With palms together,
Good Morning all,
We have recently moved a small cafe table and two chairs into my home Zendo, along with my handweights, a small library of books, and the orchid My Little Honey gave to me for our anniversary.
The orchid sits just beyond this laptop computer and as I type it draws my attention. It is a sort of mindfullness bell. We all have such small, but important objects in our lives. A flower, a photograph, a key: something that captures us for just a moment and in thsat moment enables us to settle down, draw in our breath and center ourselves.
It is so easy to overlook these small treasures. Our world is full of large distractions, noisy, glitsy, sexy, important. Yet, as anyone who has lived awhile understands, these are all passing. Yesterdays headlines are yesterday, with all that implies.
The small treasures, on the otherhand, are constant. Though the flower may lose its bloom, and the lock for the key be no more, the treasure is in the moment we take ro draw our breath. The moment we become aware we are alive.
Be well.
Organ Mountain Zen
Friday, May 12, 2006
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Unbearable!
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
The sun has once again risen and warmed the desert air. The coolness of the night evaporates quickly and we are left with hot, dry air. Where can we go to escape the heat?
What is the nature of unbearability? When we suffer and say "this is unbearable!" what do we mean? Our mind is intruding, demanding an alternative to the feelings experienced by our bodies or hearts. In some ways this is a good thing. Pain is an flag that causes us to look and act to be safe or well.
Yet all of these are mental formations, constructs that have no independent existence. They come and go like the breeze or the sun. We suffer in direct proportion to our desire not to suffer. The more we imagine non-suffering and compare that imagined state to that which we abide, we suffer.
When it is hot we wish to be cool. When we are cold, we wish to be warm. All of this wishing separates us from our present moment experience. It creates a gulf between us and reality.
Our practice is to not rant against the heat, but simply be. We can move to the shade, without thinking about escaping the heat. We can enjoy the heat. We can recognize that heat and cold are relative states to us, the subject. We can join the heat and in so doing allow it to lose its power.
And so it is with life.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
The sun has once again risen and warmed the desert air. The coolness of the night evaporates quickly and we are left with hot, dry air. Where can we go to escape the heat?
What is the nature of unbearability? When we suffer and say "this is unbearable!" what do we mean? Our mind is intruding, demanding an alternative to the feelings experienced by our bodies or hearts. In some ways this is a good thing. Pain is an flag that causes us to look and act to be safe or well.
Yet all of these are mental formations, constructs that have no independent existence. They come and go like the breeze or the sun. We suffer in direct proportion to our desire not to suffer. The more we imagine non-suffering and compare that imagined state to that which we abide, we suffer.
When it is hot we wish to be cool. When we are cold, we wish to be warm. All of this wishing separates us from our present moment experience. It creates a gulf between us and reality.
Our practice is to not rant against the heat, but simply be. We can move to the shade, without thinking about escaping the heat. We can enjoy the heat. We can recognize that heat and cold are relative states to us, the subject. We can join the heat and in so doing allow it to lose its power.
And so it is with life.
Be well.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Stillness
With palms together,
Good Afternoon All,
Some of you have asked me to elaborate on the teaching of stillness. Let's try this: Create stillness right now. You are obviously at your computer just now.
Notice your breath. Where does it come from? Where does it go? Feel it as it enters and leaves your body.
Notice your eyes. Watch them as they move across the monitor.
Notice your mind. What it is up to? Questioning? Yawning?
Notice sound. Can you hear your computer? The sound of the refrigerator or air conditioner? Do you hear yourself swallow?
Notice what your mouth feels like inside. Is it moist? Dry? Where is your tongue? How do your teeth feel?
Notice your eyes blinking. Just witness them open and close.
Do nothing with anything you notice. Just let whatever is there be there and feel the stillness in your body. You do not have to immediately hit the delete key or the reply key or any other key.
When you are in the presence of others, you can do this as well. There is no law that says you must reply immediately. Take a few moments and witness yourself.
