Commitments

As a Zen Buddhist I have committed myself to a life of service, a life of introspection, and a life of engaged compassion. These three have been my refuge.

Not always successful to be sure, but always on my mind. And when I fail, when I see myself speaking and otherwise behaving in ways contradictory to these I engage myself in atonement. This is all any of us can do.

This crisis we each face today has been, and will continue to be, a challenge. I pray to maintain an open mind and heart. I pray to allow alternative views their place. I pray to meet these challenges with intellectual and emotional courage. And I pray each of us might do the same for unless we do, unless we see ourselves as being in this together we will lose our humanity and fall into the chaos of fear.

I do not know what this new world will bring to us, save the fact it will be different. And for many of us difference, falling out of our comfort zone, is frightening. May we each meet this newly developing world with an open eye and open heart.

Be a blessing.

Branching Streams

NUMBER 18

One day Senior Monk decided to travel to the Order’s mountain refuge.  Once there he established himself, made a fire in the wood cookstove, put away his supplies and considered his day. It was already late in the afternoon as the refuge was some ninety miles from the city.

The refuge was a large cabin built by himself and his teacher.  It was split log, had a loft, wood cookstove, pot-bellied stove, propane refrigerator and two bathrooms.  The refuge was off the grid, had no electricity, and was 13 miles deep into the forest. Senior monk practiced there as often as he could.

After a short repast of bread and cheese, he decided to hike to a stream a mile our so away.  As he walked, he kept thinking about the stream he was walking to.  It was a fast moving stream, and at one point divided into two.

“Now there’s the question, ‘Are they the same or different?’

After some tough climbing he finally arrived at the fork in the stream.  There, he placed his cushion, took up his robes, and sat down. The birds were quiet, as it was late in the day, but he could hear the buzzing of insects and felt the still hot sun on his face. Putting his palms together, a slight bow, then hands in the cosmic mudra, left hand cradled in right, he began to meditate.

“Are they the same or different? “he asked himself.

The divided streams were moving quite quickly across the rocky beds and the moving water offered a beautiful sound to Senior’s ears. Listening to the sounds of the streams, his mind opened and he had the distinct experience of following both streams simultaneously as they flowed down the mountain side. 

He saw them subdivide again and again and in each case his mind was able to see and follow each as they, too, flowed downhill. Just then a fly landed on his nose and just then he saw all the streams flow into a lake.

The question, he realized, was meaningless.

Faith

Listening to the "Faith" album by George Michael, He sings, "You gotta have faith..." Really? I'm reminded of questions of faith itself, what it is and what it isn't. Earlier this morning, say around 5 AM I happened upon a film on Netflix called "An Interview with God." Avery Christian perspective in most ways, but God asked the journalist a ton of probing questions many of which involved faith and how we understand it.

Do we need faith and how do we understand it in either case? Is it important? Zen Buddhism argues we need great doubt, great faith, and great practice. I really believe these are core to deepening our relationship to the world and all of our relationships,

Challenging our beliefs, our basic assumptions is the only path to truth, truth regarding our world and our relationships within it. Great doubt demands this path even though it is incredibly difficult. How many of us routinely doubt what we believe we know? Doubt to the most basic level, right down to our existential reality?

Faith plays a role in this. We must have faith in both the process of doubt and the processes involved in practice. Our practice rarely yields results we can see and measure and our doubt challenges the ground of our being.

So one way to look at it is faith is more about moving forward into the unknown than belief in a God a particular path. In this sense faith is about courage. How many of us have this level of courage? Each challenge, after all, has consequences. Are we prepared for encountering these?

Be well,