Busy Living
Zen Lessons 2026 5 13
where me and Dolly emerge from the woods to the fields many mornings…
Good Morning!
It has now been years that I worked in a school, but I remember well my regret that the most beautiful and consequential months of the garden, September and May, were also the busiest both as teacher and principal. It feels a little distant now. Especially that the garden calls so loudly. But, alas, for unknown reasons my work has been very demanding and I simply haven’t heard the call to write.
I’ve been reflecting on two aspects of practice lately and neither have developed into something articulate, but I thought I would share them anyways. The first is my observing of Buddhist practice myself, this routine of sitting, training sword, strength and stability work, then running or biking. And then, working with people either as a clinician or teacher. Alongside all of this is family and garden, and my private experience. It is helpful for me to experience sitting meditation and training sword as a way of both attuning and putting aside “self”, that is not getting involved in the thoughts and actions that reassure, sustain, or “flex” identity.
For example, some mornings “just sitting”, which is on the cushion observing, feeling, not developing or pursuing thoughts or feelings, is something I can drop into. This is pleasant and enjoyable in its way. Other days, when I feel tired or rushed, not so much. The urge to get moving, to do, to push through the routine and do what i got to do, can be subtle, or it can be strong. It can be merely distracting, or it can take over entirely. This is a good moment to observe and feel and let go. These are moments, for me anyways, where the word “practice” means more: I am both doing the “practice” of just being there, letting all the flexing of self do its thing and exhaust itself, and “practicing” something very important, which is making stronger the capacity to let go. When weak, this aspect leads to getting lost in distraction, anger, carelessness, and so on during the day, when strong it leads notice that immediately and returning to direct experiencing.
If I am with a client or student, it is the difference between indulging in wanting to be somewhere else and actually being very present to someone in need.
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The other aspect that is difficult to articulate is a quiet sense of completeness, or sometimes relief, that opens up to something new. Just writing this points to something new for me. There is an experience I have that only comes when I have had time to “practice” in the ways hinted at above. It seems to be rather like being “aligned with what is true”, not in a transcendent sense of truth, but in a sense of “true, right now”. Even if it is an unpleasant truth, there is something in me that relaxes when i am completely with it.
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Please join us for Community Zen tonight at 6.
