During a recent stay at the Monastery, I practiced with the koan of “whole-hearted participation.”
Life was dropping in all sorts of nuggets around the koan. Alongside that, I was hearing from conditioning how that was happening because the Monastery is such a conducive environment to practice in.
Then one morning, as I was walking up the dirt and gravel road that leads out of the property, I was jolted and amazed to come upon a very small, stunning, red poppy in full bloom. Incredibly, it had grown and bloomed directly in the center of the dirt and gravel road in the midst of a drought.
Wowed by it, I stopped and marveled at its tiny delicate beauty for a good long time and gave a salute to its whole-hearted participation despite its circumstances.
Then, in an interesting shift, I considered its pending fate. Surely, it would get plowed under by an incoming vehicle, whose driver is unaware that Life had placed a Buddha in the center of this dry, dusty road.
Who would see it? Who would experience joy in its beauty and (I projected) its tenacity. Then I was graced with the gentle awareness that from a place of nonseparation, everything around it, the gravel, the air, the trees, the clouds, the driver, the vehicle is Buddha, and thus Life is constantly experiencing Life. Oh yes, “The joy of intelligence knowing itself.”
The gift that was given and received was that “whole-hearted participation” is moment by moment full engagement. Circumstances and outcomes are human stories where Life proceeds without hesitation in YES.
The “where” practice takes place is just content. The practice is to say “Yes” to True Nature, to Life, to Guidance, regardless of the environment.
In Yes, we bloom (transform) anywhere, in any circumstance. Thank you wholehearted poppy.
Gassho,
Lynette