So it’s extremely important to remember that the main purpose of doing sesshin is this burning out of thoughts by the fire of attention, so that our lives can be dispassionate and fundamentally unaffected by outward circumstances. I don’t think there’s anyone here of whom that is wholly true. Yet our practice is to do that. If we truly accomplished this burning out of attachments there would be no need to sit. But I don’t think anyone can say that. We need an adequate daily period of zazen in which we attend to what’s going on in our minds and bodies. If we don’t sit regularly, then we can’t
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