Lost

With palms together,

Good Morning All,



Being lost. Feeling as if there is nothing familiar --- or that the familiar is slipping away and cannot be grasped ---, this is in the pit of our stomach yuk. We avoid such places. We want desperately for solid ground. Its only natural.



However, all is not lost, ever. We are. We are not individuals. New does not happen without a dropping away of old. And creation is always on-going. Far from nihilism, Zen resides in eternal change.



Any effort to open our eyes when lost will reveal new wonders. Lost just means we feel the loss of our cradle. Step out. Stand up. Be alive.



Be well.

Change

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Our lives are full of mysteries and we organize them into what makes sense and what does not, what we accept and what we do not, what we fear, love, hate, and just plain will not admit to. Its all very natural. Its all very challenging. So, we pretend or hope or pray. And one day it all comes crashing down. The paradigm no longer tolerates the cracks.

The world took a long time to accept the planet was not flat...some still believe it to be so. The new paradigm takes time to settle in, to gain acceptance, and for us to throw off the old.

We have a view of things, perhaps from childhood, perhaps from an experience so penetrating that its memory always remains fresh, or perhaps from a social convention: what to do when this view no longer works?

As John Bingham is fond of saying regarding running, "There's No Need for Speed". Patience is a necessary partner in this process, as are all the other paramitas. A wise person does not rush in to change the world. Nor does he tarry along the way. Nor does he throw the baby out with the bathwater. We rarely know what the change needs to be, what direction it should take, or how far it should go.

Life offers us many opportunities to address change, as change is like the elephant in the room no one seems willing to seriously address. Religious views change, social practices and norms change, our essential understanding of ourselves changes. all the while we hold on, put off, deny, or otherwise fail to deal.

An open heart, an open mind, and a compassionate hand go a long way in this process Change is difficult, not changing in the face of a need for change can be tragic.

We waddle on.

Be well

One Step

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,,



Today, Zazen at 6:30 AM at Roshi's residence; streetZen at 10:30 at Veteran's Park; Mediation at 3:00 and Study Group at 4:00 at Roshi's residence..



Yesterday I tried to take a walk with friends Allen and Eve through the desert park. Could only go half way and had t return. My Left Foot was having none of it.Perhaps it is time now to use kinhin as my walking style.



Kinhin is a deliberate, slow, mindful walking too often wrongly understood as a break from Zazen.Kinhin is meditation, it is Zen in motion. Mindful, it embraces body in motion in environment. Balance, touch, breath, forward motion, and empty mind abide there.



Slow, like Tai Chi, there is no where to get to where one has not already been.. The universe in each step. Infinity and ground meet. Spirit moves across the face of the deep. With each breath our universe is crated and maintained.



It's the Zen One Step.



Be well.

May We Be a Blessing

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



Morning of the only day there is

opens in silence.

My breath is slow and steady.

My heart opens to you.

Breathing in, I take in our suffering,

breathing out, I offer us my love.



But there is so very much suffering

and yet I am serene.



Last night

at a Rabbi's house

We said a blessing,

ate a lovely meal,

and settled in to watch.

a film

.

It was about an IED unit in Iraq.

And demanded recall:



war is far more than a nasty word...



The energy of deep compassion

Set a-swirl, like the stars in the sky

in a drunken night...i chant,

Everything is precious.


All my past and harmful karma...

Born from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion,

Through body, speech, and mind,

I now fully avow...



Scotch helps.

As does zazen.

Breathing in,

breathing out.



It is morning.

and I have not slept much.

I sit in the zendo and listen.



The sky is still dark

But the swirls have

become gentle streams.

Vast wings

enfold all beings

and I release myself

into them.



Let war be no more, let love be your light.



Be well.

Dance

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



Senzaki-roshi says, "The old timers in a religious group consider themselves to have reached the top, and then jump from where they are, leaving the very principles of that religion. They are poor fish who cannot swim in the water."



When our eyes are open, there is no question, we swim because it is what we do. An open eye is a completely integrated eye, therefore eye and no eye at once.



When about to face a question, we cannot answer. We answer only when the question is asked and we do so without pointing.



As Leonard Cohen says, dance me till the end of love.



And if love is the essential, core, complete and total reality?



Dance on...



Be well.

Awe

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

The morning brings desert wind and small splatters of rain. I imagine the desert floor is being swept by the Infinite. I remember once while climbing the Organ Mountains, a storm came out of the southwest. From my elevation, I could see it rolling across the valley toward the mountains. The feeling was a sweet combination of fear and utter awe.

Such moments enter one's body like a shotgun to the stomach.

Over time, this feeling lays in wait. It can open and spread, like a pool of honey being fed by that Infinite Wellspring or it can remain a puddle being stepped over by those of us who are busy.

This morning as I walked outside, my feet refused to move. My eyes were fixed on clouds rolling down the slopes of the Organs. I was transfixed.

Whatever the Infinite is, it is here.

Be well.

What Next?

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



This morning came too soon and not soon enough. Too soon in the sense that I had a late night with Study Group followed by dinner and long conversation with my close friend friend and psychiatrist, Abe. Not soon enough in that life is so short and there is so much to do.



We discussed a sort of midrash in group. Midrash is a story offering a back-story to a biblical tale. This midrash was about what happened after Jacob discovered God was everywhere and he saw the ladder to heaven. God asks Jacob to go up the ladder and Jacob refused. The question then becomes quite existential.



I likened this to the Zen koan about having attained the top of the hundred foot pole to only be asked, "What is your next step?"



If the top of the pole signifies awakening, then what? Buddha faced this on the morning of his awakening. Jesus likely faced it in the desert after his dance with the devil.



Is this all there is?



How do I face my future? If I am One, then what is the meaning and role of two?



Am I a hero or a coward? Which is to ask, am I authentic or a fraud?



Even with awakening, God in our heart, Jesus on our shoulder, and direct connection with Everything, we still must live.



How?



Be well.