One Step

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,,



Today, Zazen at 6:30 AM at Roshi's residence; streetZen at 10:30 at Veteran's Park; Mediation at 3:00 and Study Group at 4:00 at Roshi's residence..



Yesterday I tried to take a walk with friends Allen and Eve through the desert park. Could only go half way and had t return. My Left Foot was having none of it.Perhaps it is time now to use kinhin as my walking style.



Kinhin is a deliberate, slow, mindful walking too often wrongly understood as a break from Zazen.Kinhin is meditation, it is Zen in motion. Mindful, it embraces body in motion in environment. Balance, touch, breath, forward motion, and empty mind abide there.



Slow, like Tai Chi, there is no where to get to where one has not already been.. The universe in each step. Infinity and ground meet. Spirit moves across the face of the deep. With each breath our universe is crated and maintained.



It's the Zen One Step.



Be well.

May We Be a Blessing

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



Morning of the only day there is

opens in silence.

My breath is slow and steady.

My heart opens to you.

Breathing in, I take in our suffering,

breathing out, I offer us my love.



But there is so very much suffering

and yet I am serene.



Last night

at a Rabbi's house

We said a blessing,

ate a lovely meal,

and settled in to watch.

a film

.

It was about an IED unit in Iraq.

And demanded recall:



war is far more than a nasty word...



The energy of deep compassion

Set a-swirl, like the stars in the sky

in a drunken night...i chant,

Everything is precious.


All my past and harmful karma...

Born from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion,

Through body, speech, and mind,

I now fully avow...



Scotch helps.

As does zazen.

Breathing in,

breathing out.



It is morning.

and I have not slept much.

I sit in the zendo and listen.



The sky is still dark

But the swirls have

become gentle streams.

Vast wings

enfold all beings

and I release myself

into them.



Let war be no more, let love be your light.



Be well.

Dance

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



Senzaki-roshi says, "The old timers in a religious group consider themselves to have reached the top, and then jump from where they are, leaving the very principles of that religion. They are poor fish who cannot swim in the water."



When our eyes are open, there is no question, we swim because it is what we do. An open eye is a completely integrated eye, therefore eye and no eye at once.



When about to face a question, we cannot answer. We answer only when the question is asked and we do so without pointing.



As Leonard Cohen says, dance me till the end of love.



And if love is the essential, core, complete and total reality?



Dance on...



Be well.

Awe

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

The morning brings desert wind and small splatters of rain. I imagine the desert floor is being swept by the Infinite. I remember once while climbing the Organ Mountains, a storm came out of the southwest. From my elevation, I could see it rolling across the valley toward the mountains. The feeling was a sweet combination of fear and utter awe.

Such moments enter one's body like a shotgun to the stomach.

Over time, this feeling lays in wait. It can open and spread, like a pool of honey being fed by that Infinite Wellspring or it can remain a puddle being stepped over by those of us who are busy.

This morning as I walked outside, my feet refused to move. My eyes were fixed on clouds rolling down the slopes of the Organs. I was transfixed.

Whatever the Infinite is, it is here.

Be well.

What Next?

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



This morning came too soon and not soon enough. Too soon in the sense that I had a late night with Study Group followed by dinner and long conversation with my close friend friend and psychiatrist, Abe. Not soon enough in that life is so short and there is so much to do.



We discussed a sort of midrash in group. Midrash is a story offering a back-story to a biblical tale. This midrash was about what happened after Jacob discovered God was everywhere and he saw the ladder to heaven. God asks Jacob to go up the ladder and Jacob refused. The question then becomes quite existential.



I likened this to the Zen koan about having attained the top of the hundred foot pole to only be asked, "What is your next step?"



If the top of the pole signifies awakening, then what? Buddha faced this on the morning of his awakening. Jesus likely faced it in the desert after his dance with the devil.



Is this all there is?



How do I face my future? If I am One, then what is the meaning and role of two?



Am I a hero or a coward? Which is to ask, am I authentic or a fraud?



Even with awakening, God in our heart, Jesus on our shoulder, and direct connection with Everything, we still must live.



How?



Be well.

The Cosmic Egg

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



There are living opportunities hidden in each moment regardless of time or space. The ground of our lives is fertile. When we reach out, risk, invite, embrace, or express, we transform seed into seedling. Life unfolds through us and our creative spirit moves across its face. The Infinite is in Everything. Allow awe to enfold you, then speak its name.



Be well.

An Evening

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyman,



Last night was very good to my heart. Children descended on our house. We had a neighbor join us. We enjoyed pizza, a delicious eggplant dish, Buffalo wings (for those who eat such things and son Jacob made a marvelous desert. Granddaughter Livvie played with Pappa's iPhone, son Jacob played a guitar, and at various times, the music of either Jacob or Leonard Cohen.



Laughter was a prominent feature.



After everyone left, I sat for a few moment and enjoyed the silence.



It was a beautiful evening. I am sorry My Little Honey wasn't here to enjoy it. But she is enjoying daughter Sam and grandson Tate in Memphis.



So, after a bit, I decided to put my laundry in the washer, get the dishes done, and take a late night walk under the desert stars. I walked 3/4 of a mile. It was chilly. The sky was expansive and deep and full of starlight.



I walked briskly, stumbling once or twice, but finally getting My Left Foot not to drag. Its an exercise in mindfulness, that. But on the way back I could not help but stop and look a deeply as I possibly could into that velvet sky. We are so fortunate to live in such a way.



There is beauty everywhere because there is life everywhere. Even in the midst of witnessing a disaster such as that in Haiti, we are surrounded by the wonder of humanity and the natural world. When our focus is on the loss, we experience great sadness, but we should then shift our attention to those being in service: there is the practice opportunity. Witness it. Then we take our own next step.



Morning Zazen at 6:30 and 9:00. A Memorial Service for friend Bernie Lieberman at 3:00.



Be well.