‘One period of sitting is not your own sitting. You may feel it is your sitting, but the inner view, which is utterly the external view as well, is that your personal existence is not sitting, but is included in sitting. The inner view includes everything which your mind is continuously working on. Memories arise. Memories of your experience are always there, no matter whether you deny them or accept them. They are there. Moreover, time passes, contents change, and so posture allows you to keep going. As you notice, this physical existence is very dynamic, a living thing which you cannot stop because it goes on by itself. Maybe the contents are living things, who go by themselves, and you are that which is experiencing and feeling them.’ (Embracing Mind)
I opened Kobun’s book at this particular page as I had made a note that the middle paragraph would be good for a post, but when I re-read the top of the page, I appreciated the subtle point he was making. As the years go by, I feel more and more convinced by the physicality of sitting, and how engaging with our posture can shift the inner experience, the memories and contents of our bodily lives.
Shundo David Haye 