Migrating Blog

I'm now posting to a new blog.  www.davidrynick.com/blog   
     
Hope to hear from you there.

October First

            October has snuck up on me again.  I didn’t know yesterday was my last day of September.  I thought it was just a normal day—just one in a long series of days – beginning in ancient times (when did the first days start?  Were there days when the earth was hot and molten?  Or did they start with the oceans?  Or with the first single celled organisms? Or with the first human to discern the pattern of alternating light and dark?) Beginning in ancient times and extending out to the incomprehensible future.

            Of course there won’t be days after the sun runs down—when the photon blessings of that fiery orb no longer shower this blue green planet.  Though by that time, after an unimaginably long period of imperceptible cooling, we certainly won’t be around to notice and this blue green beauty will long ago have turned to white. Entirely frozen.  Forever frozen.  Will there be traces of us left beneath the miles of ice.  Will someone from a far distant planet earn whatever his equivalent of a PhD is by writing about the possibility of ancient life on the ice planet in the milky way revolving around a fading star? 

            Maybe with his super-tronic telescope he finds us one day.  And the revolutions and limited light are just right in that moment.  And he sees a brief shadow on his screen.  He sees a faint shape – an irregular shape – or a regular shape – but something that gets him dreaming about not being alone in the universe.

            The respectable people of his world encourage him to work on more productive topics – like refining time travel or improving holo-deck technology – but he is stubborn and refuses to listen.  And slowly, over time, his impossible evidence mounts.  Things that shouldn’t be there.  A morning glory seed that was caught in the act of sprouting.  A diamond on a metallic circle - with someone’s initials scratched in it.  Or maybe a pair of dirty underwear encased in amber – that leads him to the astonishing conjecture that these life forms had tube-like protuberances hanging from the bottom of their heart chamber.  His ridiculous persistence pays off and his theory wins grudging acceptance, though everyone knows it couldn’t really be true.

            Yes, it’s October.  Just another day and some new beginning.  Leaves falling faster.  Days growing shorter.  Up in the early morning darkness.  Dreaming of unreasonable persistence and of being discovered.

On Reading the Diamond Sutra

            The other day I was complaining to a friend about my confusion and frustration in beginning to read the Diamond Sutra, one of the seminal texts of the Mahayana tradition.  George and I are thinking of offering a study/dialogue group to explore this sutra and I thought I’d better get a head start.  But as I started to read these unfamiliar words translated from ancient Chinese and Sanskrit, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of my own stupidity and dullness.  These celebrated words of the Buddha lay limp and incomprehensible on the page, refusing me any way in.  Then I realized that I must be a poor excuse of a Zen teacher – one who can’t even make sense of the basic texts of the tradition.

            My friend quickly and cheerfully clarified the matter for me.  She said “Oh, you must just be a stupid Zen teacher.”  This made me laugh and breath a great sigh of relief.  The burden of expectation was lifted.  I quickly saw that I can easily be an excellent stupid Zen teacher – perhaps one of the very best.    I just have to be myself.  Then I know what I know and I don’t know what I don’t know.  The words that make sense with my experience make sense.  The words that don’t, don’t.

            So I am continuing my investigation into the Diamond Sutra, but with a new perspective.  Reading as a stupid Zen master, my incomprehension is not a problem, but rather a starting point.  I can now notice whatever arises rather than invest my energy in self-judgment and striving.  

            I’m now on about the fourth line.  I’ve settled down with the Buddha after he has come back from his daily begging in town.  I’ve bowed at his feet, circled around him three times in a clockwise fashion, and begun to listen to his strange voice from across the centuries.  Being rather dull, I don’t expect to understand much, but I'm hoping that just being here is enough.

Coming Home

I didn’t really want to come home.  I wanted to stay hidden in the hills of northern Wales—to buy an old stone farmhouse nestled in the green but barren mountains of Snowdonia.  With a view of the valley stretching out in front and peaks rising in the distance.  Maybe some sheep wandering in oddly shaped stone bounded fields.  And I would disappear into my daily routine – reading and writing and doing chores around the house.  An occasional ramble on foot or on bike to explore the ancient landscapes – following the trails that lure me up and down the steep inclines.

            But being a responsible adult, I didn’t honestly consider this.  Honoring the path of the ticket already purchased.  The sweet and sometimes sticky web of connection that is my daily life here at the Temple in Worcester.  The ring of the doorbell 15 minutes before meditation.  The friends and strangers that come – shyly or boldly to sit in silence – together.  The sound of the bells and the familiar chants calling out for refuge.  And the ten thousand pieces of plans and meetings, commitments and conversations that dance in the air.  The ancient roads of community and practice – every bit as steep and dramatic as the rocky paths of Snowdonia.

