Ash Wednesday 2007
Last week I had the good fortune to attend a five day sesshin in the Northern Lake District of England with a group of Buddhists. There were ten of us there altogether, seven men and three women. The leader called Dave Scott is also a Dharma Holder in the White Plum Sangha based in Liverpool. The White Plum Sangha was formed by Taizan Maezumi in Los Angeles when he came there from Japan to teach Zen in the West. Maezumi Roshi made Daido Loori, Bernie Glassman and Genpo Merzel his Dharma heirs and Dave Scott was made a Dharma Holder by Genpo and Bernie Glassman made Robert Kennedy a Roshi who in turn made me a Dharma Holder. So that’s how we are all connected.
In his initial talk Dave asked us all to reflect on what he described as the Koan of life or Life Koan. A Koan as you know cannot be resolved in the rational mind of conventional thinking. So we were really invited to be at one with our life with no separation or judgement. It was suggested that we touched the place where we were stuck and put a separation in our life instead of being able to live it fully and trustfully. The hardest thing is to accept things just as they are and to accept ourselves just as we are to know that we are perfect and complete lacking nothing. This made me realise again the teaching of St. Francis de Sales “ all change proceeds from a calm and peaceful mind.” I had also brought a book by Maezumi Roshi with me entitled “Appreciate your Life” Conscious that so much of my journaling on retreats over the years has been full of self criticism and a sense of failure and lack of staying power to resolutions made. My Benedictine friend Dom Sebastian also says that we are held back by self-hatred. This provided the backdrop for the whole time I spent there.
The other participants were delightful and very accepting of me – a married Roman Catholic priest! Dave even included me in his talks and asked me to do the opening liturgy each morning at 6.15 am to start our day. My work period in the morning was spent in the kitchen and my task from the chef was to make the daily salad and its dressing.
The location was simply splendid with all the natural beauty of the English Lake District. Here are just a few words that may convey something of a picture which you can see in your own imagination.
Stark Hill….Grass…. rocks,,,, hills of grassy banks with rocks cutting through the surface to give a jagged edge…clear running streams little rivulets racing over rocks looking ice clod as the ran helter skelter towards bigger streams crossing fields and hedges of stone….stone hedges…strong moss covered rock of ages solid rocks and stones all shapes and sized nestled together for generation after generation. Roaming munching chewing grass sheep. Startled by sound to look briefly and continue to chew. Do sheep get anxiety? Do they self criticise? Do they look for a seal of approval from others? There was a farm that had a marketing approval sign for the quality of their meat beef and sheep Do the sheep care? .
So as we begin our Lenten season perhaps we can all try the “Koan of Life”. Enter into your life in your sitting in silence and don’t worry what comes up; just practice acceptance and absolutely no judgement. Appreciate your life. Maybe spend time to write your own version of Psalm 136 recounting the events of your life with NOTHING omitted without any judgement of good or bad success or failure just notice it all. We ca do this in solidarity with one another and take many opportunities to affirm all others we come across that you appreciate them and the gift that their life is to the cosmos.
Remember that you are Stardust and to Stardust you will return!
