BE A ZEN BUDDHIST

ALL religious or spiritual practices start with the cry of help. I was at a crossroads in life. Before I started Zen meditation, I wasn’t aware that attention is the most valuable resource because it doesn’t depend on any idea or belief, it’s completely free of that.

I worked a lot as a teacher and one day, I thought, “Why am I working so hard?” It didn’t seem to fulfil me. It’s not often until people hit a crisis that they start to question things.

I decided to go trekking in Nepal and India and it was there that I found a copy of a book on Zen meditation. I liked the approach they took so I decided to pursue Zen more fully and become less interested in being ambitious.

I travelled a lot to fully explore this form of meditation, I went to a Zen centre in Rochester in the United States to practise. It was daunting because I was sitting for long periods in a new and unusual environment.

Then I travelled to Sweden where my teachers were based and once I completed my own training I was sanctioned to teach myself.

I’ve practised meditation for 20 years but I still feel all of the emotions – happy, sad, irritated and anxious. Zen doesn’t stop those but it changes how I relate to situations.

It taught me to not look for the answer but instead develop the ability to find a resolution by giving myself space and attention. To have good attention means to be less self-absorbed and notice things more.

There was nothing wrong with being into my work but it was more about if it was the right fit for me at the time.

My role as a Zen teacher is never to give people answers or tell people by any way shape or form what to do, it’s to encourage them to stick with their questions and issues.

I shouldn’t need to convince people, they have to want it themselves. People often avoid their problems but if they don’t approach them, they’re always there and running the show.

For me, it was about easing off. I was lucky because the years of being