Summary: Gil Fronsdal: Meditation is like when you sit yourself down on a boulder in the middle of a river, and you just let the river flow by. One of the values of this instruction is not to get involved with anything, not to pick it up, not to resist, not to think about it – just letting the river flow. It’s just phenomena flowing through, and we are still, allowing everything to flow. But we get pulled into that world rather than just staying in our place and watching everything washing through. Suzuki Roshi was asked, “Where do you keep you mind in meditation?” and he said to keep the mind in the mudra, in the hands in this oval shape. And that becomes a place of stillness and stability. Having a reference place in the body, or in the gentle movements of breathing, can be a place to keep the mind. And so meditation can become very simple – the simpler the better. Just let everything flow through; don’t get involved. Thoughts, feelings, sounds, sensations, just coming through, as you sit on your boulder in the middle of the river.
