No matter which way I turn, no matter how much I sit [meditating], Japan is on my mind right now. Feeling the pain in my heart, I sit. I study the great Zen texts, looking for an understanding, a way of coping. But there isn't one. Not really. This is the whole point of Zen.
This suffering is it. It is our lives, just as joy is our lives, the pain of suffering is our lives. We can't separate them. We just have to live them, live through them. We can nod to these thoughts and feelings, hearing them, acknowledging them. But we don't have to live them every moment. We can bow to them, then let them go, as clouds move across the sky.
Sitting serves one particular purpose here. It gives us practice at quietening the mind. But more than that, it trains us to ignore the constant mind chatter, because, ultimately, we can't switch it off, it is we who must switch off to the chatter. It is possible, and with practice, with the practice of sitting, that we can gain more balance. This repeated sitting helps new habits to form, and we learn to ignore this constant stream of mind chatter, whether sitting, or during our daily life.
You can't turn off the chatter, like TV or radio, but you can tune in to another station. The stream of thoughts will still be broadcasting away, but you don't have to listen to them.
[I am currently writing an ecourse & ebook on meditation practice, more on this soon…]