Opening Dharma Access: Listening to BIPOC Teachers & Practitioners Life Aching for Itself: Zazen & Working with Difficult Emotions
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Oct 22, 2025 Siddhesh Mukerji, a Zen practitioner and scholar of engaged Buddhism living in Ireland, shares profound insights on zazen and navigating difficult emotions. He explores how zazen immerses one in the present, transforming suffering into 'life aching for itself.' Siddhesh discusses the power of metta to soften overwhelming pain and emphasizes the importance of communal healing through embodied practices like swing dancing. With a focus on patience and self-compassion, he encourages embracing fluidity over idealized selves as a path to joy.
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Immersion Reframes Suffering
- Siddhesh Mukerji describes zazen as total immersion in whatever experience arises, including anger and grief.
- This immersion reframes personal pain as "life aching for itself," dissolving the separate self and widening perspective.
Use Zazen To Soften Identity In Pain
- Practice zazen to drop the sense of a separate self and recontextualize painful emotions into a larger, shared life experience.
- Use this perspective to cultivate tenderness toward yourself and others when pain arises.
Soften Overwhelming Pain With Metta
- When pain is overwhelming, practice metta (loving-kindness) directed at the one who suffers, including yourself.
- Allow that compassion to soften your pain and open capacity to be present for others.