Nothing Too Small, Too Insignificant

I'm sitting in my backyard garden watching the moon go down over the top of my fence and contemplating an insight experienced this morning. I woke early in anticipation of taking my stand up paddle board out on the Lake. Pristine and calm morning was forecasted with winds and possible thunderstorms building early afternoon. After a busy beginning to my summer, I was looking most forward to my first morning out; however, I could not find the straps that tie down the board for transport! I searched everywhere I knew to search but to no avail. By now, the morning heat was setting in(side me!). I walked to the garden shade and took a seat. I began practicing mindful breathing to regain myself and sure enough, insight surfaced....

Interestingly, as part of my earlier morning practice, I had just read the Diamond Sutra and in it, the Buddha discussed the idea of no-self--that nothing exists outside its dependency on other things, both living and non-living. It's easy perhaps to see our dependency on living things: food, water, our beautiful earth, but what of our dependency on non-living things. I was contemplating this idea moments before the search for the paddle board straps began. Some time later, when I finally gave up, sat still and breathed, a simple mantra came into my head, "No straps, no paddle board." The same can be said of Lake Tahoe, a healthy body, my car, a parking spot, hands which constructed by board....So much inter-dependency, This "self going paddle boarding" does not exist, it's pure illusion.

So, the moon, she mirrors a more spacious truth as I take a deep sigh and she sinks below my sight line. At this moment, I remember the lesson of no-self and the value and gratitude for all beings, both living and non-living.