A woman tells me on the first night during my introduction instructions that although she didn’t know anything about Zen, she came to the retreat because, she said, she told herself that if she didn’t like it she could leave.
I smiled and said, yes, that is true.
I didn’t say, however, that this practice is not about liking and disliking. Nor about coming and going.
This practice is about « seeing » – that is, « experiencing » – the world before we measure it.
I didn’t say it because she couldn’t hear it.
On the morning of the second day, I see the back of her on the path as she leaves without saying goodbye before breakfast.
Retreat notes, Portugal (I)
About the Author: zenscribe
Enseignante Zen et poète, Sensei Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell est née et a grandi à Minneapolis, aux Etats-Unis. Arrivée en France en 1981 pour étudier la littérature et l’histoire, elle y est restée, s’installant à Paris, où elle élève ses deux enfants et gagne sa vie en tant que journaliste.
The Zen teacher and poet Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell Sensei was born and raised in Minneapolis, but came to France in 1981 to study literature and history and has lived in Paris ever since, raising her two children and making a living as a journalist.
Exactly.
Wonder how the world would be if we all realized that there’s nowhere to go…
This story makes me think about how it is impossible to delete an impression.
I can leave a sesshin, yes. I can abandon a sangha, no problem. I can switch off the TV, sure.
But it is too late.
Once the impression entered my mind, there is nothing I can do to make it go away.
Leaving does not change a thing.