Actually, no wall is blank but I mean one of the walls inside, wallboard, painted uniformly in one color. I think that is the typical thing to look at in Zen meditation practice. The American zen teacher Karen Mazen Miller wrote about "staring at a wall" and she was referring to meditation. I think that the use of "staring" can tempt a reader to think of a locked, tense sort of looking, as one might do when shocked or amazed or repulsed. I am just referring to looking calmly and in a relaxed way at a wall.
The usual advice when sitting on a chair for meditation is to sit on the front edge, away from the back of the chair. Sit erect but not stiff or tense. One thing to do when sitting for meditation is to check your posture. How about that string coming out of the top of your head? Let it be pulled to your full height, again not strained but full. Check your shoulders. Are they relaxed and down? Sometimes, my thighs want to hang off the edge of the chair so that I am almost in the same position as sitting on a cushion. Scan the body for tension and let any go.
Breath is often the main focus used on which to hang the attention. Sometimes, people are reluctant to allow the belly to be pushed down and out by the diaphragm, when they worry about having a good shape. For the time of meditation, put that interest aside and breathe fully and loosely. I can inhale slowly and hold my breath while full of air. Then, I can exhale fully. A full exhalation almost never really expels all the air. I am interested in what I can feel on my hand with a 2nd sharp exhalation without taking another inhale. Sometimes, there is still a detectable air stream on the third exhalation, still without any inhalation yet. Some people like inhaling to a count of four, holding for a count of four, exhaling slowly to a count of four and waiting to inhale again to a count of four.
If my eyes are tired from looking at a computer monitor, I can do all of that with my eyes closed. If I open my eyes, I can look at a point on the wall and without moving my eyes, I can become aware of what I can see in my peripheral vision about my focal point, to either side of it and below it. No wonder 7 or 8 minutes zip by!
