From Chapter 22 ("Time Unfolds") of Subtle Sound: The Zen Teachings of Maurine Stuart:

Rain is falling; snowflakes are falling; the sun is shining. Everything is happening right now, at this moment. To talk about it is easy, but to really experience it—this is why we sit, sit, sit. We are told, "You have Buddha-nature from the very beginning, so what is there to do?" But unless we know this from the depths of our hearts, through our strong, disciplined zazen, we cannot express it in our lives. Each one of us must have our own experience. No one else's experience can be superimposed on ours. We are led astray by our egocentric thinking, our dwelling on "me." Of course, our ordinary consciousness has to be involved with what we need to do, what we should wear, where we are going, what food we should eat, where we should live, and so on. But here, during these days of just sitting, we drop all of that. Here, we have everything we need right at this moment. And when we go back to our everyday lives, perhaps we will see more clearly the things we can let go of there, too. Perhaps we don't need quite so much, quite so many things. Perhaps we can be less grabby. Having changed our attitude a little bit after sitting, sitting, sitting, we are able to see more clearly what our life is about.

There is no final realization. In this no-knowing, wondering-on, openhearted condition of mind, we face directly whatever comes—good, bad, ugly, beautiful. We don't push anything under the rug, we don't buffer it with something; we experience it fully. Just listening . . . when somebody strikes the gong, becoming one with that sound, not reflecting, "Oh, that's the sound of the gong," but just being that sound. No separation; nothing but gong, nothing but this very moment.

^z - 2017-08-03