The Spin You're In
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
The air is cool this morning, but not moving. The stillness of morning is most delicious. If we open our eyes and just experience this stillness, somehow the universe makes sense. This is so because we have not as yet been pulled into the details. We can, in the quiet, serene reflection of early morning, just experience presence.
Then, the coffee is ready, the wife gets up, the telephone rings, and its time to run or go to the Zen Center. The details enter our heart/mind with a roar and there we are, fully in motion.
Now, it may seem as though these two experiences are vastly different, but they are not. The only thing that has really changed is our relationship to them. Stillness is a state of mind; activity is a state of mind. As the Sixth Patriarch said to the two monks arguing over which is moving, the flag or the wind, "mind is moving, "
Both stillness and activity are just what they are. We add value to them, whether this value is a good or a bad thing. When we are present and doing what s there to do, listening to silence or listening to wife; walking to fitness or walking to walk; we are in each case just walking or just listening. The thing before the thought or feeling is reality; the rest is our construction or spin on that reality.
Our practice is to reduce the spin on the one hand and accept is as it is on the other hand. How do we do this? Practice zazen.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
The air is cool this morning, but not moving. The stillness of morning is most delicious. If we open our eyes and just experience this stillness, somehow the universe makes sense. This is so because we have not as yet been pulled into the details. We can, in the quiet, serene reflection of early morning, just experience presence.
Then, the coffee is ready, the wife gets up, the telephone rings, and its time to run or go to the Zen Center. The details enter our heart/mind with a roar and there we are, fully in motion.
Now, it may seem as though these two experiences are vastly different, but they are not. The only thing that has really changed is our relationship to them. Stillness is a state of mind; activity is a state of mind. As the Sixth Patriarch said to the two monks arguing over which is moving, the flag or the wind, "mind is moving, "
Both stillness and activity are just what they are. We add value to them, whether this value is a good or a bad thing. When we are present and doing what s there to do, listening to silence or listening to wife; walking to fitness or walking to walk; we are in each case just walking or just listening. The thing before the thought or feeling is reality; the rest is our construction or spin on that reality.
Our practice is to reduce the spin on the one hand and accept is as it is on the other hand. How do we do this? Practice zazen.
Be well.