Finding Direction In Challenging Times
- Greetings From Japan
- Insights Into Practices
- What I’m Watching
- Three Month Practice Period
- Half Day Retreats
Greetings from Japan. I just walked the first day of the Kumano Kodo trail, part of an ancient, sacred walk, in the mountains of the Wakayama peninsula, south of Osaka. Beautiful. Not easy. Worth the effort.
Go Straight Ahead: Insights Into Practices
These are uneasy, challenging times. It’s hard to fathom what will happen with a Trump administration. And, I’m a big believer that the future is impossible to predict. Who would have ever thought Trump would be president, twice? Impossible! And, who would have ever thought Obama would be president? Impossible!
The future is certainly uncertain. What to do? What direction should we take?
Here is a Zen story that (perhaps) provides some direction:
A monk trying to find his way, approaches an older woman on the mountain path and asks, “What is the way to Mt.Tai” She responds, “Go straight ahead.”
A second monk on the path encounters the same woman and asks, “What is the way to Mt Tai?” Again, she responds, “Go straight ahead.”
Later one of these monks told the great Zen teacher Joshu about these incidents.
Joshu said, “Let me go myself and check out this woman.” (Apparently wanting to test her wisdom. And, of course, this being a Zen story, the question of What is the way to Mt. Tai, may actually mean more like, “What direction should I take next in my life, or in this most uncertain life?”)
Joshu approaches the woman and asks, “What is the way to Mt.Tai” She responds, “Go straight ahead.”
Following this encounter, Joshu meets with his assembly of monks and reports, “I have checked out the old woman. She is just fine.”
What’s the point of this story? Without wavering, without foreboding or overthinking, the way forward is “Go straight ahead.” Don’t get sidetracked or swayed by the events of the world. Don’t get emotionally embroiled in trying to predict or fret about the future.
These Zen stories often contain a commentary by the collector of the stories. In this case the commentary to this story says:
“Before the question is asked,
You have already arrived.
Before taking a step
You are already home.”
My commentary on this commentary: The world is not what it seems. Stay close to your heart. Don’t get caught by the events of the world. And go straight ahead, making your best effort to do what is right, taking the most effective actions possible. Perhaps, everything is just as it ought to be.
Practice:
Go Straight Ahead! With courage, strength, and cautious optimism. None of us can predict the future. Explore working with “Go straight ahead” or “Before taking a step, You are already home.”
(A volcanic ledge by the ocean in southern Japan.)
What I’m Watching
The Diplomat, Season 2 – Very entertaining. The show blends political intrigue with personal drama, exploring the complexities of global diplomacy, and power struggles. It features intense negotiations, strategic alliances, and the high stakes of foreign policy.
Appreciating Your Life: A 3-Month Zen Practice Period
January 8th – April 2nd, 2025
Online
A 3-month Practice Period is a great way to begin or deepen your mindfulness and meditation practice and cultivate ways for integrating mindfulness practice with your work and all parts of your life.
Online meetings are Wednesday from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. PT. We will begin each session with 30 minutes of lightly guided meditation, followed by a short talk, as well as small group and large group discussions.
The theme for the Practice Period is Appreciating Your Life. This is the underlying theme of meditation practice and Zen practice – seeing and feeling everything, the good, bad, ugly, beautiful – as gift and an opportunity to learn, grow, and engage. It’s the practice of feeling deeply, opening our hearts and minds, with a mindset of appreciation, and of being of benefit, through our ability to see more clearly, to accept what is, and work effectively with change and for change.
Our focus will be on how Zen practice can be integrated into daily life to help us:
– cultivate greater wellbeing
– navigate change and challenges
– discover more meaning and purpose in work and relationship
Our primary reading for the practice period is Branching Streams Flow In The Darkness, Zen Talks on a poem called the Sandokai, or the Harmony of Difference and Equality. This is an excellent primer on the non-dual teaching is Zen practice and how to apply them to your wellbeing, relationships, work, and social and environmental responsibility.
Being part of a community that meets weekly is a powerful way to find more clarity and connection as we begin a New Year. Each week we will meditate together for 30 minutes. Then, I’ll give a short talk, unpacking ideas and practices from Branch Stream Flow In The Darkness. We will have a variety of small group and large group discussions, to practice and deepen the tools and themes discussed. Each week you will leave with an actionable insight, or a practice, and a suggested reading.
Weekly sessions will be recorded and made available in case you miss any sessions or want to revisit them.
I hope you will join me.
Half Day Retreats
December 8th, In Person and Online, in Mill Valley
January 26th, 2025, In Person and Online, in Mill Valley.
In our world of busyness, of more/faster/better, this half-day retreat offers time to stop, reflect, and renew. We will explore the practices of effort and effortless as a path to well-being and “stepping into your life.” Together we’ll follow a gentle schedule of sitting and walking meditation, a talk, and some discussion.
Anyone looking to begin or deepen a meditation and mindfulness practice is invited to attend. What is meditation? I like a definition proposed by Dogen, the 13th century founder of Zen in Japan: “The practice I speak of is not meditation. It is simply the dharma gate of repose and bliss…It is the manifestation of ultimate reality…Once its heart is grasped, you are like a dragon when he gains the water, like a tiger when she enters the mountains.”
Warm regards,
Marc