Zen Coaching

What is your sense of yourself in this moment? True self-knowledge is not a concept, or a memory. It is a direct experience - a felt sense in the present moment. A knowing which needs no words. It is beyond words. Who am I? We want to know it directly and intimately.

How do you sense yourself now?

The word Zen is from Japan, derived from 'Chan' in China, which has its roots from 'Dhyana' in Sanskrit. It means meditation, presence, deep concentration and absorption, insight, cultivating the mind - and much more.

Dhyana carries the sense of cultivation, like tending a garden.

Just like a garden, our minds need tending. A garden cannot be controlled into blooming. It can only be tended. The gardener waters, removes weeds, notices the seasons, creates space for sunlight — but growth itself remains its own force. It happens by itself.

In the same way, mindfulness is not about changing the mind. It's to notice the inner weather, nourish that which needs nourishment, and restrict nourishment to that which is not serving the whole. Creating space for silence and enjoyment.

And through this attentive presence, something begins to reorganise naturally.

Some patterns weaken because they are no longer fed unconsciously.

Some qualities grow because they are finally given space and light.

Patience grows. Clarity emerges. Compassion deepens.

Regardless of the state of the garden, each day we return.
We kneel in the soil again, and meet that which meets us.

Mindfulness is the gardener; the mind is the garden.

To be mindful is to be aware of all of life, and to nourish the positive seeds — the seeds of beauty, love, peace, joy - rather than the seeds of hatred, anger, and conflict.

It is simply to act in accordance with our heart. And how do we know our heart?

By sensing and resting in our own felt sense of being - over time cultivating this Essential Presence through continuous practice.

We can take many 30-second holidays from thinking throughout the day, and we can set aside time for longer contemplation and meditation.

Or we can just step aside and let the garden grow freely. Either way, Life finds a way.