There is a saying in Hasidism (Jewish mysticism): "I go to the great teacher, not to study the scriptures, but to watch him tie his shoe lace," meaning that it is a great joy and spiritually liberating to watch a true master perform even the most simple of tasks. There is an ease and elegance of movement about someone who has mastered the art of living. It is like seeing a very beautiful work of art or hearing a great symphony— our veins thrill with the energy of appreciation when we see a gifted person perform the ordinary tasks of life with precision and care. There is an innocence about such a person that captures our hearts. And we realize that that same innocence and beauty we see and feel in this person is also in us.
THE ZEN CAT
My gray cat rubs against everything— the doors, the walls, the stove, the refrigerator, me, my wife, the floors, the bookshelves; he gives everything in his path a friendly rub. He doesn't make much of a distinction between animate and inanimate objects; he enjoys a kind of cosmic 'rubbing-against-ness' with all things. It's interesting how free he is. He has such a tiny brain compared to us. He loves the sun; wherever the sun-spot is in our house, there he is, curled up in silent cat ecstasy. He loves the bushes in the back yard for scratching. They say cats need to be petted and touched. But the gray cat lets everything touch him. His rolling around on the newly mown grass is the Nirvana of cat-dom. He seems, with his little, tiny brain, to think that this earth is already a paradise, ready-made for him to experience unending joy. He's simply always blissed-out, and he can't even sleep without the loud purring of his pleasure at being alive. Such a tiny brain, such a big heart, filled with sheer delight at the way things are.
NOT NOT THERE FOR JOY
There is a Zen saying, "The enlightened person is not there for joy, but the enlightened person is not not there for joy," meaning that when we set out to capture joy it always eludes us. Joy is something we come upon; it is the unexpected dazzling beauty that suddenly captivates our hearts. We can't imprison joy in the narrow confines of our expectations. Joy explodes upon our horizon when we are simply open and receptive. There is a story about Ramakrishna as a boy of seven, carrying rice in two buckets across a field in Northeastern India. Ramakrishna happens to look up as a flock of wild geese soar across a purple sky. As he gazes at the wild beauty of the geese crossing the sky, he actually collapses in an ecstasy of joy, the buckets of rice spilling in every direction. When we are tempted to try to trap the beauty and joy of the moment into a tiny thought-construct, remember we are not here to capture joy but to be captured by joy.
JOY
How long will we postpone our joy, waiting for the right moment? Remember the saying, "Are we having fun yet?" Are we? Or are we waiting for conditions to improve before we can allow ourselves to enjoy this life? Don't get caught in when-it-is. We say: When I get through school, then I'll be happy. We finally graduate and then we say, I'll really be happy: When I get a job, or When I get married, or When I have a family, or When I'm financially secure, or When I retire. We really don't need to wait for the right time to feel joy. Today, right now, we can look at the beauty of the sky, the trees, the simple gifts of this earth and feel joy in our hearts to overflowing.
GOTAMA, THE BUDDHA
May is traditionally the month in which the Buddha's birthday and his enlightenment are celebrated by hundreds of millions of Buddhists around the world. In about the 6th century B.C. Siddhartha, a prince of northern India, having despaired of finding the end of sorrow either through worldly or ascetic ways, sat under the Bodhi tree, and in deep meditation, experienced Nirvana, or ultimate liberation. Siddhartha's name is changed to Gotama Buddha, 'the enlightened one,' and he becomes the founder of a major world religion, based on the experience of enlightenment, which has influenced humanity for twenty-six centuries. It's interesting that the Buddha released all the traditional ways, both spiritual and secular, of his time, all the teachings, paths and teachers, before his own enlightenment experience came to him. Perhaps we too can find our own way when we let go and let ourselves be totally open for a new way to dawn in our hearts. The Buddha was once asked, "Are you an angel or a saint?" "No," he replied. "Well then what are you?" "I am awake," the Buddha replied.
HEROES
When we think of heroes, we think perhaps of those who have distinguished themselves with bravery in the military. Or we think of people with great athletic ability and prowess. Or we may even think of entertainers, great musicians or even actors or actresses. Generally, someone is a hero in our culture who has performed great deeds of daring and bravery or someone who has demonstrated great artistic or physical excellence. Yet there are cultures in which people are considered heroes who are able to demonstrate abilities of great peacefulness and calm; those who can sit for long periods of time in deep and unbroken concentration and meditation; those who can manifest tremendous inner clarity and spiritual insight. It's interesting, that whereas our culture places a premium on activity and feats of the body, there are other cultures which affirm the value of inner quietude and give great admiration to mental and spiritual acumen. Perhaps we can learn from these cultures to balance our notions of the heroic with more spiritual values.
