Writer\u2019s Almanac<\/a> has a really moving poem, especially if you have \u201cfather issues,\u201d by George Bilgere about learning to ride a bike with his drunk dad: <\/p>\n \u2026And I was scared, unable to disbelieve
In gravity and believe in him\u2026<\/p>\n
Belief. What\u2019s that got to do with it?<\/p>\n
Once when I was in a similar crabby mood, I went to dokusan and expressed my fear to Katagiri-roshi that I couldn\u2019t really do Zen, was sick of it anyway and didn\u2019t know if I really wanted too. <\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t get all mushy or therapeutic but said, \u201cYour problem is your faith is not strong.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, well,\u201d I said, \u201cwhat can I do about it that I\u2019m not already doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOften you aren\u2019t doing it. You think faith is an idea. Faith is doing. You are not doing faith. You are doing \u2018my faith is not strong enough.\u2019 Strong faith simply cuts through delusion like only the sharpest knife cuts through the lotus root.\u201d <\/p>\n
It took a while to sort out what he was saying because Roshi never really mastered the \u201cr\u201d \u201cl\u201d thing in English. So \u201crotus loot\u201d had me confused for a while. I looked it up though and found that lotus roots are really stringy and hard to cut. So like he said, it takes a really sharp knife and a steady hand. <\/p>\n
Then in the late 90\u2019s I heard a county western song by Clint Black<\/a> that sung it up well: <\/p>\nWe started with a simple vow
There\u2019s so much to look back on now
Still it feels brand-new
We\u2019re on a road that has no end
And each day we begin again
Love\u2019s not just something that we\u2019re in
It\u2019s something that we do<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what I\u2019ve got to give this morning. Regarding my issue with the conference, faith is showing up and doing the conference. <\/p>\n
Maybe someone will brandish the knife that cuts through all of our trips with one swipe. Maybe not. Maybe it\u2019s always going like that but you have to be really faithful to see it. <\/p>\n
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