The most important aspect of this practice is attentive non-engagement.
When we practice this way, we should notice the need we seem to have to "do" something. Be careful of this need, it will usually lead to no good.
Be well.
Good Afternoon All,
Some of you have asked me to elaborate on the teaching of stillness. Let's try this: Create stillness right now. You are obviously at your computer just now.
Notice your breath. Where does it come from? Where does it go? Feel it as it enters and leaves your body.
Notice your eyes. Watch them as they move across the monitor.
Notice your mind. What it is up to? Questioning? Yawning?
Notice sound. Can you hear your computer? The sound of the refrigerator or air conditioner? Do you hear yourself swallow?
Notice what your mouth feels like inside. Is it moist? Dry? Where is your tongue? How do your teeth feel?
Notice your eyes blinking. Just witness them open and close.
Do nothing with anything you notice. Just let whatever is there be there and feel the stillness in your body. You do not have to immediately hit the delete key or the reply key or any other key.
When you are in the presence of others, you can do this as well. There is no law that says you must reply immediately. Take a few moments and witness yourself.
The most important aspect of this practice is attentive non-engagement.
When we practice this way, we should notice the need we seem to have to "do" something. Be careful of this need, it will usually lead to no good.
Be well.
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
What's to fear?
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
How many of us can make a mistake without fear? Do we feel comfortable out of our comfort zone? Can we hear criticism and allow it to just lay there?
Most of us, perhaps all of us, cannot. We each have a strong need to be valued, appreciated, esteemed. Interaction with others (and sometimes even ourselves) makes this a challenge. Our culture is habituated toward critique.
Valuation is our livelihood. Discrimination our currency.
A statement suggesting what we say is off base or inaccurate invite rebuttal. If the rebuttal comes from fear, big problem. Fer creates defensive posturing. Fear closes us off from even looking at the merits of the suggestion: so strong is our need not to be wrong.
Why?
I am wrong often. I speak before I have the facts. I believe I know what someone is thinking or saying as they are speaking and formulate replies before they have finished their thought. I guess I think I'm a mind-reader or something. My father always charged me with being stupid and incompetent. I filter through his judgment. And just as surely as he is dead, so am I if I continue in this way.
Our practice is to be in this moment. Being in this moment requires courage as it demands we are open. Being open is a challenge when we are afraid. Yet our practice teaches us there is nothing to fear. There is no self to be abused, no feeling that will last forever (unless we keep it tightly stored and ready to use, and even then, it will die with us sometime).
It is a good practice to just be present without acting. In this practice allow yourself the luxury of not responding. Make a concerted effort to free your thoughts and let them float away. Those around you might be mystified, this behavior will be a small challenge for them, but I believe at some point this practice will bear fruit.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
How many of us can make a mistake without fear? Do we feel comfortable out of our comfort zone? Can we hear criticism and allow it to just lay there?
Most of us, perhaps all of us, cannot. We each have a strong need to be valued, appreciated, esteemed. Interaction with others (and sometimes even ourselves) makes this a challenge. Our culture is habituated toward critique.
Valuation is our livelihood. Discrimination our currency.
A statement suggesting what we say is off base or inaccurate invite rebuttal. If the rebuttal comes from fear, big problem. Fer creates defensive posturing. Fear closes us off from even looking at the merits of the suggestion: so strong is our need not to be wrong.
Why?
I am wrong often. I speak before I have the facts. I believe I know what someone is thinking or saying as they are speaking and formulate replies before they have finished their thought. I guess I think I'm a mind-reader or something. My father always charged me with being stupid and incompetent. I filter through his judgment. And just as surely as he is dead, so am I if I continue in this way.
Our practice is to be in this moment. Being in this moment requires courage as it demands we are open. Being open is a challenge when we are afraid. Yet our practice teaches us there is nothing to fear. There is no self to be abused, no feeling that will last forever (unless we keep it tightly stored and ready to use, and even then, it will die with us sometime).
