Disturb Us!

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

In Las Cruces the air is much drier and lots warmer.  Mornings at the Refuge were in the high forties, low fifties. I would get up in the dark, build a fire in the cookstove, light a candle, and practice zazen.  Afterwards I would sit with coffee and the dogs on the deck listening to the forest come alive as the sun rose over the trees.  Here I lazed after my wrist alarm went off at 5:30.  I "floated" in bed, practicing laying down meditation. At 7:00 My Little Honey brought me a cup of coffee, Eve and Allen were awake and everyone was getting ready to go to Big Daddy's produce market.  I chose to stay here, write, and get ready to go to Talmud study.

 

While it is true that wherever you go, there you are; it is equally true that the stability of a home environment influences our perception. With bags in as trunk, I feel unsettled on the one hand, yet somewhat free, on the other hand. While I cannot lay my hands on a particular book, like the tractate of Talmud we are studying this morning, I am forced to come to terms with this and accept that a photocopy will do and a quick in and out at K-Mart yesterday afternoon allowed me to buy a nice shirt for Temple last night.

 

What should remain stable are the habits of our heart: practice, reflection, appreciation. Yet, these do not come easy, so used to relying on externals we are.  I noticed in the prayerbook last night a prayer that asks God to make us dissatisfied with the peace of ignorance.  It asks God to disturb us, to ruffle our feathers, to wake us and shake us and to "Make us know that the border of the sanctuary is not the border of living..."  
 

This is a very important point!  One I must continue to make a part of my practice and one that being temporarily unsettled helps offer.

 

Be well.