Morning

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Soft as a whisper, the morning opens itself in my mind. "All of my past and harmful karma, born from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow." This morning I vow with all beings, to see the world clearly as it is, to end violence, and bring compassion to all beings.

We sit zazen in the morning and consider no thing. Thoughts and feelings come and go; the sun rises; the dog curls up; the cat wanders. We do what is next to do.

Yesterday at Ft. Bliss, I heard many angry young men. They were not angry, as much as deeply hurt. They are suffering because things were not supposed to be the way they experienced them. Conditions arose within which killing and injury happened. Conditions condition. So they walk with they eyes alert, respond as if they are in a combat zone, and suffer. When the war is over and home isn't home anymore, what do we do?

In Zen we leave home. In life, to be wise, we leave home. This means we drop our bags, those collections of history, assumptions, and the like, which are familiar to us, but which also either distort our vision or hinder our expression of our true selves. We practice to live in a clear mind.

May we each see the sun this morning as it is, not as it was yesterday, or that it might be tomorrow,

Be well.