In this issue:
· Insights Into Practices
· What I’m Watching
· Half-day retreat
· Weekend retreat
Insights Into Practices: A Poem Just Might Change Your Life
What to say? Hasn’t everything already been said? I don’t want to bore you. My hope, and aspiration in writing is to offer something of value, perhaps something new, a practice, or perhaps an insight.
When I discovered this poem I was surprised, relieved, and riveted. How could someone put such words together?
The poem is called Ask Me, by William Stafford:
Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help.
or to hurt; ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.
I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
I love this poem. I so appreciate when someone asks me. Zen practice and most spiritual traditions are based on the practice of asking. Zen teacher Dogen’s path began by asking a burning question: If everyone is already enlightened, why do we practice? Business and entrepreneurship is held by asking – what’s possible; what need is this business responding to? Asking infers a relationship, not knowing, a desire to learn, connect, and to respond.
(mural in Oaxaca, Mexico)
The poem makes me think about meditation practice, and my life, in fundamentally different ways. It encourages me to ask about what is most important; how do I want to live my life? The image of a river is powerful – an icy frozen river, the silent river, and the powerful river current.
This poem calms and awakens my mind by cutting through ideas about my mistakes, and about those who have helped or hurt me. It instructs me to listen, to listen deeply, beyond mistakes and judgments. It provides some insight by describing the world through the lens of the ordinary and relative, and then goes right to the universal or ultimate world; the world of stillness, the world beyond knowing and not knowing. The poem takes us to the deep currents that we know are always there beneath our daily concerns, the concerns of our lives and the despairs and beauty of our world.
Please, ask me. Ask yourself.
Practices – Recite the poem, write the poem. Ask yourself questions, listen. Read the poem to someone you love.
What I’m Watching
Rustin – The powerful story of the 1963 March On Washington.
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song – I’m watching for a third time. It’s like a course in creativity, perseverance, and luck.
(Oaxaca, Mexico street festival)
April 7th, Sunday, In person (Mill Valley, CA) and online
9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Weekend Retreat at Green Gulch Farm
November 1st to 3rd
Step Into Your Life: A Zen Inspired Retreat