Odysseus Zen
Sitting in meditation could be something akin to Odysseus being tied to the mast so he could hear the songs of the Sirens and not be as affected, while his crew, for their safety, plugged their ears with beeswax.
Sitting is like being tied to the mast which helps us to resist the power of the Sirens. The deadly songs of the Sirens are the enchanting power of the Five Aggregates, which belong to Mara the Evil One. When we hear the demon Siren sing of physical shape we realize that this is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self. The same goes for the rest, namely, feeling, perception, habitual tendencies, and consciousness.
Constantly, these demons are at work. Not for a moment do their deadly, alluring songs cease. But as we learn not to react to their call, which weakens us and makes us to believe even more we are the aggregates, their power over us gradually wanes.
Related to this, the Buddha said in a discourse:
"Here, secluded from sensual pleasures ... a bhikkhus enters and dwells in the first jhâna ... He considers whatever phenomena exist there pertaining to form, feeling, perception, volitional activities, and consciousness as impermanent, suffering, an illness, a boil, a dart, misery, affliction, alien, disintegrating, empty, and non-self. He turns him mind away from these phenomena and directs it to the deathless element thus: 'This is peaceful, this is sublime, that is, the stilling of all activities, the relinquishing of all acquisitions, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, nibbana" (A. iv. 422–23).
As part of the first jhâna or dhyâna (J., zen-na) rejecting the Five Aggregates is both necessary and important which, incidentally, is not taught in present day Zen circles to my knowledge. Why it is not taught I have no answer.
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