2012.04.24 _ 14

I could have gone to a 6-day Zen sesshin starting today.... but it's too much for me physically now. Part of me wants to be there in the silence. Old age and diseases are definitely wrong...somebody made a mistake somewhere :) At least that's the way we often seem to think. But it's all working out in its own inexplicable way. There's a freedom in not worrying if I am doing it wrong. And I don't have to think others are doing it wrong either.

Musing 'spontaneous accomplishment', or work that is done without doing... considering discussion re passivity v activity. Slowing down to consider all that I/we am/are 'doing' as a matter of course in any given moment, and the accumulation of, in some ways, possibly damage from doing that doesn't spring from a right/clear posture place... non-doing as right *action*. There is vibrance and vitality in equanimity. "By their fruits..."

Also that those people/places/books that have had the most significant impact on my life personally weren't 'imposing' but rather offering/displaying/being... in a sense, living gestures and often of less and less 'doing' which then is indeed accomplishment and help/healing of a sort that has 0 drawbacks.

At the same time, even the damage and drawbacks are included in great 'perfection', and there is 'enough'. Se lah.

:) @ Storm... the ever frustrating "I wouldn't want to deprive you of finding it for yourself." hahah edited 01:05, 25 Apr 2012

Eliza's comment today reminds me of conversational research I learned in management training in the 1980s. Studies showed that when someone proposed an idea, the take-up by others was less, and the resistance was greater, than if they had suggested it. What's the difference? The proposal isn't imposing as such, but the openness of the suggestion invites a "no" answer, yet is far less likely to get it. All part of fascinating and extremely useful research.

Karuna-metta meditation this morning. Too exhausted to walk far yet.

Couldn't resist the following cartoon link from today's Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal daily web comic. http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20120424.gif

"Where I Hide: Ordinary Space, Available Light"

Almost two decades ago a monk ("Tenzin") did a six-month retreat here at the farm. He relied on me to bring him everything he needed and never once left the yard around his "hut" - not even when I encouraged him to see a doctor for a serious medical condition. Among several "surprising" items Tenzin asked me to bring him were artificial flowers of specified colors.

When six months had passed and winter arrived, Tenzin moved on to a Buddhist community in Berkeley, leaving the artificial flowers in his "hut."

Photographing them today brought happy memories.

http://www.hermitdog.com/99-Days/4-24-2012.jpg edited 13:28, 26 Apr 2012

I wonder whether the monk's need for artificial flowers had something to do with wanting time to stop, wishing that things didn't always have to change - like flowers dying.