Memories And Feelings

The Day Of Their Return, 4.

Ivar Frederiksen:

"...threshed about in his sleeping bag, desert-thirsty with memories of Tatiana Thane and - still more, he discovered in shame - certain others." (p. 101)

Zen practice:

remember Tatiana;

notice the memory;

let it pass;

remember others;

notice the memories;

let them pass;

feel shame;

notice the feeling;

let it pass.

 

Holding onto and reifying transient memories and feelings makes them problems. One of our monks said, "Thoughts don't matter! They're only brain excrescences! It is our attitude to them that counts."