I was about 36, which I think of as my youth, but I had ended my first marriage and I had built a business that I’d invested a lot of time in. I was a workaholic. I had no family and no interest in a spiritual pursuit. My religion was capitalism. I had a rising level of disillusionment and despair with everything in my life. I was in a relationship that began and ended very quickly and the fellow that I was involved with had a Zen practice, which I was really disturbed by. I thought it was absurd and grim and an inexplicable waste of time. I was really scared, to tell you the truth, at the thought that someone would turn their back to me and be more absorbed in a blank wall than in my own charming self. That was a warning sign for me.
In any event, after that fell apart, I was in sad shape. I couldn’t sleep; I was very depressed and had a hard time making it through the day. One night I picked up a book that was on a shelf in my own home that, apparently, he had left behind. It was the Tao Te Ching, and I picked it up because it was red and it caught my attention. I was at that point in my life where I didn’t have time for anything. I didn’t have time for people (friends or family). I didn’t read books. I didn’t have any pleasure, but I read it that night and it was just the most beautiful thing I had ever read. I had never read anything so true. Then I was curious about all of those things that I had dismissed before. I folded up a cushion and tried to sit in meditation. I read the next book on the shelf and so forth and so on, and that’s how I started, just sitting in my own room.
This is an old story, a universal story, and one you may have read or even lived before. I share it here today because it might the right time for you. It comes from a longer interview with me posted on the Sweeping Zen website. It may be the right time for you to read it, and it may be the right time for you to see what comes next, how you start your own Zen practice, sitting side-by-side with me in the same room.
Beginner’s Mind One-Day Meditation Retreat
Sunday, June 10, 2012
9 am-3 pm
Hazy Moon Zen Center
Los Angeles
Information and registration here.
Affordable dormitory housing available.
Thank you so much for this. That is exactly how I started my practice. I bought “Being Peace” by Thich Nhat Hanh, at a yard sale on my way to my new cottage. The cottage became a retreat for me during a busy career. My practice has not grown enough although I try to incorporate it into my daily life. I live in a place where there is no Sangha. I am in the process of selling that cottage. I am retired and can no longer maintain two houses. Perhaps this will allow me to focus more on my practice.
Comment by marilee pittman — May 7, 2012 @ 11:02 am
What an honor it would be to meet you face to face, and some day that will happen.
Comment by Sarah Stanton — May 11, 2012 @ 2:46 pm