Just sitting means sitting still with all of the aspects of ourselves that
we came to Buddhist practice in order to avoid or change—our restlessness,
our anxiety, our fear, our anger, our wandering minds. Our practice is to
just watch, to just feel. We watch our minds. Minds think. There’s no
problem with that; minds just do what they do. Ordinarily we get caught up
in the content of our thoughts, but when we just sit, we observe ourselves
just thinking. Our body’s most basic activity is breathing: No matter what
else is going on, we are breathing. We sit and breathe, and we feel the
sensation of our breath in our bodies. Often there is tension or even pain
somewhere in our bodies as well. We sit and feel that too and keep
breathing. Whatever thoughts come, come. Whatever feelings come, come. We
are not sitting there to fight off our thoughts or try to make ourselves
stop thinking.
– Barry Magid from “Five Practices to Change Your Mind