Vigilance

Boundless wind
Supporting sky, ceaselessly.
Firm earth,
Sustaining rivers, mountains
trees and innumerable Beings.
Mandala of Snow cries out... Vigilance!

It's a fact that in order to walk, we must make a consistent and concerted effort to stand up. Without doing do, we would simply fall down, under the natural force and pull or gravity. It's nothing personal. Gravity is not out to "get us." It's a necessary element that comes with the miracle of living on a rock that's floating in space, orbiting at precisely the right distance from a star that helps to sustain our life.

In practicing the Way, I've been learning to practice with so-called "Inconvenience," the potential to fall down. The question that I regularly ask myself is, "Who is it that is being inconvenienced? Who is the one that's falling down?"

Yesterday, I heard many people complaining about another snowfall coming. We've already gotten 28 inches and now 6 to 12 more are expected today. More inconvenience for the back that has to shovel the snow, the red face stung by the cold air, to the one who has to dig out the car, travel icy roads and stand in the cold to pump gasoline with a frozen metal handle that's so cold it causes pain to the hand holding it. How terrible.

Other times there's the inconvenience of "losing" track or control of our valuable time. It's thinking or feeling, "Could they talk just a little faster, I have some place I'd rather be." In other moments, "Why are they asking me to do _____________, isn't this their responsibility?"

If we examine our experience there are dozens of ways during the day that we might feel inconvenienced... narrowed... compressed... put aside... Our Buddha Nature, Awakened Mind is ceaselessly asking us, "How will you manage or mismanage that moment, when it presents itself to you?"

In learning to experience Zen and thoroughly practice, we can reduce... dissolve... melt... combust... digest... and perhaps transform inconveniences. Disadvantage can be turned into an advantage. My feeling is that it requires experiencing the mandala that is our very life... This is where vigilance is so important.

There is the daily practice of vigilance in listening. There is the daily practice of vigilance in caring. There is the daily practice of vigilance in cooking dinner and washing the dishes. There is the practice of vigilance in not just saying I love you, but being "I love you." There is the practice of vigilance in sitting to unify heart-mind. Because there is vigilance in the world, right now at this very moment, snow is falling and there no inconvenience, whatsoever.

With Warm Smiles,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO