Homeward Path

I've been fortunate enough to have directly met Zen Buddhism more than 20 years ago, though I didn't start practicing right away. Today... Just for today, Zen means "Returning home." Practice is nothing more than This. The practice and effort to come home, come home, come home, come home, rather than run away from home that is our Awakened Mind which is often referred to as Buddha nature.

So here we are, circling a Sun at the perfect distance to sustain our life. We have every resource that we need to more Live more than survive. How perfect is that? There is no sense in wasting the miraculous opportunity of having This life.

One way that we can show our deep appreciation for this life is by making the effort to fully see our lives clearly and in the process, fully live out This life. We do this by sitting on a cushion, straightening our back, holding our head in a way as though it supports the vast blue sky, put the focus of our breath two inches below our belly button and work hard to befriend ourselves and return home. This is the "Homeward Path."

I have a teacher. His name is Genjo Marinello Osho. He has a teacher. His name is Eido Shimano Roshi. He had a teacher named Soen Nakagawa Roshi and so it continues all the way back to Rinzai Gigen Zenji and by extension Shakyamuni Buddha. Even Shakymunui Buddha had a teacher, that gave him instruction on how on practice. This implies we all can be students and teachers of each other. We need that. It's critical.

All being is seamlessly connected and we can act in ways that are helpful, compassionate and caring. We have real opportunities to learn from their instruction and come to know the Truth of ourselves, rather than the scripts that we've been attempting to live out like an actor on a stage for a role that might not really belong to us. Zen is the mapless map which guides us homeward.

May We Practice Well,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Comments

[Anonymous]

mu!

banzan