Everyday Holiness

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

I look forward to a clear, sunny day today. Cool, with a high in the fifties, it will be a delightful day to be outside. This morning I will do the grocery shopping; this afternoon, I will teach a class for the Academy on Everyday Holiness.

I don't feel so holy. Holiness in Hebrew means kadosh. Kadosh is a name for God and has a couple of important meanings. One is dedicated. Another is sanctified. We become holy in relation to God through following His precepts. The sages of the Talmud broke these down into three groups: study, prayer/meditation. and acts of loving kindness.

In Zen it is quite the same. We become buddhas through study, meditation, and lovingkindness and we follow the precepts by making them our own, manifesting them in the world.

My sense is that it is important to not dwell too much on this outside of very specific times, but rather to do our best to open ourselves to what is before us in each moment. The skills learned in practice help, but we must actually make the commitment and dedicate ourselves to the process. This is Mussar, from a Jewish point of view, and Insight Meditation from a Buddhist perspective. In the secular world, we might call it cognitive therapy.

Last night I watched several YouTube movies about Zen Teachers. In every case they were pointing to the same place, an empty, beginner's mind, a mind that allows a fresh, undistorted perception and a direct response to it. I am not always so good about this: history seems to get between my eyes. Yet, dedication to Clear Mind is an antidote to this poison, just as dedication to generosity is an antidote to greed and lovingkindness to hate.

May we each take up our practice today with dedication and great vigor.

Be well.