It is a good practice to just be present without acting. In this practice allow yourself the luxury of not responding. Make a concerted effort to free your thoughts and let them float away. Those around you might be mystified, this behavior will be a small challenge for them, but I believe at some point this practice will bear fruit.
Be well.
Monday, May 8, 2006
Morning Light
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
So it is morning once again. I count on morning light. It is a blessing we should each savor. Some years ago, when I was 19 and just shot in the head in the middle of the night in the middle of the jungle, I lay in muddy water waiting for the morning light. In the morning the light streamed in through the canopy of trees revealing a smokey mess of human beings in great pain or dead in grotesque positions.
I pray none of you ever suffer mornings like that, nor that your sons or daughters do.
Each morning I recite a short prayer, "As I open my eyes I vow to see the universe clearly and not forsake a single being." In Jewish thought, we are happy to see that our soul has been returned to us by God. In each case we see that we are able to take a fresh step, essentially born new in the world. What was is no more. What is is here just now. It is our choice exactly how we meet this moment.
What is your choice today? I hope you choose peace.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
So it is morning once again. I count on morning light. It is a blessing we should each savor. Some years ago, when I was 19 and just shot in the head in the middle of the night in the middle of the jungle, I lay in muddy water waiting for the morning light. In the morning the light streamed in through the canopy of trees revealing a smokey mess of human beings in great pain or dead in grotesque positions.
I pray none of you ever suffer mornings like that, nor that your sons or daughters do.
Each morning I recite a short prayer, "As I open my eyes I vow to see the universe clearly and not forsake a single being." In Jewish thought, we are happy to see that our soul has been returned to us by God. In each case we see that we are able to take a fresh step, essentially born new in the world. What was is no more. What is is here just now. It is our choice exactly how we meet this moment.
What is your choice today? I hope you choose peace.
Be well.
Saturday, May 6, 2006
Like Ash
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Multi-tasking is the great illness of the contemporary world. This disease is a result of attempting to do more with less and not being aware of doing any specific thing at all. It is a prescription for automated sleepwalking.
As workplaces demand more, people rise to the task, or so they believe. They pride themselves in being able to work on several operations at once, believing this will increase productivity and bear fruit in their lives. At home we multitask and fail to be present, not enjoying, just doing more for less.
The value of multitasking is a lie just as sure as the one told by Willie Loman in Death of a Salesman.
In fact, people who multitask do not task at all. They are non sentient robots going through a set of motions and sometime they wake up to discover their lives have all but disappeared, their children are grown and their spouses have found love and comfort elsewhere. Just as Willie Loman did.
Multitasking kills awareness. It anesthetizes the present moment. We do not truly live in this world of splintered attention. We splinter with our attention and become fragments of the human beings we are capable of being.
An old Zen teaching: There is wood, there is combustion, there is ash. It is a mistake to think of these as the same thing or part of a process. Wood is not turned into ash. Wood is wood. Ash is ash. Fire is fire. When we see process, we fail to see what is there before us, just as when we balance a checkbook while washing the dishes and attending to the children fails us from each: we are doing neither of these.
Choose to do less and accomplish more. Be present in your meeting, attend to your child, wash the dish: in each case establish a full presence in the situation. If this requires you to adjust your life, then perhaps less is more again.
In the end, how do you wish to be remembered? The person who was really there or the blur that could not be still?
Be well.
Good Morning All,
Multi-tasking is the great illness of the contemporary world. This disease is a result of attempting to do more with less and not being aware of doing any specific thing at all. It is a prescription for automated sleepwalking.
As workplaces demand more, people rise to the task, or so they believe. They pride themselves in being able to work on several operations at once, believing this will increase productivity and bear fruit in their lives. At home we multitask and fail to be present, not enjoying, just doing more for less.
The value of multitasking is a lie just as sure as the one told by Willie Loman in Death of a Salesman.
