I just received a PDF of my contribution for the upcoming (July) issue of Shambhala Sun.
I really liked it. It includes really nice illustrations by Mike Holmes. He gives pictures for my three basic rules for meditation practice: sit down, shut up & pay attention.
That last one “pay attention,” is, I find, the hardest for people to actually tumble to.
Some while ago I opined on a story going around the web purporting to be a Zen anecdote, involving rain, an umbrella, a senior Zen student and his teacher. It appeared to suggest that Zen was about developing one’s memory.
As good as improving memory is, Zen is not in fact about developing memory skills.
And, now, in my article, the illustration for paying attention is having the meditator sitting down, good, and with arrows all around pointing out.
Not quite it.
In fact the great Eihei Dogen had something to say about this very thing in his essay the Genjokoan, sometimes translated as actualizing the fundamental point.
In Kaz Tanahashi & Robert Aitken’s translation, our master Dogen says “To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.”
So, the arrows don’t go out from our ego, or rather, sure they do, all the time. But the invitation here is to allow the world to present itself.
So, you’re sitting down in a group and your neighbor’s tummy is growling. That is the Dharma presenting itself. You’re sitting at home and the cat decides to climb all over you. That is the Dharma presenting itself. Or, you’re sitting and the four year old stomps in and demands your attention. That’s the Dharma presenting itself.
Do this and the way is thrown wide open.
As simple as that…
And, as hard.
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