The Present Moment

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

There was once a monk named Tanzan. Tanzan was an older monk and did not pay close attention to the rules. He ate when he was hungry, slept when he was sleepy. He drank wine on occasion even though intoxicants were forbidden.

One day Tanzan and another monk were walking along and they arrived at a stream. There was a young woman at the stream trying to cross without muddying herself. Tanzan simply picked her up and carried her across the stream, placing her back on the ground, he put his palms together, bowed and continued on his way. Sometime later, Tanzan's companion criticized Tanzan for having touched the young woman by carrying her across the stream. Tanzan simply said to his younger brother, "I put her down miles ago, why is it you still carry her with you?"

Each of us has an opportunity each moment to renew ourselves. Carrying the burdens of the past prevents this. In each moment, be a buddha. When you are angry, be angry and let it go. When you are sad, be sad and let it go. When you are happy, be happy and let it go. To experience life fully and completely is being a buddha. To live in the past or in worrry or anticipation of the future is to be asleep.

Be well.

Home Again

With palms together,
Good Evening Sangha,

We arrived home a hour or so ago. It is very nice to be back in the desert southwest. We enjoyed our trip 'back east' but I confess, its not my favorite region. Way too many people, and even in the south, moving way too fast for me. I was good to hold and care for our grandson, though. We took care of him pretty much night and day for five days.

One of the things I do admire about the south, however, is the way people instill basic social manners in children. I held a door open for a young mother and children, for example, and mother was quickly to ask the child to say "thank you" by saying out loud behind her, "We say 'thank you,' darlin.'" People often addressed me with a respectful, "sir."

We have such manners among ranch folk out here, as well. But I'm afraid it seems to be a disappearing value. So accustomed we are to being addressed by our first name by total strangers. Many seem to feel comfortable using l obscenities at their leisure in public places

People feel no discomfort in calling homes late at night, intruding in private life with work whenever, and being rude and crude on the Internet. Anonymity loosens the tongue and the boundaries of civil discourse. Just as familiarity breeds the potential for contempt.

My life in the mountains over the last few years spoiled me to some degree, I suppose, or sheltered me some. I don't know. While there is a profound sense of general willingness to love among people, there is also a equally quick willingness to show a lack of patience and temper.

We need to work on this. All of us.

Be well.

In Motion

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

This morning is overcast and drizzling. The rain is wonderful. The air is cool and heavy, unlike the desert. Green is unfolding all around. I saw beautiful flowers in bloom this morning. Lots of early birds getting their worms, as well. Life is a good thing when kept in perspective.

I urge each of us to get outside today. Enjoy the weather, whatever it is. It is always a good idea to go outside. It gives us perspective. Sitting on grass. A park bench. Or just walking along and listening, smelling, feeling, that life around us. After a short time, whatever heaviness that we might be bearing, lifts.

We breathe in, knowing we are breathing in, we breathe out, knowing we are breathing out. Short step, long step, jog, walk, run, skip: no matter, we are Zen in motion.

Be well.

Zen is Work

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

Being a Zen Buddhist is much more than words and a good feeling, more than hours on a cushion staring at a wall, more than vows and commitments to some ideal. Zen is work.

Rise in the morning with an intent to see clearly, to help every being. Eat with awareness of all of the lives and hands that went into bringing your food to you.

Breathe with awareness, walk with awareness. Feel with awareness. Work with awareness.

Awareness is what? Of everything: the air, the scent in the air, the feel, the sound, the thought, the taste of life lived in interdependence with the universe. This is true 'multi-tasking.'

We see a hungry person, we offer them food. No question. We see thoughtlessness, we correct it. We see injury, we help nurse it. We see fighting, we help stop it.

We don't just say, "I believe!" and go on being a jerk, thinking our belief will save us. Belief of this sort is for cowards and dilitantes. Living in a world-in-wait for somebody else to make everything right.

Zen Buddhists do.

Be well.

Change the World Today!

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

Today is a day you can use to change the world. Rita, a member of my Zen Living Yahoogroups list, my Yahoo 360 friend, and Child Protective Services Worker in California, invited everyone to do something today to Change the World.

I am passing this invitation along.

Each one of us, doing something good, can and will make a difference. Small as a smile and invitation to talk, large as picking up trash along a pathway, each act of kindness to self and others creates goodness in the world.

Now, go change the world.

Be well.

Living

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

In Zen we aspire to leave no trace. That is, to live without self-interest. How do we attain this? We behave for the benefit of others. And if we are acting for others fully and completely then there is no room for anything else.

The value that we place on ourselves should only be the value needed to sustain us for our work. We eat so that we may benefit others. We practice Zazen so that we might benefit others. We clothe ourselves to benefit others. We are in relationship to benefit others. With this right understanding, all other paths of the Noble way unfold with ease and genuineness.

In the absence of self, what is there? Compassion. Our practice is to make compassion a living manifestation in the universe. We do this through continuous , moment-to-moment generosity, morality, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom.

We realise that we are the other shore and that we attained the other shore and that we have never left.

Be well.

Being Present

This morning we awake to the cries of Baby Tate and a telephone call from New Mexico. Tate is grumpy, but always willing to giggle for a moment when Pappy Zen makes odd faces. Susanne, our neighbor at the Refuge, called to say that my old friend, Shaker, was collicking last night. A veterinarian visit later suggested she was OK. This morning Susanne says she is lethargic.

To be alive means to feel. Sometimes we feel good, sometimes not. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes not. To be awake means that when we are hot, we are fully hot; when we are cold, we are fully cold. Enlightenment does nothing to make what is there better. It is what we call being one with the universe and the universe is a vast container. Being one with being sick means fully being sick, present with our sickness, completely. A thought of escaping our sickness leads us to suffering as it adds duality to our consciousness, separating us from ourselves, adding a discernment.

When someone we care for is suffering, we suffer. When we are hot, we are hot. When we are cold, we are cold. As we are these things, we naturally do what we can within them. We care for our suffering. We add a blanket, take off a blanket, but we do so without the effort of mental anguish.

The ability to do this comes with the wisdom of mindful presence.

Be well.