Imagine we had never been in a body of water, had never even seen one or known anyone else who had, but we suddenly decided, for whatever reason, that we wanted to learn how to swim.
We could find a number of textbooks regarding the subject, we could read all about the different techniques, find first-hand accounts of pro swimmers, we could even visit a pool or the sea and watch people swimming.
Would we then, through all of this accumulated knowledge, be able to swim ourselves?
The same scenario could be applied to many things – becoming a surgeon, a pianist, an architect or chef – even to being a Zen Buddhist.
We may have read all there is to read about the subject but this is in no way comparable to actually doing. To be adept at something always requires experience and practice and, more often than not, this practice takes a long time to build up our experiences.
Sitting is no different. It is not until we actually start to sit and take the time to sit regularly that we begin to truly understand what it is all about, no matter how much we have read on the matter.
We must not be afraid to take the plunge. Before any words were written down, somebody entered that body of water and learnt how to swim, purely from experience. Words can give us guidance but it is the doing that really helps.
Zen musings 