With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Yesterday we had a wind come across the desert down off the mountains. Those who live 'back east' or in other parts of the world may not understand what a "wind" means. Let me say that its rather like being present in a wind tunnel. Desert winds are often sustained and go through the day and night.
To be present in such wind means there is no real escaping it. The sound is just there, along with the air pressure and its other manifestations. I once ran a full marathon into such a wind.
Like the heat, or noise, or hustle of all the rest of our environmental challenges to our serenity, we must learn to be in the challenge itself. Once we exist within the challenge, no challenge can exist, as challenge.
This is so difficult, yet so simple. Challenge, difficulty, trouble or bother: all are mental constructs. All are statements suggesting a value we bring to the situation. We do not like such and such! Go away! How can I be peaceful when the whole world is at war?!!!
Two things. Recognize that our attitude or orientation means everything. When we accept the wind as a fact of our life, appreciate it for what it is, join the noise so to speak, no problem. Second, we cannot change the world all at once or even a little at a time. All we can do is change within ourselves and allow that change to bloom in the world itself.
So, how does one step into a concrete wall?
Be well.
1 comment:
Permit me to attempt to put my limited Japanese to use for my two cents:
撞著露柱 Rochi ni dōchaku su
From the Hekiganroku, this verse is usually rendered as "run into a pillar" (as it is in Victor Hori's Zen Sand).
I'd love to go over the characters one by one to get a sense of the meanings that didn't make it through the translation:
撞 by itself is usually translated as "collide".
著 basically means "make known, to express, clarify". However, it also has the connotation of acceptance, tolerance in the "positive" sense, and attachment or clinging in the "negative" sense.
露 actually means "dew", but here it implies to disclose, to reveal, to expose, clarify, manifest.
柱 (pillar) is composed of 木 tsu, a tree; and 主 chu, an oil lamp made of clay 土 which the "leader" (= the True Person) holds. This "lamp" implies close investigation and attentive seeing/listening, and is part of the 觀 Kan of 觀音 Kanzeon.
Interesting isn't it? All of that in four characters!
My acts are irrevocable
Because they have no essence...
Where are the doers of deeds
Absent among their conditions?
(Nagarjuna)
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