Channels for the Light

Archive for October 17th, 2009

I’m currently reading a great book on mindfulness meditation called Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. In it, the author talks about the meditative arts of non-doing and effortless activity. I love the way this third-century poem from China expresses these ideas:

Prince Wen Hui’s cook
Was cutting up an ox.
Out went a hand,
Down went a shoulder,
He planted a foot,
He pressed with a knee
The ox fell apart
With a whisper,
The bright cleaver murmured
Like a gentle wind.
Rhythm! Timing!
Like a sacred dance,
Like “The Mulberry Grove”
Like ancient harmonies!

“Good work!” the Prince exclaimed,
“Your method is faultless!”
“Method?” said the cook
Laying aside his cleaver,
“What I follow is Tao
Beyond all methods!

“When I first began
To cut up oxen
I would see before me
The whole ox
All in one mass.
“After three years
I no longer saw this mass.
I saw the distinctions.

“But now, I see nothing
With the eye. My whole being
Apprehends.
My sense are idle. The spirit
Free to work without plan
Follows its own instinct
Guided by natural line,
By the secret opening,
The hidden space,
My cleaver finds its own way.
I cut through no joint, chop no bone.

“A great cook needs a new chopper
Once a year – he cuts.
A poor cook needs a new one
Every month – he hacks!
“I have used this same cleaver
Nineteen years.
It has cut up
A thousand oxen.
Its edge is as keen
As if newly sharpened.

“There are spaces in the joints;
The blade is thin and keen:
When this thinness
Finds that space
There is all the room you need!
It goes like a breeze!
Hence I have this cleaver
Nineteen years
As if newly sharpened!

“True, there are sometimes
Tough joints. I feel them coming,
I slow down, I watch closely,
Hold back, barely move the blade,
And whump! the part falls away
Landing like a clod of earth.

“Then I withdraw the blade,
I stand still
And let the joy of the work
Sink in.
I clean the blade
And put it away.”

Prince Wen Hui said,
“This is it! My cook has shown me
How I ought to live
My own life!”

– Chuang Tzu

Deep, but wonderful stuff… I hope you find meaning in it as I have. When our whole being apprehends, when we are fully engaged in the Now — living in the moment, our spirits are free to embrace the joy of the work of life!

THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM is the realization that you are not the possessing entity — the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated.

You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind.

You begin to awaken.

– Eckhart Tolle, Practicing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises from The Power of Now

Keep your hands open, and all the sands of the desert can pass through them. Close them, and all you can feel is a bit of grit. — Taisen Deshimaru

What this quote makes me think of is our hearts. We have a choice to make each day — each moment — about the condition of our hearts. We can choose each moment whether to keep our hearts open and passionately live and experience life, or to close our hearts and experience the grit of life. You and I are human and sometimes we will feel the grit, but I encourage you to choose to rise above it and live each moment with passion!

If we keep our hearts open, we are freely able to experience the love, the joy, and the wonder of life. We keep our heart channels open to experiencing the love and compassion of God, and we have the joy of spreading God’s love and compassion to those around us. When we keep our hearts opened, we live to the fullest our highest and best calling and life. I believe one of the most fulfilling ways we can keep our hearts open is to live in the moment. You and I should consciously embrace every single moment in our lives and live in the NOW. Accept every moment for what it is. Honor everything it brings. Embrace each moment fully and extract everything good you can from it, for the present moment is really all you have. The past is gone and cannot be changed (though your perception of it can be), and the future isn’t actually real because it hasn’t arrived yet — and it never will. The future is an illusion, only a construct of our minds. The only moment you can actually live in is NOW, so enjoy the NOW to the fullest! Savor it. Love it. Live it!

Keep your hands — your hearts — open!