The Japanese Zen Master Suzuki Roshi was once asked by a newspaper reporter if he could describe Zen in two words. He nodded his assent and then said,” Not always so.”
And so it is with the newsletter- not quite yet always so. But with a beginning comes the chance to strengthen the movement started. One is the first step to another One.
I say to myself the words my teacher, P’arang, had spoken to her when she was frustrated by the fruits of her efforts to memorize a very long chant. “ You have ten thousand years.” And I move as best as I can.
Meeting Each Other
The suggested off-the-mat practice this week is to notice the space between yourself and another when you meet. It helped me to take the words of adrienne maree brown in her spell to cast upon meeting a stranger,comrade or friend working for social and/or environmental justice and liberation which begins with ,” you are a miracle walking.”
I set out to investigate- what are the resistances? Where do I find the energetic pulses which strengthen this? How can I meet each person I encounter as a miracle walking?
Thich Nhat Hahn pointed to the next Buddha existing not in the form of a human being but in the spaces between us. What if the space between us, the meeting space, is Buddha? What if it is a place to take refuge, an awakened cell in the universal body? How do I listen? How do I talk?
That then also leads to the question,”How do I meet myself?” It leads to noticing the way I direct thoughts and feelings to my own self. Do I treat myself as a miracle walking?
I have been practicing metta, the sending of loving compassion and practicing it on myself to notice the resistances there as well. As I drive I chant,” May I be well, May I be happy, May I be at ease, May I be free.” I notice the places I crumble, the places I dissolve, the places I cry. Notice the meeting places, allow the insight of the miraculous to enter.
What IS Meditation?
A favorite person and former student of mine came to the Solstice Spiral at Field Temple and she had this question. “ What IS meditation?” She said she wanted an overview course, something that offered a sense of what this practice of meditation is all about. From big minds come big questions, so this course is designed around Aaliya’s question and is open to anyone else interested.
This is not a “How-To” course. It is not designed to teach participants how to meditate. It is a course designed to look at the basis of meditation, fundamental concepts involved in the practice of meditation, fundamental patterns of meditation, different types of meditation, how meditation affects the body and mind.
The course is offered as the very first Field Temple Zoom School session. It takes place on Sunday, January 9 from 2-4 pm.
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8025091261?pwd=NC82NG9XRGI5SWFyZ2MrRnIxaTErdz09
Meeting ID: 802 509 1261
Passcode: m2yS5F
There is a suggested offering of between $1.00 and $20.00 dollars. A suggested offering is a way to practice cultivating generosity. It is suggested that when you come to a Temple
( even on Zoom), you always bring something which helps you practice. You look inside yourself and notice what level of offering helps you feel generous. A flowing generosity is what is aimed for. If you are in a situation of having no monetary resources, make a non-monetary offering. A poem? A painting? A loaf of bread? A flower?
How to make a monetary offering? On our website is a donation link. Donations can also be mailed to 3327 Farnsworth, Detroit, MI 48211, the current address of our Field Temple office , or brought to meditation on Sundays at 10 am at 5333 Elmwood, Detroit, MI 48211.
Return to the One
When we are sitting in zazen ( zen meditation) and we come to expansive silence, what remains when the self is forgotten?
Everything.
Images of waves inspired by Hamonshu: A Japanese Book of Wave and Ripple Designs
Many Bows to you as you navigate the expanse of the meeting spaces within and without, Bhavana Sarah Addae