I was inspired to begin writing a blog during a time when I was much less directly in touch with Sangha. It was before this year of not traveling, before a giant make-over for the Monastery, before assisting Ashwini in creating and implementing systems and procedures for internal and external communication, maintenance, finances, workshops and retreats, The Year of Deepening Practice, 300 for 1000, Sangha Market and so much more too numerous to list.There’s little airplane travel currently, but we are traversing landscapes at a dizzying pace.
I would like to be writing about practice; there’s a book I’m eager to get started on. But writing about practice is not in the cards for me just now. Just now I am happily practicing being a steward of practice.
For years my favorite quote (okay, one of my top 100 favorite quotes, probably in the top 3) has been “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”For me, that translates into “just practice with whatever Life is putting in front of you, and do it with your whole heart and soul.” I endeavor.
Periodically I receive writings of a blog-like nature from a couple of practitioners whose ability to articulate our practice in different words appeals to me enormously. I read what they send to me, wish there were a way to make it available to more people, and, coming to no conclusion, file the pieces. A couple of times I’ve included one in my blog, but as a perfect example of “everything in its own time,” it never occurred to me to include them regularly.
The other day I realized I could open up what has been my blog as a conversation that includes what the two of them are looking at, while retaining the option of adding my two cents when that works with my schedule.I asked and both agreed. One suggested we could poll readers to see if there are subjects you’d like explored. Moments ago I read the last postings on the most recent blog—from February! I rest my case—and saw that someone had posed this question, “In what way is the ego an illusion?” That could be fun to explore.
Two subjects I return to like a terrier with a favorite bone. 1) Communication (poor and lacking) is a not-an-accident cause of most suffering, and 2) There can be no liberation until a human being recognizes what ego (the illusion of a self that is separate from life) is and that “it” is not “me” and “I” am not “it.”
I shall now send this off to each of my guests and invite them to explore this first topic. If they are so inspired, they will speak to this topic; if they find something else currently inspiring, they will speak to that. You will then be able to suggest subjects and they may or may not speak to those! How’s that for “loose enough to fit beautifully with how life unfolds”?
Gassho,
Cheri