All The Way To Heaven Is Heaven

"All the way to heaven is heaven." The first and perhaps only time I heard those words was from Eido Shimano Roshi, during a teisho. When I heard the words my first thought was, "Wow, that's Is so clear and beautiful. Yes, I can agree." My second thought was, "That's so obvious, how come I didn't think or know that before?"

Over the weekend, two of my friends had gotten married. The location they selected seem and felt so perfect. The place felt like it was saying, "Effortless, no resistance." My mind spontaneously responded, as I was walking up the path, "All the Way to heaven Is heaven, there is not doubt in This." Again so obvious and so very clear.

Much of my time, I'm alone with my thoughts, processing. There's a lot of analysis that's usually going on for me. I'm thinking about my family and friends, Zen practice, work, projects and so many other things. There can be such a wall of thinking that I trick myself into thinking, "Look at me here and look at the people, places and things over there." Error! Wrong, wrong, wrong. The brain has a way with smoke and mirrors.

When I relax and release the analytical thinking, I not only see everything different, I behave differently. I have far less complication, worry, anxiety, stress, depression, anger and tension, within my body. When I drop all the analysis, I sometimes have the sense that I'm just cruising. Everything can become simple and effortless. No barriers, whatsoever.

Yesterday, I was doing zazen, focusing my mind or a particular point of practice, based on a talk Pema Chodron gave on "Non-grasping Mind." Sitting in zazen posture, as a starting point, I visualized my fist closed/clenched. As I exhaled very slowly, at the same time I saw my fist opening, until the palm was open and flat. As my palm opened, I gave myself permission, allowing things to leave that I had been trying desperately to hold on to. After doing this for a time, my mind settled on the practice, my own teacher, Genjo Marinello Osho has given me to work on.

All the way to heaven Is in fact heaven. Though we can sometimes think and feel like we are alone, because of our thoughts, we are not. That's just an illusion. We need each other, very, very, very much. My friends wedding is a strong reminder of that. Out of all the people on the planet, they noticed each other and somehow harmonized... unified, with each other. The vows were very nice, but as they said them, my feeling was that the vows were merely a confirmation in public of what they had been feeling with each other all along the way. Heaven.

In relaxing the mind, there's a good chance and opportunity that we can see life clearly and cleanly. We can see though our moments without all of the cumbersome baggage and filters that distort our ability to recognize this moment for what It is. It's interesting to remember that It's the journey and path we travel that reaches the goal, not the goal itself. In this way, All the Way to heaven is heaven.

Namaste'

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
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