When staying for a while at the Monastery or attending a retreat, we follow the schedule that’s posted on the message board each day. As a visiting monk earlier this year, I experienced the power of the daily schedule as a vehicle to wake up and end suffering.
Most days the schedule began with the 7:00 a.m. wake-up bell, and for the remainder of the day, there was the sense that showing up for the schedule cared for the spirit and the heart.
There were times when, caught by conditioning and experiencing a tsunami of body sensations, showing up for the schedule, even if “I didn’t feel like it,” transformed the suffering I was in. The schedule provided a container in which to practice waking up and ending suffering. Without conditioning’s story, the tsunami of bodily sensations was simply a very alive human toasting nuts on the stove, harvesting fava beans, or being “here” for whatever activity was on the schedule.
No matter what, no matter how identified I was, there was always the schedule. And as I followed the schedule, there was an awareness of showing up for something holy, something that contained practice and Life at the Monastery. And when I’d sometimes show up identified, I learned to trust that “right here, right now” was the opportunity for transformation, a story to be dropped, an assumption, belief, or opinion to be seen, a suffering process to be revealed, and a way for suffering to be ended.
Some days as a visiting monk, it seemed I didn’t say a word to anyone except the recorder and the mentor. And yet there was a sense of being part of the monastic community and doing my part while working alongside the monks in silence. It was often during these times, of just being in their presence, that the internal system settled and brought me to presence. And in those moments, there was tremendous gratitude for the daily schedule, for the way we all practice, for all I was receiving, and for the way the schedule transformed me from a suffering separate human being to a human who is part of the Monastic community and part of Life.
Gassho,
Karen A.