
Earth day earth Day Earth
I went for a hike today with the Sandias at the ski area. No one but me and Dobby (my house elf doggie) and trees and sky and grasses and rocks and sparrow and Sun and hawk and a deer that Dobby caught scent of before me and chased into the depths of the woods. Hiking after him, snow cascading into my boots, cold and sharp. Inhaling every step of uneven rock and rolling fallen branches and thigh deep snow playing the game of “support you here and here and not here ahhhhh” until Dobby returns empty jawed and winded and smiling, rewarded with a cricket treat for having returned on his own. His serpentine plunge into the forest has brought us back a different non-path to the car. We share a drink of water, giving the extra to the late winter grasses. And then collect a trove of empty beer bottles and cans, Miller and Marble and Santa Fe Brewing, and an empty Old Grand-Dad 80 proof pint and a pair of orange plastic thinthin flipflops that are given out at places like 10,000 Waves and a single blue dog bootie size small.
I shared a dream this week in Dream-Koan practice: I’m an 8 year old boy. I’m with a 4 year old girl and a huge Bobcat, the Bobcat sitting is taller than me. Sometimes I’m the 8 yo boy and sometime I’m the 4 yo girl and sometimes I’m an amalgam of us. The Bobcat has a huge open wound on its back, right behind it’s heart. As the 4 yo girl I am shivering (do you know the way that some 4 yo shiver with intense pleasure and/or pain?). As the 8 yo, I feel immense hurt and sadness and I am applying an antibiotic salve, knowing that I must try. As the Bobcat, I feel the immense pain of the wound in a different way. This wound, this wounding is never-ending. This wound, this wounding is raw and immediate. This shivering is without defense. And never-ending.
Today, I am seeing the Earth as this giant Bobcat, with multiple open wounds. Never-ending wounding. When viewing the Earth from outer space, I get a taste of the dharmakaya interconnectedoneness. Offering a perspective so much bigger than I-me-mine, I don’t even see this Zenho being. Perhaps I don’t see/feel the never-ending wounding, or the action that I can take with this never-ending wounding. As the 4 and 8 yo right next to the Bobcat, the wound/wounding becomes COMPLETELY personal. And of course picking up bottles and cans and flipflops and………
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THE THREE MARKS OF EXISTENCE
The gash in your back
Ragged and red
Is the gash in my back
That shivers in agony
As the otherwise gentle breezes
Of “How?” and “Why?” and “Who?”
Probe nerve and tendon and bone.
Allow me your wound
And I will apply this salve
As carefully and gently as I can
For I too feel the jaw clenching necessity
Of its gritty presence
Zenho
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SCHEDULE APRIL 23- APRIL 30
MONDAY, 6:30AM, ZAZEN AT TEA HOUSE, DAVID KEKANSAN OPENING
MONDAY, 7PM, DREAM KOAN AT THE TEA HOUSE OR ZOOM
Drag your body to the Zendo, or Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81182899201?pwd=UVU4MnJhMG1ZUGJaOHhaSndwQ2dYQT09
TUESDAY, 6:30AM, ZAZEN AT THE TEA HOUSE OR ZOOM, WITH ZENHO. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86265616603?pwd=WHZEQWNDQnZPS1VicDl6VVlEdmxFZz09
WEDNESDAY, 6:30AM: ZAZEN AT THE TEA HOUSE OR ZOOM WITH ZENHO
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89605039197?pwd=VTVubW5pUnBCNFBqQjBieERvNDd5QT09
THURSDAY, 6:30AM: ZAZEN AT THE TEA HOUSE, ANDY OPENING DOKUSAN WITH ISSAN SENSEI
FRIDAY, 6:30AM: ZAZEN & SERVICE WITH ZENHO AT THE TEAHOUSE DOKUSAN WITH ZENHO SENSEI
8 DEEP BOWS
Zenho & Issan