In fact, people who multitask do not task at all. They are non sentient robots going through a set of motions and sometime they wake up to discover their lives have all but disappeared, their children are grown and their spouses have found love and comfort elsewhere. Just as Willie Loman did.
Multitasking kills awareness. It anesthetizes the present moment. We do not truly live in this world of splintered attention. We splinter with our attention and become fragments of the human beings we are capable of being.
An old Zen teaching: There is wood, there is combustion, there is ash. It is a mistake to think of these as the same thing or part of a process. Wood is not turned into ash. Wood is wood. Ash is ash. Fire is fire. When we see process, we fail to see what is there before us, just as when we balance a checkbook while washing the dishes and attending to the children fails us from each: we are doing neither of these.
Choose to do less and accomplish more. Be present in your meeting, attend to your child, wash the dish: in each case establish a full presence in the situation. If this requires you to adjust your life, then perhaps less is more again.
In the end, how do you wish to be remembered? The person who was really there or the blur that could not be still?
Be well.
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Responsibility
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
The morning newspaper reports that the investigation of the drowning of a child in our apartment complex will be ruled an accident. This stops any criminal procedings. Eyes now shift from criminal prosecution to civil responsibilities and compensatory damages.
An event such as this can create an opportunity for reflection on the many aspects of living and dying, as well as our sense of ethics, its extent and limits.
I believe we are a responsibility-adverse culture. No one willingly assumes responsibility for much of anything from war to peace, from love to hate, from conspicuous consumption to poverty. And I have often wondered why.
My sense is that we have created this situation by refusing to use a balanced and broad enough understanding of cause and effect. Moreover, we have a primitive need to punish those responsible for their part in whatever. So, which turkey wants to raise their head at the turkey shoot?
One of the most valuable teachings I received in graduate school and in life as a social worker was the lesson that all things are connected within systems all interacting in some way and on some level with each other. Complexity is the very essence of life. Zen Buddhists understand this complexity on an experiential level through our practice.
Correction should not be synonomous with punishment. A punitive attitude coupled with a punitive course of action causes us not to accept, enables us to put up a wall, protecting ourselves from further assault. Rather than building more courthouses, more prisons, more armies and weapons, wouldn't it make more sense to invest in treating the conditions which give rise to the problems we face in the universe?
As a priest and former therapist my work is to assist people in coming to terms with their responsibilty in life's choices. Overcoming an individual's fear of punishment is the first and most challenging task. The walls must come down in order for the mind and heart to do its work.
Fear is not a healthy emotion.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
The morning newspaper reports that the investigation of the drowning of a child in our apartment complex will be ruled an accident. This stops any criminal procedings. Eyes now shift from criminal prosecution to civil responsibilities and compensatory damages.
An event such as this can create an opportunity for reflection on the many aspects of living and dying, as well as our sense of ethics, its extent and limits.
I believe we are a responsibility-adverse culture. No one willingly assumes responsibility for much of anything from war to peace, from love to hate, from conspicuous consumption to poverty. And I have often wondered why.
My sense is that we have created this situation by refusing to use a balanced and broad enough understanding of cause and effect. Moreover, we have a primitive need to punish those responsible for their part in whatever. So, which turkey wants to raise their head at the turkey shoot?
One of the most valuable teachings I received in graduate school and in life as a social worker was the lesson that all things are connected within systems all interacting in some way and on some level with each other. Complexity is the very essence of life. Zen Buddhists understand this complexity on an experiential level through our practice.
Correction should not be synonomous with punishment. A punitive attitude coupled with a punitive course of action causes us not to accept, enables us to put up a wall, protecting ourselves from further assault. Rather than building more courthouses, more prisons, more armies and weapons, wouldn't it make more sense to invest in treating the conditions which give rise to the problems we face in the universe?
As a priest and former therapist my work is to assist people in coming to terms with their responsibilty in life's choices. Overcoming an individual's fear of punishment is the first and most challenging task. The walls must come down in order for the mind and heart to do its work.
Fear is not a healthy emotion.
Be well.
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