With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
The dawn has yet to break
across the mountains in the east.
Mesilla’s air is crisp,
September half over already,
and October looms close by.
Time seems to travel so quickly
as we age, and yet,
it seems like only yesterday…
…that I just could not wait for my fourteenth birthday so that I could get my “Restricted” Driver’s License and ride the motorcycle my step-father had bought for me.
Miami in the 1950’s was a very different place than it is now. But then, everything changes. Talking with a friend, who also grew up there, we remembered so many small details that seem to act as little anchors for our existence. Driving to the Keys in an old MG Midget, Wolfies, rock pit swimming, these were good times in the sun.
I wanted so much to be a scientist, but was soooo working class. I was a combined wannabe geek and biker, a condition that has seemingly defined my life over the decades. “Two Fires” my Navajo friend called me.
The good news is that for some time now the struggle between these two has been over. Rather than resisting living in multiple worlds, I have let go of, and surrendered into, this condition. Monk, householder, partner, friend, lover: these are just names we give to an otherwise seamless existence in the eternal now. There is only one world, the world of this moment itself.
A canvas sits on my easel: I am a painter. A zafu sits in the Zendo: I am a Zenster. A pan in the kitchen: I am a cook. My partner in our bed: I am a lover. I am each and none. Labels do nothing for us but separate us from our actual life. They change everything. It is better to live without them.
This is one meaning of mind and body falling away.
Be well
PS, today Zazen for Sangha Members at 9:30 AM, Stress Test at 1:30 PM, Dokusan in the late afternoon.
Good Morning Everyone,
The dawn has yet to break
across the mountains in the east.
Mesilla’s air is crisp,
September half over already,
and October looms close by.
Time seems to travel so quickly
as we age, and yet,
it seems like only yesterday…
…that I just could not wait for my fourteenth birthday so that I could get my “Restricted” Driver’s License and ride the motorcycle my step-father had bought for me.
Miami in the 1950’s was a very different place than it is now. But then, everything changes. Talking with a friend, who also grew up there, we remembered so many small details that seem to act as little anchors for our existence. Driving to the Keys in an old MG Midget, Wolfies, rock pit swimming, these were good times in the sun.
I wanted so much to be a scientist, but was soooo working class. I was a combined wannabe geek and biker, a condition that has seemingly defined my life over the decades. “Two Fires” my Navajo friend called me.
The good news is that for some time now the struggle between these two has been over. Rather than resisting living in multiple worlds, I have let go of, and surrendered into, this condition. Monk, householder, partner, friend, lover: these are just names we give to an otherwise seamless existence in the eternal now. There is only one world, the world of this moment itself.
A canvas sits on my easel: I am a painter. A zafu sits in the Zendo: I am a Zenster. A pan in the kitchen: I am a cook. My partner in our bed: I am a lover. I am each and none. Labels do nothing for us but separate us from our actual life. They change everything. It is better to live without them.
This is one meaning of mind and body falling away.
Be well
PS, today Zazen for Sangha Members at 9:30 AM, Stress Test at 1:30 PM, Dokusan in the late afternoon.
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