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PRECAUTIONS TO O:SSERVE IN ZAZEN I 37on the coWlting of each breath, thus increasing its effectiveness. Youmust not coWlt absent-mindedly or mechanically, as though it werea duty.In spite of your being able to sit for an hour or more with a feelingof exquisite serenity, it is wise to limit your sitting to periods of aboutthirty or forty minutes each. Ordinarily it is not advisable to do zazenlonger than this at one sitting, since the mind cannot sustain itsvigor and tautness and the value of the sitting decreases. Whether onerealizes it or not, a gradual diminution of the mind's concentrativeintensity takes place. For this reason it is better to alternate a thirtyorfo rty-minute period of sitting with a roWld of walking zazen.Following this pattern, one can do zazen fo r a full day or even a weekwith good results. The longer zazen continues, however, the moretime should be spent in walking zazen. In fact, one might advantageouslyadd periods of manual labor to this routine, as has been donein the Zen temple since olden times. Needless to say, you must keepyour mind in a state of clear awareness during such manual labor andnot allow it to become lax or dull.A word about food. It is better to eat no more than eighty percentof your capacity. A Japanese proverb has it that eight parts of a fullstomach sustain the man; the other two sustain the doctor. TheZazen Yojinki (Precautions to Observe in Zazen), compiled about650 years ago, says you should eat two-thirds of your capacity. Itfurther says that you should choose nourishing vegetables (of coursemeat-eating is not in the tradition of Buddhism and it was taboowhen the Yojinki was written) such as moWltain potatoes, sesame,sour plwns, black beans, mushrooms, and the root of the lotus; and italso recommends various kinds of seaweed, which are highly nutritiousand leave an alkaline residue in the body. Now, I am no authorityon vitamins and minerals and calories, but it is a fact that mostpeople today eat a diet which creates too much acid in the blood, anda great offender in this respect is meat. Eat more vegetab1es of thekind mentioned, which are alkalinic in their effect. In ancient daysthere was a yang-yin diet. The yang was the alkaline and the yin theacid, and the old books cautioned that a diet ought not be eithertoo yang or too yin. This is substantially what I have just told you.When sitting it is a good idea to have a notebook and pencilbefore you, because a variety of insights will flash into your mind