No counting of the breath is done, nor is any attention given to its inhalation or exhalation. One merely sits for thirty minutes or an hour, with the eyes closed gently and the hands folded in the lap. Thoughts flow freely through the mind. As one sits quietly, and successfully, this center shifts to the abdomen, which becomes solid, immovable. At the same time, the mind, no longer a center of movement, becomes pacified, quiet, calm.
Meditation is something like dusting one's mind.
Once can send all the dust of a room flying out with a feather duster, or, with no less activity, once can just stir up the dust and let it settle down again in the same room. It is not the purpose of meditation to eradicate the passions and frustrations of existence. Quiet Sitting, for the Shin follower, does not cut off the passions nor destroy frustrations. It is, rather, a little like some of the modern drugs for malaria and other illnesses, which control the manifestations of the illness without curing it. Thus the practice of Quiet Sitting by Shin followers has the very practical and ordinary goal of living a better life.