"Mindfulness and Meditation allow us to open our hearts, relax our bodies, and clear our minds enough to experience the vast, mysterious, sacred reality of life directly. With Practice we come to know for ourselves that eternity is available in each moment.

Your MMM Courtesy Wake Up Call:
Musings on Life and Practice
by a Longtime Student of Meditation

Sunday, October 13, 2013

The Hand of Thought

"If we open the hand of thought that grasps "this person" (that is, our self) as the center of the world, then our lives broaden and our hearts open to all beings."
Shohaku Okumura, Realizing Genjokoan: The Key to Dogen's Shobogenzo

Well, for days, I've tried to grab a few minutes here and there to write this week's Courtesy Wake Up Call in the midst of the current Dad and Papa (Grandfather) duties.  I got a good start at one point, but as events rolled on, it's become obvious that I best just let it go. 
 
It's quite clear that the conditions of our lives will always hold up and downs, difficult periods and easy times, plans and chaos.  The Practice is to embrace it all--even if it doesn't reflect our notions of what should be.  Although I've been fortunate enough to grab some time to meditate most days, the real Practice has been off the cushion.  Again and again, Uchiyama Roshi's instruction, "to let go of the hand of thought", has allowed me to turn my gaze instead to what needs to be done to support those around me. 

I hope to write more about that next week!

1 comment:

Chris Hakurei Kulp said...

Uggg! I wrote a big, long comment on this and then there was a "blogger" error and I had to start all over. Well, I'm not doing that (that shouldn't happen! requirement! requirement!) Ha! But this does remind me of how I'm dealing very much with a similar situation that you wrote about.

So much of what I "think" I should be doing and taking care of creates so much anxiety and frustration when I don't get time to do it. However, simply taking time to do what is most important- being with my family- becomes my practice in many ways.

Cheers, Lance!