Events

One famous Zen ancestor says nothing is sacred. Another says the sacred and ordinary are less than a hair’s width apart. Another says the sacred is ‘getting tired during long meditations.’ Deshan, however, gives a shout.

I have never ridden a Water Buffalo but I think of them as big, solid, protective sturdy beings and riding one would give you an advantage to slow down, but get there on a crowded road. The Water buffalo is an ally much like my practice. 

August 17th – Individual Conversations on your Meditation Practice
with David Weinstein. Online booking for Sat. now available.

For the first time, David Weinstein along with Cindy Marteney will be guiding participants in our community through the first six precepts, which students take on as koans on the journey toward taking refuge, a journey students have taken in order to live the precepts, not as rules but as companions on the path of awakening.

It is that integration with the body that allows us to experience the freedom to be unstuck and to hear the echo of the sounds of the Valley Spirit and to experience the freedom of walking in the sky with Feng po-po.

In the Tao te Ching the music of earth is said to be produced by the spontaneity of the wind. The music of heaven is the music of silence. The Dragon traverses between heaven and earth as freely as the wind and clouds it rides, not needing to ask permission or explain.

A few days ago on a meditation retreat I was walking along the path with a friend who suddenly yelled, “D, you just stepped on a snake!”  I jumped back, saw a small rattlesnake coiling up into strike position

I had had a turbulent couple of months dealing with changes in important relationships and was feeling a little road weary. I was holding fast to whatever I could, fearful of more change. Never a healthy stance, but there you have it.

Next on my calendar was a float in an isolation tank.  Not something I do every day. Or ever, really. Let me assure you, it’s dark in there. 

As part of my own exploration, as I’m writing this, the question comes to me is: I wonder what Zhuangzi’s reaction would have been if he had dreamt that he was a dung beetle?