Dennis Lewis
Do this, don’t do that, let go, believe in yourself, repeat this mantra, learn this teaching, study with that teacher, pray this way or that, try this spiritual exercise, don’t express your anger, ponder yet another Zen story, realize you are the Buddha within, breathe better, flow with the Tao, don’t get lost in your beliefs, remember yourself, remember God–all the things that your mind tells you (and the list in endless) that you should or should not do for your spiritual well-being, all your favorite concepts, techniques, and stories.
Can you just pause inwardly for a moment in the midst of all this and experience the miraculous nowness, the silence and spaciousness, that is always here, wherever you are, just waiting for your attention? If not, that’s okay too. The inner pause, the inner stop, is not just one more technique, one more thing to do; it is a portal into the mystery of who you are.
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Harmonious Awakening 
Isn’t that the elusive aim?
We get so busy listening, hearing, reading, talking about, studying, pontificating, that we forget the object of the study, which is to be, just to be, and to allow it to happen.
Well said, Dennis.
Yes, to just sit — “experience the miraculous nowness, the silence and spaciousness, that is always there, wherever you are” 🙂
Dennis, apropos to the above:
“In the study of Buddhism it is not necessary to know much about those Zen interviews which have taken place before us, nor is it necessary to pick out certain striking phrases from the sutras….Discussions on such subjects are left to those addicted to intellectualization. Mere cleverness is not meant to cope with the facts of birth and death. If you really wish to get into the truth of Zen, get it while walking, while standing, while sleeping or sitting, while talking or remaining silent, or while engaged in all kinds of your daily work. When you have done this, see whose doctrine you are follosing, or whose sutra youa re studying.” Pen-Hsien