With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
There is a hunger in the world, a ferocious hunger. People are starving in the sterility of mind. People are starving in mountains of books. People are starving in hoards in schools. They eat, but are far from satisfied. No one seems ever to be satisfied. They seek, and seek, and seek: faces blue; necks thin and gaunt, bodies in deep hunger.
What satisfies? What fills the stomach? What relaxes the neck and opens the throat?
Drugs, sex, rock & roll? No.
Another book by Thich Nhat Hahn or the Dalai Lama? No. Perhaps a new version of the Holy Scriptures? No.
A wall. A cushion. A still, quiet room.
Go there.
Sit.
Look inside.
Open the valves and let things flow.
When working at your desk, feel the materials under your fingertips: know the many lives and many hands that brought you the tools you use to make your living. Appreciate your life. Appreciate your friends, your spouse, your parents, your children.
Get wet with life. Feel the dirt. Roll in the mud of not-knowing.
Another book? Maybe. Another path? Maybe.
The most important point? Live without a self.
Living without a self means satisfaction is not an aim. Living without a self is to live in release. Open. In service to others. No worries, No fears. No problems. Just this, the next thing to do.
May you each be a blessing in the universe.
So Daiho,
ReplyDelete" Living without a self means satisfaction is an aim."
This sentence touched me. I have recently wondered how I can find my way out of the trap of always worrying about my satisfaction, my deeper understanding of dharma, my more subtle awareness. It got to the point where I felt, " enough - This can't be religious practice." Selfishness cannot be religious practice. It reminded me of Seung Sahn saying " when thinking mind is cut off, everything is there to help you." Do you think zen practice is cutting off this self-satisfying disposition and instead wondering, " how can I serve?"?