The Great Outdoors

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

So, this morning we reveled in coziness and watched a trailer for Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Hunter S. Thompson in a new film titled something about rum and, while I do not support drunken orgies, booze-crazed revelries, and the like, I do strongly support living outside of the so-called “box.”

It seems sometimes, that those knowing there is something more to life feel the need to use alcohol or drugs to free themselves to experience the “Great Outdoors” (my phrase for living outside the box).  The fact is, no one needs drugs or alcohol to free themselves: we are all already free.  We just have to address our fear and let it fall away.

Zen practice is a practice that takes us to the edge, the true edge, not some chemically induced phantom.  Zen practice, truly done, demands our naked bodies to face our naked heart/minds in complete isolation.  “Bang!” It wakes us up, saying, “You miserable slug, there it is!” Nothing left to lose.  Nothing to dress ourselves in that isn’t understood to be the shallow garments of illusion.  Just this. This. The Great Outdoors.

We should do that which we have always wanted to do but never did because we were afraid of doing it. So, we should just get off our butts, get outside and do it. Life is far too short to be normal sedentary blobs.  Life is far too short to live in a box draped in comfort, security,  and fraught with fear.  To paraphrase our friend, Leonard Cohen,  it’s the crack that lets the light get in.

Crack open your box and step outside. 

Be well.

Zen Today

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

This morning we will practice Zazen at 9:30 AM and this evening we will practice Zazen at 6:00 PM. We will follow that with our Zen 101 Group.  This will be the first time we have met to fully begin our study of the Wholehearted Way (the Bendowa).  Please consider joining us.  We have two or three copies of the text available for purchase if you should need a copy. 

Yesterday Kathryn and I went to White sands after morning services.  We had a picnic lunch there by making veggie burgers on a charcoal grill, added some cheese and grapes, and thorough enjoyed a walk on the dunes with the dogs.  From there we went to Oliver Lee State Park and began a trek up into Dog Canyon.  We decided to turn around though as it was getting late and returned home in time for me to have a Skype interview with Rev. Kankin in El Paso. 

Life is good, all around.  I hope each of you are well and we look forward to seeing you this morning and/or evening.  Please don’t forget to register for the Zazenkai on November 5^th from 9 – 4.  The registration sheet is in the Temple’s foyer.  Also do not forget that you will need your oryoki sets for Zazenkai.

May you be a blessing in the universe today.

Yours,

Daiho 

Morning Zen

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

Zazen at 9:30 AM does not begin my day…dog walking, coffee drinking, conversations with Kathryn, washing, pill taking, writing, all of these come first.  Going to the Temple to sit still is frequently a welcome relief from the day to day practice of being alive. 

She asks me, “What are your thoughts?”  I scramble, my brain floats, it doesn’t think.  I see I need to organize what is floating around in there, but just now?  At this very moment?  

She says, “No lovies on your back unless you talk.”  Oh my. I tell her my day’s schedule hoping that will suffice.  It doesn’t.  I scrabble some more.  Thoughts about the refuge surface.  I say, “We need to get to the mountain house to pack up my remaining things there.” 

The lovies begin.  I am relieved as I feel her fingers on my back.  My whole body sinks into the bottom of the bed. But then,  “Say more,” she says.  I scramble again.  “We should go on another camping trip.” I say, thinking of Oliver Lee State Park.  But in the back of my mind, I know I need to abandon this exchange of thoughts for lovies as the dogs need walking and a Zen student will be calling and we will need to be at the Zendo by 9:00…it is already 6:30.  Good grief. It’s one breath and one step, one breath and one step: life in the Zen lane.

And now with coffee sipped, and writing to you done, it is 7:15. Gotta go walk the dogs…be well.

Art

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

Late this afternoon an artist friend invited a gallery owner to come to our house to view my paintings.  I am a bit embarrassed by this, but at the same time pleased.  I just do not know what to make of my work with paint.  Let me try to frame it this way. I know sometimes my painting simply erupts on the canvas. At other times

it takes great care and massaging to bring the image into focus. 

Maybe that is the artist’s way, I don’t know. What I do know:

I love color and soft, mushy lines.  I am less concerned with what something looks like

than what it feels like. Let me in and let me turn it over and over again… 

To quote a line in a film we watched yesterday afternoon, “Does it pull me in or does it repulse me?”  Hard edges do not pull me in, soft openings do. Mystery is good. 

Not knowing what is what is good. Not having the meaning written out in bold,

simple print is good.  Work that draws me in, makes me sweat, and struggle to get every juicy drop out of it is good. Art should be like love and nothing else.

Be well.

New Page

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

This morning I am beginning a new page.  For me, it is important to settle into a routine.  Clearly, in my view, as well as the view of others, I have spent entirely too much time online and with Android in palm.  As I said in my note yesterday, I am limiting this to three times a day. 

I have been feeling as though I have been neglecting my physical and emotional health of late, as well as the state of my relationship with Soku Shin. I slacked off my training and, for all intent and purpose, stopped lifting weights, stopped daily yoga, and settled into the life of a person without a schedule.  The result has been troublesome.

So, this is my new page:  I will check email and phone messages three times a day.  I will respond to messages as needed.  In all cases, I will spend no more than an hour on the machine and will have the phone turned off throughout the day.  The exception here is scheduled Skype interviews with Zen students around the country. 

My exercise plan is simple.  It is the plan I have always used.  Daily aerobic exercise of at least thirty minutes (running, walking/hiking) or biking.  Weights Monday through Saturday, each day hitting two muscle groups, and yoga daily. Of course daily Zazen is a given. We have decided to train for a ten k race in the future.

As to diet, I will be eating much more of a Mediterranean diet with fruit and salads, oils,  nuts, cheeses, and fish.  This diet suits both Soku Shin and myself and is relatively easy to maintain as a lifestyle diet. 

Dean Ornish suggests “opening one’s heart to others” as an essential ingredient in his reversing heart disease program.  I think this is important and I feel that I do this often, but probably not on the deeper levels of intimacy required.  This is certainly something I need to work on.

Those with regularly scheduled interviews with me, please confirm them ASAP as I am not sure I have everyone in place. 

Be well.