This meditation is a further exploration of Thich Nhat Hanh’s meditation Let the Buddha Breathe, Let the Buddha Walk.

We start by asking what am I doing in meditation, or why do I meditate?  It might be to relax, or to refresh, it could be to get clarity on an issue, or to transform something, or perhaps it is get enlightened or to liberate all being.  I just look at my motivation at this moment, knowing it is one option of many, and that many different things can happen at any given sitting, as well as the feeling that very little is happening.

I then bring up my image of the Buddha.  My own image of the Buddha can be an actual person, one I consider to be a Buddha, it might be the historical Buddha, or another historical or mythological person.  It can be an image like a statute of picture, it can be a quality, it can be something in nature that inspires me.  It can be a pet.  Whatever represents full understanding, compassion and love in me, that offers me tremendous space, ease, freedom.

Now, I note the moments of touching the Buddha.  I note that there are moments that this contact is strong and moments it is less strong.  When I am aware that I am no longer in touch with “my Buddha” and I bring back the Buddha, the qualities of the Buddha to the foreground.  As I do that, perhaps new qualities of the Buddha are brought up.  I can now touch a new image of the Buddha.

Recognizing that there are times I am in touch with the Buddha and times I am not, I lightly touching the Buddha, with no ambition, with no pressure.

I recognize that if I release everything else, then I am touching the Buddha: once I set up the field for the Buddha, I no longer have to touch the Buddha, I just let go of everything else, and let the Buddha emerge.

Coming back to the question what is it that I am doing in meditation (or why meditate), I consider the option that it is non-doing.  That rather than doing anything in meditation, I release and let go.  That rather than conjuring the Buddha, I just make the space for the Buddha to manifest.

I let the Buddha sit, I let the Buddha breathe.  I do not need to do anything: I do not need to sit, I don’t need to breathe – it just happens – all I do is set up the space.