ZUO WANG 坐忘 (Sitting & Forgetting) - Reflections & Meditations with Jeffrey Yuen

Since the ancient times in China, adepts have contemplated, devised, and practiced techniques that explored the intricacies of the heart-mind and all its anxieties, delusions, and apprehensions confronting human existence. Starting with the Warring States’ mystics-philosophers like ZhuangZi and Han FeiZi, the concept of Zuo Wang evolved into meditative disciplines adapted by Daoists, Neo-Daoists, and Chinese Buddhists that focused on “sitting” and “forgetting” (or “emptying” of the heart-mind) back into Bao Pu (embracing simplicity). Drawing upon major canonical texts in Daoism, the various insights/approaches stemming from these important scriptures eventually became clarified and synthesized into Zuo Wang Lun by SiMa ChengZhen, the 12th patriarch of the Shang Qing tradition of Daoism. Commentaries to the text generally attribute 7 stages in the practice of Zuo Wang by which the adept achieves or dispels aspects of consciousness that impacts one’s relationship to the world and achieve levels of peace, stillness, and tranquility.