Zen and the Art of Cultivating Presence

“Nature does not hurry, and yet everything is accomplished.”
— Lao Tzu

Zen Presence

Zen is the school of Japanese Buddhism focused on the direct, embodied experience of instantaneous enlightenment.

Traditionally, Zen focuses on non-verbal transmission of ideas — these particular Buddhists are particularly wary of how language can affect the quality of our experience, moment to moment.

So it may seem peculiar that we would begin our writing journey here… but we’re using this tradition as a kind of gate into the practice of paying attention to the quality of our presence. Writing can help.

Like any practice, being present to the moment is skill we can train. If we were an NFL quarterback, we would hire a high performance psychologist like Michael Gervais to help us be more present. If we were an ordinary person, we might use a free-writing practice.

Or we might go fishing, practice archery, or begin tending a garden. Zen gardens, for example, help us be present to our own experiences — awake to the quality of our own minds.

So, how do we become more present?

Remove Sources of Absence

Perhaps we’re actually, already present — that our natural state is presence — than the move towards presence is more subtractive than additive.

We should then ask, what keeps us from being present? First, over-evaluating things. I can barely type a sentence before judging and evaluating it, and that’s not ideal to really being present to the writing of the sentence.

Other obstacles to presence: over-thinking, thought-patterns, emotional patterns, the narratives we tell ourselves, our judgments about our experiences, worry, or doubt. And sleepiness.

On the contrary, presence is a state of aliveness.

When we are present, we are engaged with a rapt attention. When we are present, we experience a kind of rest, ease, and kindness.

When we are present, we are more effective in everything that we do.

Cultivation is a Practice and an Art

“Bad farmers grow weeds.
Good farmers grow crops.
Master farmers grow soil.”
-Buddhist Saying

Like master gardeners, we need to tend to the practice of presence a little bit each day. This means, in part, tending to the soil of our experiences.

A little bit of weeding, a little bit of watering, a sense that everything is coming along at its own time: there is a sense of allowance, of not rushing, of not forcing… we are just gently planting seeds.

Planting these seeds, day in and day out, is our practice.

The art is partly about identifying what gets in the way of our presence — which inputs we can remove. Think intelligently about our smart devices.

Speaking of tech, meditation apps like Headspace or other timers can create a space for a deliberate mindfulness practice.

Even one to three minutes of freewriting can do wonders. I go for twenty-five minutes each morning.

Invitation to Write

When do you feel most present and in your body? When do you feel least present and out of your body? What daily small changes might you make to give yourself room to be more present?

For Further Study

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Persig. Doesn’t
have much in the way of actual Zen philosophy, but wonderful for both the craft of non-fiction writing and for persistently asking the question: what is Quality? And how can we show up for it with presence? What does it mean to live a quality human life (and not go insane in the process)?

Zen and the Art of Archery by Eugene Herrigel. More on the actual practice and direct embodiment of Zen principles through archery. Archery becomes an overarching metaphor for focus, presence, and practice — how to become the bow and hit the target.

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. On Zen acceptance, attention, and awareness in the act of writing. The subtitle says, “Freeing the Writer Within,” and that’s true — but this book valuable for people who have no interest in freeing a writer within… her prose is gorgeous, economical, and generous… with great dollops wisdom from her Zen teacher.

Here’s to writing a better version of ourselves,
and co-writing a better world together,

Sean