is not about some state, but about the meditator.
It's not about some activity or about fixing something. It's about
ourselves. If we don't simplify the situation the chance of taking a
good look at ourselves is very small--because what we tend to look at
isn't ourselves but everything else. If something goes wrong, what do we
look at? We look at what's going wrong. We're looking out there all the
time, and not at ourselves.
--Charlotte Joko Beck, /Everyday Zen/
from /Everyday Mind,/ edited by Jean Smith, a /Tricycle/ book
