Meditation and illusion

I’ve previously posted this illustration about meditation drawn by Zen master Kōshō Uchiyama. Whatever type of meditation you practice or are thinking about practicing, Zen or otherwise, this says it all.

Actually, zazen is not just being somehow glued to line ZZ’. Doing zazen is a continuation of this kind of returning up from sleepiness and down from chasing after thoughts. That is, the posture of waking up and returning to ZZ’ at any time is itself zazen. This is one of the most vital points regarding zazen. When we are doing zazen line ZZ‘, or just doing zazen, represents our reality, so it is essential to maintain that line. Actually, ZZ’ represents the reality of the posture of zazen, but the reality of our life is not just ZZ’. If it were only ZZ’, we would be as unchanging and lifeless as a rock! Although we aim at the line ZZ’, we can never actually adhere to it, because it (ZZ’) does not exist by itself. Nevertheless, we keep aiming at ZZ‘, because it is through clinging to thoughts that we keep veering away from it. The very power to wake up to ZZ’ and return to it is the reality of the life of zazen.

Kōshō Uchiyama, Opening the Hand of Thought

Meditation looks like this sometimes, and that’s fine. My humble annotation to Kōshō Uchiyama is that when you return from a or b or c, like thinking about some person or breakfast or “I’ve got to write this down now!”, you may realize that what you are thinking about is an illusion. Not that the floor and the cushion and all the situations that await you after meditation are illusions, but if they are illusions, maybe you can return from them just as you returned from a or b or c.