            Can I hide in these verdant hills?  Can I disappear into the life that is already here?  Just these dishes.  Just this writing.  Encountering each situation, each relationship as a new piece of geography – a new perspective in the wild and familiar hills of being human.  To wander in this landscape of aliveness with fresh eyes and clear intention.

Morning Update

            A slight chill this morning – morning glories blossomed on the railing – the palest blue.  They stand erect and still as if they are looking for something – a lost lover.   Or like they heard something faintly in the distance and are great ears listening with breath held to hear some new urgency.  Or as if the love held captive in the seed and the vines and the leaves could contain itself no longer and has been shot forth.  Delicate membrane unfurled.  Silky as the finest Parisian blouse – a raiment softer than the fairest skin. 

Only for a few moments, my whole lifetime is lived.  Too fragile to last – this membrane of love – made only for giving and receiving. 

Now the blossoms quiver in the imperceptible breeze.  Too fragile to last – like a human being – defenseless walking upright with this delicate skin membrane holding it all together – not at all sturdy - like a rock or a piece of dirt. 

But I am sure they are listening – tuning into the deep hum of the universe.  Their only job is to listen – to receive – which they do perfectly.  The ear-like sails – radio wave collectors – more powerful than the sonic telescopes lined up in the desert waiting to hear news of other life in far away places – to listen to ‘see’ what is beyond what we know.  This place where listening and seeing are not separate. 

And what IT is is not determined by what it is, but by that which receives.  The softest blue is just a dance happening between the shaking fragility of these blossoms and the intricacy of the electro-magnetic impulses I call myself. 

Our astonishing dance of intimacy this morning.

Maybe Just One Is Enough

            The morning glories that gloriously bloomed through most of the summer have not returned.  In the spring, my intention was to repeat last year’s success.  I followed the same steps – but decided to try some new colors.  But May was so cold that the first seedlings I set out didn’t survive.  But new seedlings sprouted quickly and eventually the plants began to grow with vigor.

            Now in early August, the jute strings rising to the pergola are hidden in the tangle of the generously lobed leaves.  The tendrils—having long since risen to the top—keep rising and fall to the sides.  They twist and turn like puppies chasing each other for the sheer joy of the play.  Arcing gracefully, they spray carelessly away from the support—into midair.

            And today, the second blossom of the season appeared.  Of course, it is a delicate miracle of blue.  I do my best to appreciate it - to greet it with appropriate approbation and gratitude.  But mostly my mind runs to questions.  ‘Where are your brothers and sisters?  Did I feed you too much or not enough?  How have I failed as a parent?  How could you disappoint me like this?’  These silly questions make appreciation difficult but seem to rise up unbidden from some endlessly deep well of dissatisfaction.

            Meanwhile, in a pot on a nearby table, brilliant blossoms of crimson impatiens wiggle slightly in the morning breeze.  They care not a fig for my fancy speculating, but call wordlessly with the endless song of beauty and perfect sufficiency.  And I look over once again to the single morning glory blossom and think: ‘Maybe just one is enough.’    

Nasturtiums and Crabgrass

           A cool breeze blows across the Temple grounds.  This morning quiet will soon be filled with voices and bodies as we’re having a work-day to prepare for our upcoming sesshin.   Earlier, the neighbors walked by as I was weeding one of the front gardens.  We greet each other warmly and talk about the weather.  They are wonderfully nice people, but we’ve only talked to them four or five times in the two years we’ve been here.  The Temple is like that – somehow private even in the midst of the city.

            But it’s the crabgrass I’m thinking about this morning.  Over the past week I’ve pulled out grand patches of it from the mulched areas around the rhododendrons in the front and still it keeps coming back.  I admire its easy tenacity and appreciate how it has filled in the bare patches in our nearby lawn.  Each tuft I pull this morning from among the brightly colored nasturtiums comes up with white threaded roots clinging gently to bits of mulch.  A shake or two and most is given back and I throw the slender green shoots into my weed bucket.

            I feel quite productive when I’m weeding.  Aside from the fact that it’s an unending task, I find a gentle satisfaction in clearing the space.  I still don’t know how things grow – these trailing nasturtiums were round pea-like seeds and now manifest as crimson, orange, and golden flowers lurking amongst the pleasingly shaped round leaves.  They seem to wander randomly from the root stem, as if they were out to escape the inertial pull of their beginnings.  But I do sometimes know how to clear space – how to make room for what is yet to come.

            I suppose this is what our meditation is about – clearing some space in the busyness of our lives to allow the aliveness of the moment to reveal itself.  We can’t command it, but we can create conditions that seem to allow it to be known.  Sitting still and following the breath, sometimes the clutter of the mind fades away and some enormously shy presence allows itself to be seen.

            But too much talk of these grand concepts is like trying to tell the nasturtiums how to grow those delicate and tasty flowers.  They already know.  So I remind myself to appreciate the necessary little bit I am given to do and I go back to pulling the crab grass.