It is too clear and so it is hard to see.
A dunce once searched for a fire with a
lighted lantern.
Had he known what fire was,
He could have cooked his rice much sooner.
– Joshu Washes the Bowl, The Gateless Gate #7
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, p. 176
Translated by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki
In this topsey turvey time when everything seems to be coming to pieces, I often feel shadows of doom and despair creep over me. Some days it is...
Right Effort is part of the Eightfold Path of the Buddha’s teaching. It suggests not pushing too hard and not going slack. I find that every day and in every situation I have to practice right effort. In every pose, every pranayama breath I must find “right tension”. It really is an art, an internal art and I caution to others in this chapter not to push too hard in their practice.
One of my friends made a bumper sticker that read: Dare to Go Slow. In this era of speed people are likely to feel urgency and “rush hour” goes on all day long. This is unfortunate for it is only by slowing down that healing can occur. When I slow down I feel that I can heal my body and heal my relationships. Slowing down enables me to pay attention. When I slow down my breath and slow down my mind I enter into a vast open realm, just outside the pressurized speed trap of the daily grind.
Can we live a life open to the new? Around the globe we are confronted by this question, how can we adapt and change, open to a new way of being? Can we break the habit of identity that we have assumed for the last 100 years? Yogis have always sought to rewire the habit body and habit making mind to discover a life that is alive, clear, flowing and full of discovery.⠀
We are blessed to have a one (and only) child Eno Sinclair Little, born Aug 13, 2004 here in Santa Fe N.M. Today on his 16th birthday, he embarks on...
To empty is to let go. Typically we hold onto so much stuff. We hold onto ideas, belief systems, family members. We hold onto ingrained ideas about ourselves like “I am not good enough and “there is nothing I can do to change.” To empty is to let go of the old—the old paradigm, the old attitude, the old self. By emptying we become more open, more available, more in the here and now.