Wholeheartedness
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
My Zendo window is open, the cool morning air has refreshed the room. A stick of incense is burning at the alter and I have completed my morning meditation. It is always good to do what is front of you to do. If you are a Zen Buddhist, you practice Zazen.
We go about our day being present. This being present is wholehearted, not half-assed (as my father used to say). It means we put our mind and body together with our environment and activity. Its a unity of action, living. This unity is the gestalt of Big Mind.
So, as I light my alter candle, I light my alter candle completely, mind present, fingers present, eyes present, nose present, ears present, mouth present. Its not just lighting a candle, its a chord.
When you read this short note, where is your mind? Where is your body? If your mind and body are not together and just on this note, you are not fully present. Today we seem to celebrate this. We call it multi-tasking. Mind acting like a traffic cop directing various tasks being completed simultaneously, yet none with wholeheartedness, It is any wonder our culture is so uncivilized? Or that we might feel our lives have so little meaning?
We are more than the number of tasks we can accomplish in five minutes time. Yet we fear to sit down with ourselves and experience what we are in fact.
What is that?
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
My Zendo window is open, the cool morning air has refreshed the room. A stick of incense is burning at the alter and I have completed my morning meditation. It is always good to do what is front of you to do. If you are a Zen Buddhist, you practice Zazen.
We go about our day being present. This being present is wholehearted, not half-assed (as my father used to say). It means we put our mind and body together with our environment and activity. Its a unity of action, living. This unity is the gestalt of Big Mind.
So, as I light my alter candle, I light my alter candle completely, mind present, fingers present, eyes present, nose present, ears present, mouth present. Its not just lighting a candle, its a chord.
When you read this short note, where is your mind? Where is your body? If your mind and body are not together and just on this note, you are not fully present. Today we seem to celebrate this. We call it multi-tasking. Mind acting like a traffic cop directing various tasks being completed simultaneously, yet none with wholeheartedness, It is any wonder our culture is so uncivilized? Or that we might feel our lives have so little meaning?
We are more than the number of tasks we can accomplish in five minutes time. Yet we fear to sit down with ourselves and experience what we are in fact.
What is that?
Be well.