So many are saying Where is God when I need him? Especially today. Many feel deserted and alone. But it is only that we have been looking in the wrong direction, searching everywhere but at home. The surprising answer to the question tells us instead, that all we need is right here with us in our everyday life. In fact it is right at the kitchen table. It is only that we have been looking elsewhere, searching all around. These episodes offer specific ways in which we can encounter God, fulfillment, enlightenment right here in our daily lives, wherever we go.
Our usual way is usually to resist what comes to us in life, fight it, change it, try to run away from it. Zen practice does the opposite...we learn how to say hello. We sit still, walk mindfully, welcome whatever comes into our lives, truly experience it. We are making room for everything to come as it is, have space to grow, alter, transform, even illuminate us. It is not what comes that is so difficult, but the way we receive, or refuse to receive it, and then to let it go. In this practice we simply give life the room to be as it is. And, in doing so, we too, have the room to be who we are, and transform, as well.
Hello, good morning. Good morning. How are you? This is Brenda back with another little talk on Zen wisdom for your everyday life and for every day, every moment, life. Same thing. It's as if we have a life that goes beyond every day. It's as if we have a life that, when we think about our life, what's going to happen? How am I going to plan? What am I going to do? How am I going to resolve what happened? It spreads all over. And it can become very overwhelming. The past, the present, the future, what's happening, what should I plan? On and on and on. And the beautiful, wonderful simplicity of Zen practice and Zen activity, because practice is sitting, of course, and also activity. Getting up from the cushion. The cushion can become a delicious, a delicious spot in the sunshine to sit, sit. And then we get up from the cushion. There are shadows, there are clouds, there are bumps on the road. All of that is also part of our practice, and it's a beautiful part of our practice. That's the wonderful aspect of it. It's not something we have to run away from on the cushion. It's not something we have to transcend. It's not something we have to judge or become master of. Or all of that that arises and fades. What is that? Now that's a really a Zen Kohan. And what a ko on, I'm sure you know by now is, I mean, just say by now because those who've listened to the cast, this podcast, I've I've commented on it before. A koan is simply a question that does not have a logical, rational, easy answer. Well, actually, it's an easy answer, but it's not an answer you can figure out. It's not an answer you can research. It's not an answer you can go to somebody else to. Tell me the answer. It's not anything like that. So it takes you in a very different direction. It takes you in the direction of your own heart. Takes you within, because there are m there is an important answer for you in each question, and where do you find that? In a completely different way, and that's why Zen practice is a different kind of road to take. We really sit with the call on the question, the confusion, the dream. We sit with it, we sit with it, and we let it answer. As we sit with it, which means we just stay with it, we accompany it. We don't try to figure it out ultimately, we just allow it to pervade our lives, which is a very beautiful instruction. Allow it. Allow it to keep us company when we keep it company. And it we work on the Koan in that way, and at the same time it works on us. Very interesting. As we work on it, it's really working on us as well. It's like we're soup being cooked, cooked, cooked. And then all of a sudden the soup is ready. The answer just there it is, it becomes clear, it becomes us. It becomes this moment. Oh, there, I see now. And actually, by the time we've spent with it, it has become part of us, our body, our bones, our soul, our hopes, our flesh. It's become part of this moment as we're living it. So it's not about bringing a lot of questions to teachers or friends and getting their answer. It's finding out how to respond with your whole body and your whole heart to a question, to a complication, to a moment, to a relationship. Because actually everything that comes to us can be received as a koan, which is a wonderful way to receive it, rather than as a punishment or a challenge that cannot be overcome or as an obstacle. There are no obstacles except that which we consider to be obstacles. But if we consider it to be a wonderful gift, a wonderful opportunity to open up further and further to the many teachings that are waiting for us and here for us, the many koans. Life changes. It changes. We're not fighting it off. We're not rejecting it. We're not running away from it. We're spending time to allow it to pervade our being. I like that way of describing it. Allowing it to pervade our being. We're not opposing what happens, we're just allowing ourselves to truly, truly experience it, digest it, and see what it has to say to us. Wow. What a beautiful way to live. Ah, this is a teaching. What is it teaching me? Or this is something that life wants to say to me or ask of me. And I really need to listen deeply to hear what is being said and to become a quiet, to allow a true response to come forth. So it's not that Zen practice is difficult, it's just that it's a different way of being and experiencing what is here in our lives. Very much needed these days for sure. When everything is a battle, who's are you on this one's team, that one's team? Is this right? Is this wrong? Aren't they horrible? Aren't they beautiful? On and on and on. That division, that extreme division, creates a lot of loneliness, fear, and fear, and also we we become very defensive of everything, waiting for the next attack. So as we do this beautiful practice, we what we're really doing is receiving our lives differently. And really embedded in that is we're giving thanks for everything. Thank you for the moment. Thank you for this breath. We're becoming very aware of what's happening and very grateful for it too. Now you could say, well, how can you be grateful for all that bad stuff that goes on? No, no, no. It's just stuff going on. The word bad is what we're adding to it and what we are responding to. How can I get rid of this? How can I get rid of that? Well, I'll tell you the very best way not to be up against something that's so painful is to allow it and stop resisting it, experience it, and it changes all by itself. This is an absolute fact of life. It's an inevitability, actually. When we stop fighting it, hating it, rejecting it, when we just are with it in the silence, allowing it, allowing that experience we're having. It has to change because nothing stays stuck. Everything flows, everything changes. It's us, we we we create that stuckness by demanding it be a certain way, holding on, fighting it, engaging with it in a very negative fashion. Now to many, this way of being might seem actually crazy. What are you talking about? That's crazy. We're in the face of great danger. You're going to just sit there? Well, not just sitting there, but actually that process of allowing is actually a process of sending love. It's a form of love to allow something to live in the moment as it is. And allowing ourselves to be also, to allowing ourselves as well. So what looks like nothing isn't nothing, is full of treasures, is full of wisdom that we are not even aware of. All of a sudden we'll take a very constructive action and we don't even know where it's coming from. It's okay. Because our usual ways are not handling it anyway. They're not bringing that healing. So we're allowing something else to step into our lives. A spirit of harmony and of kindness, which we all are fundamentally constructed of, open to, based upon. And we're allowing a whole different part of our being to enter and to shine. Actually, even talking about this, they say in Zen, shut your mouth. Wipe out your mouth before you talk about Zen, and they are right. All these words produce more ideas, they produce more resistance and opposition. And yet something needs to be said as well. Both are true at the same time, which is true of everything. Both parts are true at the same time. That's interesting, isn't it? We say Zen is all about paradox, but so is our life. Both sides are true at the same time. So it's better to be quiet and to just experience that, both sides. And you see then what comes next. We have to see for ourselves what comes next. Not to make it come, not to force it to come. But when we change, our lives change and the world around us changes. And when I say when we change, I just mean the way we receive our lives, the way we receive our experiences. Stop hating them, judging them, fighting them. It's actually a this whole process is really the process of making friends. Making friends with life, making friends with ourselves, making friends with each other. How come we never learn the truth about making friends? Well, when you just begin to sit on the cushion, when you do zazen, when you find a few Sangha members, which means others who are also practicing together, and hopefully a teacher, and by a teacher, I just mean someone who is guiding the sittings, offering some inspiration. Not someone who's above you and greater than you, and you have to worship them. That's not that way here. Someone who's helping you with outstretched arms. Not someone to lean on, depend on, someone to respect, to be inspired by their practice. It's a very different attitude. That's a great gift to find that. And if you don't find it right away, it will come when you're ready. And if and and and you know who knows what will come. We don't even know what will come, but whatever comes, we get on the cushion and allow that beautiful sitting practice to bring what we need and to trust that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening. It's delightful to be talking with you again. Have a beautiful, beautiful day. Bye bye.
