Finding The Time To Listen More Deeply
· Insights Into Practices
· Zen Puzzler: Whatever you meet is the path
· What I’m Reading: Two children’s books
· Half-day Retreat: In Mill Valley
· Weekend Retreat: Green Gulch Farm
Insights Into Practices
I’m often drawn to these few lines of “poetry and pragmatism” from a poem by Tony Hoagland:
“Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds
of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder
or a safe spare tire?”
The worlds of work, business, and leadership generally emphasize being pragmatic — filled with coffee grinders and spare tires. The word pragmatic comes from the Greek word pragmatikos, which means skilled in business. Much of our days, our work, and attention tend to be focused on what is practical. It’s easy to lose sight of the poetry of our time, transitions, humanity, birth, death, and love — and how these are all woven into the many pragmatic aspects of work, business, leadership, and life, when we pay attention, when we find time to listen more deeply.
We are all weavers, weaving together the practical and the poetic. A few minutes of remembering, or listening, or poetry every day can go a long way, to support this weaving.
Washing the dishes, business planning, or leading meetings can be a chore or they can be acts of love. You get to choose. Our days can be rooted in the practical as well as rooted in the aspirational, loving, and poetic.
Here is the full poem. It emphasizes not only the poetic but also the importance of pleasure and a reminder that “the kingdom still exists” for anyone willing to “find the time, to sit out in the sun to listen.”
The Word
Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,
between “green thread”
and “broccoli” you find
that you have penciled “sunlight.”
Resting on the page, the word
is as beautiful, it touches you
as if you had a friend
and sunlight were a present
he had sent you from some place distant
as this morning — to cheer you up,
and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing,
that also needs accomplishing
Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds
of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder
or a safe spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue
but today you get a telegram,
from the heart in exile
proclaiming that the kingdom
still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,
–to any one among them
who can find the time,
to sit out in the sun and listen.
~ Tony Hoagland, from Sweet Ruin (1992)
Zen Puzzler: Whatever you meet is the path.
Zen koans or what I sometimes call puzzlers are stories or phrases intended to free our minds from greed, hatred, and confusion. There are hundreds of traditional Zen koans that have been handed down from Chinese Zen teachers from 1,500 years ago. I love studying these, and I also am drawn to selecting and creating more modern and accessible stories and phrases. For me, these are tools and practices for deepening and integrating a pragmatic and poetic life.
Today’s Zen puzzler comes from a Tibetan Buddhist tradition called lojong teachings. These are teachings that use various slogans as a way of supporting us to become more aware and more clear about our motivations. These are practices for shifting from being a victim to having greater agency, and greater freedom.
The slogan for today is, “Whatever you meet is the path.” Imagine anytime you are feeling tired, frustrated, or grumpy you come back to this expression, “Whatever you meet is the path.” Our challenges are the path. Our grumpiness is the path. Our love, our passions, our desires, things that push us away, whatever it is we’re feeling, are all the path.
One very practical way to work with this koan is to do some journal writing about it. What does this mean, Whatever you meet is the path? Or write it down on a card and keep it somewhere on your desk or maybe on the dashboard of your car. Driving can be inspirational: imagine seeing driving, whether you’re in traffic or being cut off by another driver, though the lens “Whatever you meet is the path.”
What I’m Reading
Meteor! by Patricia Polacca. This is a children’s book that works well for adults. It’s about how we can empower small and large events through our belief system.
Everyone Knows What A Dragon Looks Like, by Jay Williams and Mercer Mayer. This is one of my favorite children’s books. Beautifully illustrated and a great story.
Half Day Sitting, In-Person and Online – Sunday October 13th
9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. in Mill Valley.
I really like half day retreats, where there is time for some extended meditation periods, some walking, and time to process with a small community. Then, time to enjoy a Sunday afternoon.
Weekend Retreat In-person, Green Gulch Farm
November 1 – 3
Come spend the weekend at Green Gulch Farm, located on the coast, just north of San Francisco. Wake up hearing the sound of the ocean, enjoy the simple but amazing vegetarian food, and explore the garden, farm, and coastal trails.
In our world of busyness, of more, faster, better, this retreat offers time to stop, reflect, and renew – a time to step fully into the richness of your life. Together we’ll follow a gentle schedule of sitting and walking meditation, interspersed with talks and discussions from the wisdom of Zen teaching as we explore how these stories and dialogues may be utilized in our relationships, our work, and our lives
This retreat is open to all people interested in stopping, exploring, and bringing more awareness and mindfulness to daily life