SIMPLE OPENNESS
Sometimes we are too skeptical for our own good. Two shoe salesmen, one an optimist and one a pessimist, were sent to the same undeveloped country on selling assignments. The pessimist wrote his home office, "They have never heard of shoes here, I am returning home." The optimist wrote his home office, "They have never heard of shoes here; send me ten more salesmen." If we get too jaded and closed-minded, we may be missing the opportunity that can only be seen through the eyes of innocence. Hope finds away which fear and doubt cannot see. Maybe each of us is in life right now to simply open our hearts and surrender our distrust. This may be the time to release our suspicious thoughts— to have a more positive and accepting outlook on our life and its possibilities for us. Let's say 'yes' more than 'no,' and see if we don't feel better, freer and more happy.
THE LIGHT OF A THOUSAND SUNS
In the East Indian Yoga tradition, the experience of enlightenment or liberation is called Moksha and is described as "the light of a thousand suns." In the Kabbalistic tradition of Jewish mysticism, the experience of the Ain Soph Aur is called that of limitless light. Indeed, we tend to equate the experience of light with that of insight, clarity or realization. When we come upon the solution to some problem, we say, "Ah, I see the light." In psychological process, a person frequently has the experience of going through a tunnel and coming out into the light. We've all seen cartoons in which a character's new idea is pictured as a light bulb. Perhaps more than anything else, more than a new job, new relationship or more money, more than anything, what each of us needs right now is a bright, shining, new thought which clarifies our understanding and pierces through all the obscurities of our life into a new dawn of wakefulness and penetrating light. Be open to the light of your spiritual realization.
MEDITATION
Perhaps we've been practicing some form or other of meditation and at times we may feel a bit stuck. It just isn't going anywhere for us. We've tried everything and still we feel off-center, cut off from a sense of flow. Perhaps we are trying too hard to make something happen, and we just need to relax a bit and let go. A friend of mine had been meditating for some time. When I asked how it was going, she said, "I meditate daily, but nothing is happening." Sometimes we just have to let the nothing happen. Quit fighting with our experience even when it seems not to be working. Meditation works at a very subtle level; when we can feel our hair growing, we know the level at which our meditation practice is working its beneficial change in us. Quit fighting. Be patient and let go of the need for our meditation to be different than it is. Today's meditation is the best of our lives— because this where we are— today. So we can continually release all that has happened in our meditations up to now and just be new, fresh, innocent, open and receptive each time we sit down to meditate— always as if for the first time.
ELECTRIC PEACE
Sometimes we think of peace as a leftover or byproduct: peace is what we get when we are too tired or too old for anything else. We say when someone dies, "Well, at least now he is at peace." Or we may think of peace as a nonfunctional state. There's an apocryphal story about the first President Bush's visit of reassurance to Florida after Hurricane Andrew. The president, as the story goes, visits a nursing home and says to an elderly lady, "Do you know who I am?" The lady replies, "Ask at the front desk, and they'll tell you." So we may feel that peace will come with age. Yet real peace is something extraordinary. Peace comes when there is no disturbance within ourselves or in relationship to our world. This is the infinite peace of the Buddha, the peace that passes understanding of Jesus. This peace is vibrant with energy, potent with alertness and awareness. This peace is filled with tremendous clarity, harmony and order— out of this peace all of the conflicts and divisions of life are resolved.
ELECTRIC FREEDOM
We usually think of freedom as something that will happen some day, down the road, when conditions improve. Maybe when we graduate from school, or when we get the really good job, or when we make all that money, or when the perfect relationship comes our way, or when we retire, or when we will be free to travel, or maybe in the next life—then, then we'll be really free. But as a Zen Master once said, "If you're not free now, when will you be free?" What is holding us back from freedom? Perhaps it's simply an idea we are holding in our mind, a tiny thought that says, "You're not free." or "You can't be free yet." "You haven't earned it, or you don't deserve it." But perhaps freedom is just a decision we make, not something we have to wait for. Perhaps we can just decide to be really free now, and all the energy of the universe will align itself with our decision, and our freedom will be not just a thought but a reality filled with electric possibilities.
THE SLEEPING CAT
When my gray cat sleeps, his paws point up to the heavens in silent cat ecstasy. When he sleeps, he sleeps so totally relaxed, so at peace, his whole being radiates calm and exudes serenity. Someone once said that he never heard of a cat with insomnia. Indeed, my cat never seems to worry about falling asleep. He falls asleep effortlessly, almost anywhere, at any time. He embraces sleep so completely, he entrusts himself to sleep so totally— what a joy to see him surrender himself to unconsciousness with such abandon. Yet he's always available for a gentle scratching under his chin— he'll immediately awaken from the deepest sleep for any experience of affection. And the tiniest sound of a cat food can being opened will immediately propel him into full wakefulness no matter how profound his slumbers. The gray cat is a meditation on how to sleep and how to wake up, how to be totally relaxed and how to be totally awake and alert.
PEACE FLAME
We can act from distress or we can act from peace. Someone once said that we are either goal-achieving or crisis-producing. In one way or another, we are always creating. When we are centered in peace, trusting the Good of this life, we find a depth of energy and clarity to our movements and our actions. We come to feel inwardly sustained and nurtured, and this gives us the capacity to manifest powerful and lasting results in our world. There is nothing flimsy or trivial about real peace. Peace burns in our hearts like a fiery flame, achieving great results. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was once asked the key to his success as a minister. He said, "It's simple. I set myself on fire, and people come to watch me burn." When our life seems too tepid, too lukewarm, when we are in a holding pattern, a mental gridlock, perhaps we too need to catch on fire inwardly, to become aglow with the flame of peace.
