Shinzen Young’s answer to everything
If you asked venerable meditation teacher and Vajrayana monk Shinzen Young how to meditate while you move, he would suggest you “Infuse your experience with awareness and equanimity.”10
At least, that was the answer he gave no matter what question he was asked at the numerous retreats Ed and I attended, as well as in talks on the more than one hundred cassette tapes to which we listened.
It didn’t matter if the person wanted to know how to work with joy, boredom, ecstasy, anger, glee, agony, titillation, jealousy, jubilation, pain (physical or emotional), happiness, grief, greed, resentment, sadness, splendor, or terror; Shinzen gave the same answer.
His instruction is the essence of mindfulness meditation. I’m not one for tattoos, but if I were, I’d have that inked on my arm.
“Infuse your experience with awareness and equanimity.”
—Shinzen Young11
10 Shinzen Young, “Dharma Talk,” (retreat lecture, Northridge, CA, January 18, 1994).
11 Shinzen Young, “Dharma Talk.”
This excerpt is from Make Every Move a Meditation by Nita Sweeney which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.
