Fran Miller, Ph.D. ©
Just when we are distracted and stressed, just when we are the most worried and fearful, this is a good time to focus on the ultimate goal of Zen practice and meditation practice – to be appreciative of each moment in its essence, each moment right now, each moment which may be tiresome, or stressful, or painful – or it may have significance and beauty and meaning.
A story comes to mind that David Chadwick tells in Crooked Cucumber. This is a book that I often recommend – the biography of Shunryu Suzuki, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center.
Kato, who is mentioned in the quote, was Suzuki’s Japanese assistant. David Chadwick wrote:
Kato liked to hear Suzuki’s English language version of classic Zen stories — some about the great old masters of China, others about the life of Dogen. (Dogen Zenji was a renowned Zen Master who travelled from Japan to China in the early 13th century to study Zen from Chinese Masters.) One evening during Wednesday lecture at Tasahara, (part of the San Francisco Zen Center) Suzuki told this story about Dogen. One day Dogen met an old monk who was drying mushrooms by a monastery wall, on a hot summer day. “Why are you out here in the heat? Why not go in and rest until the sun is lower in the sky?” Dogen asked. “This is what I am doing now,” answered the monk. “It is my job and no one else’s job. Why would I try to be somewhere else?”
Then Suzuki told the monks and students: “The time is now. What we are doing is now. There is no other time. This is reality. I am here now. You are here now. That incident with the old monk taught Dogen what a Buddhist life is – what reality is. It is not for another time or another place or another person.”
What is happening in our lives is happening to us in the present moment. We have circumstances at home, circumstances with our extended families, circumstances at work, we have health issues, emotional issues. We have environmental issues and political issues. Our attention goes from one concern to another. Sometimes we may long to escape all of them. The Buddhist challenge is to pay attention and to stay focused on the present moment.
Now I am getting ready for work, now I am trying to solve a problem at work, now I am dealing with a family member, now I am making dinner, now I feel exhausted and discouraged. Now I’m getting a root canal, or now I’m getting ready for surgery. Or now I’m attending a funeral. Or I am focused on this conversation. Only this. Or on my walk I feel my foot touch the ground. I hear birdsong. The sky is deep blue.
We have only this moment right now. We can fantasize about the future or have dreams or hopes for how things will go. We can have regrets about the past, or nostalgic thoughts or cherished memories. But you are in the present moment, not the future or the past.
Staying mindful in the present moment means to not be in the future or the past. The present moment is what it is. It may be a rare joyous occasion that will be remembered throughout your life. It may be tragic and painful. But we are involved in whatever it is that is happening now. To be mindful even in times of stress and pain and also in times of joy and pleasure, is shown to reduce stress and anxiety and even depression. To practice mindfulness is to stay in awareness in the present moment.
One of the primary tendencies that keeps us from the present moment is discrimination. Being in the present moment means not to evaluate or discriminate. We discriminate all the time. One thing is better or worse than something else. The habit of discrimination is what keeps us from peace. And it keeps us from realization.
When Zen students are studying koans, learning not to discriminate is what allows for realization – being fully in the present moment 100 percent. If we meditate with such focus and intensity, not in the future or the past, without preferences, or evaluation, or discrimination – then- Bam! – we can enter into samadhi, wonder, joy, and realization.
Throughout the book, Crooked Cucumber, David Chadwick reports that Suzuki challenged his students not to seek, believe, or hold onto, one side or another of a point of view. Hamburger or cheese sandwich? Suzuki gave the hamburger to the vegetarian. Rules at Tassahara or no rules? Some rules, Suzuki decided. Don’t want sugar in your lemonade? Suzuki put a lot of sugar in his. Realization experience or no experience? He said “Forget about it.”
As soon as you discriminate, you are not dealing in reality. In reality there are beautiful days and days with problems, there are healthy times and times of illness or surgery; there are terrible times and very very special and happy times. Life consists of every dimension, every extreme. To be enlightened, in part, is to be able to be accepting and accommodating to all things. When Suzuki had finished his training and he was bogged down with mundane priestly duties, he wasn’t happy, but he was accepting and tried to do his best most of the time. When his wife was murdered, he took responsibility for everyone’s sorrow and did his best to help everyone get through the immediate trauma. When he first came to San Francisco, he had high hopes but it was a long time of work and effort before the fruits of his labors became clear. When he learned he had cancer, he kept it a secret as long as possible, to save everyone grief and worry.
Realization is a profound emotional experience of the present moment that is accompanied by insight into Buddhist teaching. Siddharta Gautama meditated under the Boddhi tree for many hours. Finally he had a profound realization or enlightenment experience that was accompanied by insight. It was through his concentrated focus, his mindful presence, that he broke through the barriers of what he termed delusion and preoccupation. At the time of his realization he stated: “Wonderful! Wonderful! All beings are the Tathagata. Only their delusions and preoccupations keep them from realizing that fact.”!! Just think, in 500 BC Siddharta Gautama had the same experience of delusions and preoccupations that we have today. We can understand and relate personally to his exclamation. It is our delusions and preoccupations that keep us from realization – and from experiencing the present moment just as it is.
These four quotes express perfectly the urgency and significance of mindfulness:
In the book, Zen and the Martial Arts, TaisenDeshimaru, wrote:
For the practice of Zen and the martial arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly —without reserve —as if you might die in the next instant.
In Crooked Cucumber, David Chadwick quotes Shunryu Suzuki:
Our practice is to focus our attention, with feeling, on the present moment.
In the book, The Morning Star, Robert Aitken wrote:
Learn to focus, and to cultivate, an experience of atunement.
One day Dogen met an old monk who was drying mushrooms by a monastery wall, on a hot summer day. “Why are you out here in the heat? Why not go in and rest until the sun is lower in the sky?, Dogen asked. “This is what I am doing now,” answered the monk. “It is my job and no one else’s job. Why would I try to be somewhere else?”
Then Suzuki told the monks and students,
“The time is now. What we are doing is now. There is no other time. This is reality. I am here now. You are here now. That incident with the old monk taught Dogen what a Buddhist life is – what reality is. It is not for another time or another place or another person.”
October, 2025