I hope you’re not tiring of pictures of mountains (and if so that you re-read Suzuki Roshi’s admonition about repetition and Zen) because I do not seem to be losing enthusiasm for attempting to capture their beauty. These four photos were taken about 20 minutes apart.
I recently found out that this marvelous spot is not technically in Sequim—weatherly speaking. We’re 5-7 degrees colder than downtown. For this reason it seems always to be snowing, getting ready to be snowing, or recovering from snowing. Which makes it the perfect spot for wintertime awareness practice! For centuries Zen monasteries in Japan have pulled everything inward and focused solely on sitting and walking meditation along with the basic chores required to keep body and spirit together, fed and clean. A perfect picture of my life currently. (Okay, for all of those centuries until these current ones there was no internet—but aside from that!)
Since first I learned about Zen, learned to sit, learned about kinhin, read Ryokan, saw drawings of Zen monasteries, I dreamt of a life devoid of outside influence. Nothing to do but focus attention, practice being aware. Peace. Quiet. Stillness. Beautiful nature. And here we are!
I do realize this is not everyone’s dream come true, and I know it is the dream of lots and lots of folks to have some time in such an environment. Again, for years I’ve dreamed of creating a space to offer what is called Morita Therapy. Originally designed to address anxiety and other forms of “mental illness,” it’s essentially Zen Awareness Practice. Dr. Morita seemed to realize we’re all mentally ill—only differing in degree. At any rate, this would surely be the ideal setting in which to be still, surrounded by natural beauty, and practice accepting All That Is.
Nearby, in the Olympic National Park, we can walk among the giants in an Old Growth Forest. To have a sense of the magic of that, if you haven’t done so recently, you might enjoy another Netflix documentary called “Fantastic Fungi.” Now, this is not Braiding Sweetgrass, but then in my opinion nothing is on anything like the same plane as Braiding Sweetgrass, but it is well worth watching as one more reminder of how truly magnificent is our Mother Earth.
And, speaking of trees, I just received a notice that “I’ve” planted 23 trees since joining Aspiration Bank. Since it really is too cold and snow-covered to be planting any trees here, I am deeply grateful others are continuing the planting. If you’ve known me for a while you know I take solace in the notion that nagging is the highest form of love. Hence the “reminder.”
And of course, this blog would not be complete without: Birds!