By Kate Savage
The majority of my meditation practice has been in the insight tradition. I have a beloved mentor now, (Ava Louise Stanton) who is a Soto Zen lay entrusted teacher, and so I've joined her sangha for a three-month practice period. The Soto Zen lineage is unfamiliar to me and the different form has been uncomfortable at times. This has forced the issue of the "don't-know mind," not just as a concept, but as a lived experience. I'm aware that Zen form is just a form, and it exists independent of me and my reactions to it, and so there is much to learn. It has also allowed me the opportunity to examine some of my fixed views around meditation practice, how compassion is expressed in different traditions, and what refuge feels like to different folks. I've had moments of intense aversion, and also I've also had some interesting revelations around my biases about formal and informal practice.
During this practice period, we practitioners have been encouraged to choose a mundane life task to practice as a daily ritual. As I already make fresh celery juice to drink every day, I chose the multi-step process of washing and cutting celery, juicing the celery, and then cleaning the juicer.
In our small sangha, we've discussed pace and persistence - slowing down and staying with the chosen daily task in order to learn about ritual, habit, the speedy mind and missed opportunities. I was grateful to connect with the confidence my long-time meditation practice has given me to hang with whatever arises. I've started bowing to the celery and to the juicer each day, sometimes with a little smile or chuckle. It brings gravitas and joy to the task.
I've been pondering: what is the balance between contrivance and what comes naturally? Although bowing and chanting may feel like a contrivance to me right now, I imagine after time it becomes natural. Is it possible to move from awkward contrivance to natural state without the ritual then becoming a mindless habit? This is where Right Intention and Right Action come into play with Right Mindfulness.
I slowly started seeing how my celery practice spilled over into other areas of daily life. How obvious! How beautifully simple! It's not a new concept, continuity of practice, and I've experienced it often on retreat, but I've noticed more fully how this intentional, body-based practice is making a more seamless bridge to daily life. For instance, I seem to take more pauses throughout my day to connect with my breath. Without consciously trying, I realize that I've "formalized" the practice of lying in bed after first waking in the morning with my hands resting on my body for several minutes before I arise. Or driving, I'll suddenly notice my hands gripping the steering wheel and then allow them to soften. All of this IS practice.
I'm aware that I have still have a bias for formal sitting practice as "real" practice, and while it's still my main and most valuable practice (I definitely drop into deeper states of relaxed concentration), it's certainly not the only way.