City Life

With palms together,

Good Morning All,

It is a sunny morning here in the desert southwest. Morning zazen is done. A breakfast of noodle kugel and sour cream is done. The dogs have been out. Shortly we will walk over to the gym and lift weights, run, and walk on the treadmill. Then it will be time to return some things, eat lunch, pick-up some groceries and come home.

Life in the city is so much different from life at the Refuge.

Last night we had guests for dinner. The night before we had guests for dinner. We rarely had guests at the Refuge: too difficult to access.

At the Refuge we planned our trips to the store as a trip to the store was a trip to town and was a trip of six hours or more. Here in the city there are many jewels to attract the eye of desire: books, household things, people. At the Refuge, the jewels were just there, like a breath: the trees, the sun, the animals, the silence.

It is rather like living in Big Mind and Little Mind. We must se them as essentially the same. Navigating freely without trepidation, we center ourselves through our practice of zazen and through the practice of daily ritual. Things here, people there, vast emptiness everywhere. When we are non-attached, non-invested, and are willing to embrace life on its own terms, then we are free.

Non-attachment does not mean non-caring. Non-attachment does not mean a lack of choice and discrenment. Values are buddha-nature, they arise through our actions. Non-attachment means acceptance that this is and that is. We engage to assist when assistance is required. We engage to love. We engage to nurture. We disengage to love. We disengage to nurture. All part of the natural processes of life itself.

I hope each of you is well.

A deep bow,