If you don’t see the Way, you don’t see it even as you walk on it.
—Identity of Relative and Absolute
I used to go around thinking that one day my real life would begin. That some day something important would happen. My life would become interesting and enjoyable. I would do things that mattered. My hard work would pay off, and my ship would come in. All of that would make me happy, someday. But I wasn’t seeing clearly. I was missing the picture entirely. Like someone standing in the waves, looking for the ocean.
We spend a lot of time trying to see far ahead, figure it out, and plot the course to get somewhere else. But we can’t see far ahead. We can only think far ahead. Thinking far ahead is called blindness. Seeing what’s right in front of you is called seeing.
Learn to see. Because now you know that all the things that are so easy to miss are the things that really matter.
Beginner’s Mind One-Day Retreat
Sunday, Sept. 30, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Hazy Moon Zen Center, Los Angeles
Register by email
Photo by Frances Gunn
You are really, really good at saying so much in very, very few words! I wish CA wasn’t so far away from Houston!
Comment by Larry Misiak — September 12, 2018 @ 6:56 am
To answer your gravity question: sometimes it’s a simple phrase like “I am home,” an inspiring phrase by Thich Naht Hanh; other times it’s “just this one breath” as I meditate. One thing I’ve discovered (despite my perfectionism) is there’s no recipe for “gravity.” Music also helps.
Great poem!
Comment by Keith Roper — September 26, 2018 @ 2:53 pm