With palms together,
This morning I sat outside in our courtyard looking at the stars. It was 28 degrees. Not bad as I was wearing a robe and my running tights. With each breath thoughts arose. I considered the Bataan Memorial Death March and whether I would finish it. I considered the few dirty dishes in our sink. I considered the coffee brewing in our kitchen. And so on. A shooting star caught the corner of my eye. That speck, caught in our atmosphere, flamed out and I was reminded of my age. We each will flame out at some time. I was reminded of a conversation I had yesterday at the café in Mesilla. My friend told me his neighbor had died in his sleep a few days ago. He was 68. I will be 67 next month. It seems as we age we hear such stories and, like the shooting star, we are reminded of the brief time we have in awareness.
In one of the 101 Zen Stories there is a story about a monk who is admonished not to waste his time. Our study group on Thursday considered this. What does this mean? Can time be wasted? What assumptions are present for such an idea to be expressed? In another text there is a story about a monk who wondered what to do with the trash he had just swept up. His teacher told him there was no trash and went about experientially teaching the young monk the truth of this statement. Waste and trash are similar. They dismiss the value of what is there before us. The moment I had sitting outside in the cold this morning was every bit as valuable as doing something in service to others. Every moment is precious, made ever the more so by reminders that some of us die early in the flash of a moment.
Waste is a concept we create because we add value to something else. Trash is a concept we create because we cannot see the value of that which we call trash. Yet everything, like every moment, has intrinsic value and should not be dismissed. We need to learn to look deeply at what is there before us. To do this we need to practice the art of looking past our judgments, for judgments we will, as a matter of course, make. When we can see the value of a moment regardless of what else we have to do, we have the opportunity to develop gratitude for simply being. When we can see the value of what we have called trash we will eventually be able to embrace that which we have diminished.
May we practice to be blessings in the universe.
This morning I sat outside in our courtyard looking at the stars. It was 28 degrees. Not bad as I was wearing a robe and my running tights. With each breath thoughts arose. I considered the Bataan Memorial Death March and whether I would finish it. I considered the few dirty dishes in our sink. I considered the coffee brewing in our kitchen. And so on. A shooting star caught the corner of my eye. That speck, caught in our atmosphere, flamed out and I was reminded of my age. We each will flame out at some time. I was reminded of a conversation I had yesterday at the café in Mesilla. My friend told me his neighbor had died in his sleep a few days ago. He was 68. I will be 67 next month. It seems as we age we hear such stories and, like the shooting star, we are reminded of the brief time we have in awareness.
In one of the 101 Zen Stories there is a story about a monk who is admonished not to waste his time. Our study group on Thursday considered this. What does this mean? Can time be wasted? What assumptions are present for such an idea to be expressed? In another text there is a story about a monk who wondered what to do with the trash he had just swept up. His teacher told him there was no trash and went about experientially teaching the young monk the truth of this statement. Waste and trash are similar. They dismiss the value of what is there before us. The moment I had sitting outside in the cold this morning was every bit as valuable as doing something in service to others. Every moment is precious, made ever the more so by reminders that some of us die early in the flash of a moment.
Waste is a concept we create because we add value to something else. Trash is a concept we create because we cannot see the value of that which we call trash. Yet everything, like every moment, has intrinsic value and should not be dismissed. We need to learn to look deeply at what is there before us. To do this we need to practice the art of looking past our judgments, for judgments we will, as a matter of course, make. When we can see the value of a moment regardless of what else we have to do, we have the opportunity to develop gratitude for simply being. When we can see the value of what we have called trash we will eventually be able to embrace that which we have diminished.
May we practice to be blessings in the universe.
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