- Insights Into Practices: The Practice of Radical Acceptance
- What I’m Reading
- A Poem (Meant to be read slowly)
- 3-Month Practice Period – Starting January 8th
Everything is a mess. Perhaps you’ve noticed.
Not only that but there is too much to do, and not enough time. Too many projects, errands, meetings… It’s hard to ever feel satisfied or rest completely. We are an impatient species.
I know the feeling. Emails to respond to, taking the car to the shop, planning, travel, social media, etc. etc.
The Secret Practice (And it’s not a secret)
I’ve discovered “the secret” is to let it all go. At least for a moment, maybe even this moment. It’s never going to get done. It’s never going to be perfect.
Sometimes, waiting on line or stuck in traffic, I recite a statement “If you learn to enjoy waiting, you don’t have to wait to enjoy” by my good friend, Kaz Tanahashi, a renowned calligrapher and translator. It is a gentle reminder to explore being present and curious, less impatient, and find some humor, and perhaps a touch of joy.
This doesn’t mean I don’t aim for perfection, success, saving (or at least improving) the world. At the same time, the approach and spirit matters a lot.
It’s much like two Shunryu Suzuki statements that I return to again and again.
The first is: “You are perfect just as you are and you can use a little improvement.”
What if you and everything were perfect as is; including the mess, the dramas, the suffering, and everything lacking…all perfect and, at the same time, in need of improvement. The power of this statement is the first part of the statement — the practice of a radical acceptance of what is, right now, in this moment, again and again. From this place, we are more equipped and able to be present, satisfied, and work toward the changes that matter most.
The second statement by Shunryu Suzuki is a bit more obscure but also powerful. This statement was made during the fifth day of a seven-day meditation retreat. He looked out at the group of meditators and could see and feel lots of struggle, challenges, and painful legs and bodies. He began to speak slowly saying: “The pain you are feeling right now….” And in that instant you can imagine those listening filled in the second part of the sentence with something uplifting, perhaps inspiring, at the very least expecting or hoping for some relief. Instead, he continued “The pain you are feeling now, you will feel the rest of your life.”
This is the Zen approach to radical acceptance and welcoming the unwelcome. The Buddha wasn’t kidding when he said that there is no avoiding the unwelcome aspects of being alive.
The message and practice is: Stop resisting, hoping things will be different than they are; stop running away. Instead, explore feeling, being present. Accept that things are just the way they are. From this place, real meeting and real change are more available and more possible.
Practices:
Explore “You are perfect just as you are…” What does this feel like in your body? How might this practice influence your state of mind and your decisions?
Meditation Practice – Try on, even for a few breaths — what does it feel like to be completely satisfied, nothing lacking.
What I’m Reading
Four Thousand Hours: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. Tools and practicing for thinking and acting differently in relation to time and so-called time management. I’m surprised how much I’m enjoying and appreciating this book.
How To Tell A Story, by Meg Bowles, Catherine Burns, Jenifer Hixson, Sarah Austin Jenness, and Kate Tellers – Tools and practices for crafting meaningful and powerful stories. We are all storytellers, like it or not.
(Walking the Kumano Kodo trail in Japan.)
A Poem (meant to be read slowly….)
Ithaka, By C. P. Cavafy
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
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 Wednesdays 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 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.
Warm regards,
Marc