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My feeling was that today, this best expressed, practice.

May We Practice Our Life Well,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Zen… The practice of what some refer to as meditation, is the effort to unify Heart and Mind with our life. What does that really mean in practical terms? Closing the gaps and distortions, within ourselves, so that we are not just reflecting life, but are being life truly open, compassionate and free.

What is it that's running loose, creating the gaps and fractures within ourselves, our relationships, our life efforts? Nothing more than an uncentered  ego. As a help, I also refer to it as self-obsession or self-centeredness. As Kosho Uchiyama Roshi says, one aspect of this uncensored ego is that it has many "secretions," that will create potholes in our life path. Some of these secretions are expressed through addiction, low-self esteem, depression, anger, fear, anxiety, emotional disconnection, not embracing or following our intuitive nature. When we allow these secretions to exist without being checked at the door, the gaps in our life experience can be so big, that we don't notice them… this is in part a side effect of self-centeredness and self-obsession… we can be so caught in our own trap, that we don't know that we are trapped.

The process… the effort of "Closing the Gaps," is to have a spiritual practice and connection to as one friend put it last evening, our "Conscience." Conscience actually means, anti-science…. it's that quality that something within us that is not measurable, tastable, touchable, but it can certainly felt 100%, usually in our gut… 2 inches bellow our belly button. That's our true physical center of being and so in our center, we tend to feel the true, rather we are fully aware or not. It's hardwired into our body.

When ever we are creating a gap with ourselves, others or a situation, we feel it and know it. The reality is, are we choosing to ignore that feeling… that message from our conscience and allow our self-obsession or self-centeredness to over-ride what we are being told.

Zen… The Way of Unification can be practiced and lived many different ways. One key skill or aspect however is sitting with ourselves, coming face to face. This is a simple, clear and clean way to advance towards closing the gaps within our Heart-Mind and allow ourselves to heal. You might be inclined to ask, "Heal from what?" And I will respond, Sit with yourself on the meditation cushion, count your breath 1 to 10 or as my own teacher says, plant the question, "What is This?" with your body and mind, in the ground of your life. Then you have a real shot of finding out.

Zen… Unification is a verb and not a noun. It's what we do and how we are… with ourselves… each other… our life… It's not all theorizing and philosophizing… It's living as our life, by turning to face ourselves and each moment, without running away. It's arriving home at the present. When we are engaged in this activity, then we are closing the gaps. The result and reward of this effort is that just for today, we get to be a little more our so-called "True" self. As Rinzai said, "When you let go of the dis-ease of the mind, you will be able to master your life and live fully." Please practice life well, so that we can close the gaps in our life and live a real human beings.

Love All - Serve All - Every Single Day,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

The Dalai Lama once said, "Anger or hatred is like a fisherman's hook. It is very important for us to ensure that we are not caught by it." I can understand this. Anger seems to have its root in fear… being knocked off one's center… perhaps feeling groundless… maybe feeling or thinking in away that is very alone or without support in a moment or situation, or out matched by circumstances. When we are there, in that difficult moment. What is it that we will do then?

The other day, I got placed in a situation that wasn't largely of my own making. I was left kind of "holding the bag" to deal with the results of action and inaction. The first emotion to emerge was, "how unfair." The second emotion was, "frustration," because of feeling like it was part of a series of events that was unchanging… it was a part of a pattern. The third emotion to come up was a feeling of "helplessness," because in that moment of dealing with the situation, I very narrowed, because limited options. The fourth feeling I had was "Inconvenience and anger," because the situation was going to take more time to fix that I felt like I had. I don't enjoy being consumed or overwhelmed by events, but it can happen, if we're off balance. I needed to find a still point… the center… balance...

As I was in the process of getting hooked by anger, because of the direction my mind was focused in, a funny thing happened. I received an email from my teacher, Genjo Marinello Osho. I felt my phone vibrate and looked at it. Seeing his name in the from line, instantly the brakes got put on my feeling of "How unfair," for being left holding the bag in the given situation. I heard an internal voice say, "When you struggle, remember the face of your teacher or someone that you trust. Let go of your feeling of hurt." As soon as I did that, not only did my mind relax, but my jaw too.

Reading his email, I wrote back about the situation I was in, and his instant response back, got me to push back even further from the hook of anger, frustration and fear. In that moment, my brain shifted from being focused on what was wrong, which only serves to drive the hook of anger further in, to going into solution mode. Where were the exits to this problem? And after asking that question, I saw the exit. I called a friend and he came out to help me.  It wasn't entirely happy, getting out of the problem, but not entirely sad either. It was simply in the middle, doing what needed to be done. It was becoming adult zen practice, rather than adolescent zen practice. It was unifying the moment and facing, "Now."

As I waited for my friend to show up, I emailed Genjo Osho back, saying how fortuitous it was that I received that email at the precise time that I was in the process of getting stuck. His response was basically to say, "Dharma arraignment." It was part of a seamless connection and where I'd felt little support, the reality was that I had everything that I needed to accomplish the moment. That doesn't go for just me, but you too.

As I said, when I started this post, the Dalai Lama once said, "Anger or hatred is like a fisherman's hook. It is very important for us to ensure that we are not caught by it." We can practice our life in a way that we can live though the difficult, choppy moments of our life. We can live in our solutions, rather than our problem, connecting mentally and emotionally with an experience of balance and equanimity.

May We Practice Our Life Well,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO