A brief introduction to sitting practice by Thich Nhat Hanh.
I like about this his emphasis on the primacy of the joy of sitting; it helps to calibrate one’s expectations going into them act. He also talks about the challenge that so many of us face when it comes to sitting practice, which is the urge to do, not just to be.
If we are only in the habit of appreciating our actions and what we’ve done, then our happiness is much less fundamentally stable than if we cultivate an appreciation for our being. There are many less conditions around appreciating being than there are in appreciating actions. Once you start considering actions – you know, what kind of action, was it good, was it bad – many more evaluative judgements come after when considering actions. Appreciating being in the present moment, in the here and now, is much more unconditional than hanging our happiness, fundamentally, on the quality of our actions.
In this sense, actions are relative and being is absolute. There is a sense of picking and choosing when it comes to actions that is unnecessary when it comes to being. Learning to appreciate being in this way is a much more hosting and inclusive approach. Cultivating an appreciation for only certain forms of action is conducive to a much more fragmented sense of self, where there are parts of us we appreciate, but also parts of us that we detest.