I know this is mainly a Christian board, but here's a nice article:

http://www.shambhalasun.com/Ar...0305_may_feature.htm

I especially liked:

"Norman Fischer, former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, has written that one sits "simply because one is devoted to it. You just do it because you do it. It's not even a question of wanting to or not wanting to. Zazen for zazen's sake." We might liken it to a musician's devotion to music or an artist's devotion to art. There is nothing outside their practice that justifies doing it. It is who they are and what they do. I remember that my mother used to have a pet theory that orchestra conductors lived long lives and were especially fit and healthy because of the way they constantly exercised their arms and upper bodies while conducting. Perhaps there's something to it. But we would find it strange indeed if a conductor said the reason he loved conducting was the cardiovascular fitness it conferred."

And:

"There are some interesting parallels in how Buddhist practice and psychoanalytic practice work. Just showing up is the main requirement of both. We have to be willing to show up for each hour's experience, whether on the couch or on the cushion. Freud told his patients to "free associate," that is, to simply say whatever came into their mind. It sounds like the simplest thing in the world, but nobody can do it. Immediately we begin to organize our thoughts in our idiosyncratic ways, censuring here, emphasizing there, trying to make one impression or another to ourselves and to the analyst. Invariably we shape our "free" associations into distinct personas�needy or self-reliant, helpless or insightful, rivalrous or subservient. But gradually, we can learn to observe what we're doing, what we're consciously or unconsciously avoiding or choosing. We just bring our attention to the process and try to understand why it feels right to do it the way we're doing it. We don't try to change anything; we just watch our minds unfold, and watch our resistance to that unfolding."

Hope that you enjoy,

Asher