Perfection

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



Opening and Dedication today at 4:00 PM.



This promises to be a busy day and to meet it I decided to take the night “off” last night to rest. Rev. Kajo did the evening Zen service for the Temple. This morning I spoke with Rev. Dai Shugyo and arranged for he and Zen Shin will meet at Temple at 9:00 AM for Zazen and, later, planning.



Somewhere in between Zazen and the Opening, I need to get supplies, a shower, shave my head, print handouts, and prepare the Temple for lots of visitors.



I am practicing letting go of perfection practice. In this practice, we let go of our ideas of perfection and realize perfection as it arises naturally. I recommend this practice, but it only truly opens, I believe, through adversity and stress. Like a koan, we rarely actualize it until we are at the end of our proverbial rope. Once there, we can practice letting go of perfection and then take the practice into the everyday world.



I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Maturity in practice is critical and it only happens with a willingness to reflect, contextualize, and let go. As my friend Rudi, from Tricycle.com says, its prajna. Frankly, I think we expect far too much of ourselves far too early in our practice. Just practice. This is all that really matters in the Zen world.



And now, on to the Temple for my day.



Be well.