HOPE
Hope is a decision. Hope is a choice we can make in the face of uncertainty, doubt or fear. Hope is an action we can take which releases us from feeling stuck, worried or unclear about how to proceed. Hope shines a light in our hearts that allows us to feel lifted, strengthened and encouraged to go forward in our life on this earth. We choose to feel hope in our hearts that life is good, that we are OK, that peace and freedom are at hand for ourselves and for all. We decide to feel hope now and let our spirits be lifted.
SURRENDER TO FREEDOM
What does freedom mean to us right now? I have a friend who freezes his mashed potatoes into ice cube trays. Then when he feels like having mashed potatoes, he decides how many cubes he wants, say two or three, and he pops them into the microwave, and the precise portion is instantly available. Sometimes we see our lives in terms of tidy categories, which we measure and dole out to ourselves. We use, what Alan Watts called, the Euclidean mind to measure: for or against, pleasure or pain, success or failure, and we find ourselves boxed into a very narrow way of seeing the Good of this life. Freedom comes to us when we release the need to pin everything down into fixed categories, when we let go of our need to measure our experience based on how we think it 'ought' to be, when we open our minds and open our hearts to a larger way of seeing and being in this life.
WHEN SPRING BEGINS
Driving to and from work each day, we see sudden eruptions of beauty on each street. A block that last week was gray, barren and lifeless, today is filled with green lawns, delicate blossoms of crimsons, yellows, whites and pinks. Natural beauty nurtures our sensitivity; spring touches our hearts with the joy of sparkling new life. Each day, as we drive along our accustomed way, we see what was tired and old bursting with fresh green living vitality. We can meditate deeply on the radiance we see all around us. Yet this dazzling display of outer spring fireworks also has an inner subjective quality. Deep within our hearts there is a yearning to release the gray winter doldrums and feel fresh, young, innocent and newly alive. It's time. Let spring shine forth from our hearts now.
WHO'S COUNTING
As a lady was leaving a party, she said to her hostess, "Those brownies were so delicious that I ate four." The hostess replied, "You really ate seven, but who's counting?" Sometimes we find ourselves very busy counting and calculating. T.S. Eliot's J. Alfred Prufrock said, "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." Sometimes we are counting instead of living our life. We count— how much longer 'til I get off work; how much longer 'til I get finished shopping; how much longer 'til I get home; how many more dishes 'til I am through washing dishes. Yet we really only wash one dish — the one that is right in front of us. That's the only dish that we will ever wash. Animals realize this better than we do. They never become bored with repetition because they never count how many have happened or how many are left to go. We can release the need to count things, to keep score, and so fully enjoy this moment and whatever it brings as a great gift of life. When we count out our dance steps: one, two, one, two, we forget that life is a dance.
UNFAMILIARIZE YOURSELF
John Cage, the composer, once said, "I'm trying to become unfamiliar with what I do." Giacometti, the artist, said that each new painting he did was as if he were painting for the first time. When we become too routine and habitual in what we do each day, we lose the sense of joy, energy and enthusiasm for our life. We can release our routines and feel an immediate surge of openness to new possibilities. Why continue trivial habits and outworn customs that no longer give meaning or joy to our lives? Let's embark on uncharted and unfamiliar paths so that we experience the excitement of new adventure in our lives.
OPPORTUNITY - CRISIS
The Chinese symbol for crisis is also the symbol for opportunity. Many times in life, we experience situations that confront us with an apparent crisis; yet a crisis is also a call to action— it is an opportunity to have a breakthrough, a healing or new realization. A problem calls us to find a solution. Some years ago, the old Coronado Hotel in San Diego was in the process of being renovated. The plans called for the installation of new elevators. The hotel janitor complained to the architects, "If you put those new elevators inside the lobby, the lobby will be in shambles for months." "How would you do it?" one architect asked sarcastically. "I would put the elevators on the outside of the building," replied the janitor. And that's what they did. When faced with a crisis remember the Chinese symbol: crisis and opportunity are one.
ENLIGHTENMENT VERSUS SALVATION
There seem to be two ways of spirituality which at first glance appear to be contradictory and mutually exclusive. One person may be on the path to enlightenment; for him or her, the goal of life is final liberation, freedom from all bondage and all pain and sorrow. This person seeks, as the Buddha put it, "the end of sorrow." Another person may be seeking salvation, to have his or her soul saved from sin. It's interesting that sin is sometimes defined as: the state of separation from God. And the seeker of enlightenment is seeking liberation from all the veils of illusion which keep him from union with God or ultimate reality. So even though on the surface the quest for salvation and the search for enlightenment may seem very different, it may simply be that, though the approaches may differ, the end— oneness with Ultimate Reality or Truth or God— may be the same.