This exercise centres around the Evening Chant.

The Evening Chant says:
With posture upright and stable, I sit at the foot of the Bodhi Tree.
Body, speech, and mind are on in stillness,
there is no more thought of right and wrong.
Mind and body dwell in mindfulness,
I rediscover my original nature, leaving the shore of illusion behind.
Noble Sangha, diligently bring your mind into meditation
Namo Shakayamunaya Buddhaya.

This gives us very clear set of instructions to meditation.
First we establish our posture (and intention) as upright and stable and regardless of where I sit, I establish myself as if I am under The Bodhi tree, setting my intention (or inspiration – just as the Buddha did, sitting under the Bodhi tree vowing to not get up until he was enlightened).
I allow my body, mind, and speech (internal and external discourses) to calm and still.
In that stillness I can let go of discursive thinking, of right/wrong.
That is when I can ask myself”who am I without all these thoughts?”
We might call that “my original nature” and that is when we feel we have left the shore of illusion, no longer a slave to all that thinking, analysing, judging.
The paying homage to the Buddha at the end is also an instruction: be a Buddha! (or “just be!”)

The crux of this meditation is the observation of my thoughts and seeing they are constantly engaged in a yes/no dialogue (i like, I dislike, I approve, I disapprove, etc.) and then asking myself who am “I” when I am not defining myself by all those thoughts. This is the question/koan for us to contemplate.

To get there we start with calming the body and mind, then recognizing thoughts in either the foreground or background. We train ourselves to recognize thoughts (rather than just be swept by them), and apply some “knife” to them. Last week, we used “past/future” and this time we use “right/wrong.” Either way, it is simply a way of seeing the thoughts are not me, they “just are”… So there is no need to latch on to them.

I find it useful to touch my forehead when I recognize a thought has “invaded.” The recognition that I strayed away from my object of meditation is actually what meditation is. To be aware that I am not aware, is to be aware! This is a sentence in the Satipatthana Sutra – the practitioner is aware that s/he lost awareness, and then awareness has been established… Often people find it hard to take an active movement, like touching the forehead, as part of meditation, and we also tend to try and disguise the fact that we strayed, but I think it is good to “externalize” it with touching the forehead: it allows for clarity, and with that clarity we start to erode that sense of “why do I have all those thoughts” and develop a sense of equanimity or non-involvement with the thoughts.