Four Questions...

I approach this day with an open heart.

Some mornings as eyes open to morning light, a sweet little invocation slips in. This particular morning, I shared the above snippet with a friend of mine, Hillary, who remarked that the words were "timely and timeless." Indeed, it seems that with rest and stillness, comes clarity that transcends time and space and befits situations we may find ourselves in.

Recently while care-giving and doing Metta for a beloved one, four questions came to mind:

1) What is your suffering?
2) What can I do to help?
3) What are your joys?
4) What can I do to lengthen them?

When our hearts stay open and we listen deeply, the answers to the above questions materialize. As life unfolds and we care for our beloveds, interact with our "not-so-beloveds," have fun and manage difficult situations, it's possible to look deeply and discover--What's your suffering and how can I help? What are your joys and how can I lengthen them? We can ask these four questions to ourselves as well, taking care of our pain and remembering to also water seeds of peace and joy as we move through this glorious life. In every moment of the day, we have opportunities to practice keeping our hearts open and free....

Emptiness Is Not Nothingness

Avalokita 

This week in community the topic of "emptiness" was explored with much sharing about the realization that when we hold onto a specific form, we suffer. Instances were mentioned regarding our felt sufferings when a loved one passes away. A dear one in attendance had experienced the loss of an immediate family member just a few days ago and related.

It's interesting that in Native American tradition, when a loved one dies, it's believed that we gain fuller access to their wisdom ~ for there is no longer a form keeping us separate. What a lovely idea to practice with.

Discourse on Absolute Truth comes to mind with the following directives:

When seeing, hearing, or sensing something and considering it as the only thing that can bring comfort...one is always inclined to get caught in it and rule out everything else as inferior.

Why is spiritual form less than physical form? Perhaps we fear the nothingness of ourselves or our beloved one, but is that ever possible? Or perhaps we've become attached to the idea of our loved one being a form we can see, hear, and experience physically. Zen enjoys immensely the questioning process for it promotes concentration and ultimately insight.

Come stretch, feel, pull, experience with LTMC, the great wonders that are outside our perceptions of solid space and time this week. It's our commitment to practice with emptiness as a space full of possibilities. We are interwoven, connected beyond the boundaries of a separate self, free of identity or form. Is your head spinning yet? We'll see you next week :)

MP3 of Avalokita Heart Sutra
Sutra lyrics

Sowing Seeds (And Digging Up Roots)

I just returned from a Deer Park retreat in Escondido, CA, a mindfulness practice center in the tradition of Plum Village/Thich Nhat Hanh. The retreat theme was, "Turning Outward with Inward Stability," with the encouragement to increase our engagement with our world. Mindfulness practice is twofold:

1) taking care of suffering 
2) cultivating happiness and freedom

Another way to look at this might be to know the mud, but to also know the lotuses. How do we cultivate delight everyday? How do we encourage the lotus to grow and push up through the muck? 

These questions corresponds nicely with the April mindfulness theme of sowing seeds. How do we plant seeds of peace, love and understanding in our daily lives? When we engage someone with our smile, hold the door open for an elder, shovel snow for our neighbor (spring in Tahoe:), we sow seeds that can't help but grow beautiful flowers. These simple acts could be called right conditions. Using our spring gardens as metaphors--with fertile ground, sunlight and rain, the cherry tree blooms effortlessly. Consciously cultivating the right conditions in ourselves and in our loved ones is our mindfulness practice. When we do so, suffering is lessened right away.    

I feel a poem coming on...."In the garden of a clear mind, a flower blooms..."