Working Very Hard Zen Story
- Solien
- Dec 11, 2025
- 2 min read
Today we enter… Working Very Hard.
A story that exposes effort, striving, and the misguided belief that intensity equals progress.
A story that shows how easily the mind mistakes tension for transformation.
Let’s step inside, slowly, gently.
Let the Story Unfold
A Zen student came to Master Bankei and said,
“Master, I am working very hard at meditation
I am doing everything I can.
My whole body shakes with the effort.”
Bankei looked at him calmly and said,
“That is not the way to meditate.
If you work too hard, you will get tired.
Then you will stop.
Right meditation happens naturally.”
Sit With the Meaning
We are taught that effort equals worth.
Push harder.
Try more.
Strain, strive, sweat, and you will succeed.
Zen says the opposite.
Striving tightens the mind.
Effort contracts the body.
The very thing you are reaching for
moves farther away the moment you grab at it.
Bankei’s teaching is simple:
Awakening is not manufactured.
It is revealed.
The student’s shaking is not dedication.
It is tension disguised as devotion.
Zen is not the art of forcing the mind open.
It is the art of removing the hand
that keeps squeezing it shut.
Turn Inward With Your Parts
Which part of you believes that more effort always leads to better results?
What happens inside when you notice yourself straining or pushing past your natural rhythm?
Is there a protector who fears that relaxing will make you weak, lazy, or unproductive?
Let Expression Rise
Choose the doorway that feels open:
IFS Journaling
Write from the part that pushes you to “work harder.”
Let it share what it fears would happen if you eased up
what it believes effort protects you from
why rest feels unsafe or underserved
IFS Parts Art
Draw the feeling of striving in your system, the tightness, pressure, or intensity.
Then draw softness beside it.
Let the contrast show you something about your inner world.
Somatic IFS
Tense your whole body for a few seconds, fists, jaw, shoulders, stomach.
Feel the strain,
the contraction,
the effort.
Then slowly release everything:
Drop your shoulders,
Loosen your face,
Let your breath deepen.
Notice what shifts when you move from effort to ease.
And if none of these feel right… simply rest with the story.
Let the silence do the holding.
Stay here with your parts as long as you like, and we’ll meet again in the next story.
Continue Exploring the Zen Stories
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