September 12

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



Yesterday was September 11th, 2011, a day of its own accord. Today is September 12, also a day of its own accord. Let’s practice to stay in each day and live it, not another. I wrote on my “status” bar on Facebook, “When tears are our measure, rage soon follows. Zen living is not about tears or jeers, but rather, it is about not holding on to them. “



The measure of a Zen Center or a Teacher is not whether or not we are moved emotionally, but rather that we are taught to experience a feeling and let go of it before we turn it into something. Zen is not about feeling warm and fuzzy, it’s not about feeling special or serene or anything else. What Zen is about is direct experience of what is without grasping it, clutching it, or valuing it.



Yesterday our nation seemed emotionally captured by the violence perpetrated by a few tortured individuals. Our media (to their shame) flooded us for weeks with images of terror, sadness, and heroics. We (to our shame) seem to have become a nation of vicarious bottom feeders, who, having engorged ourselves and reveled in the emotion, today feel quite spent.



I read comments on a few Zen Teachers sites and see a host of sappy sentiment. Those teachers ought get out their sticks, CRACK!: Wake up! Where are you? When are you? Do you smell the air? Can you feel your feet? Do you hear that birdsong or that car’s tires rolling on the pavement? To use “The Little Prince"’s words, these are “matters of consequence.”



Care must be taken around memorials, as with memories from the past. They conjure up emotions which often run amok. Feel, but let go. Do not value the feeling. Do not treasure it, hold it, or otherwise keep it, as it will turn on you. Remember, the first and last principal of Zen is to be here now.,



Be well.