As we sit in the cool room in the midday heat, the roof cracks and creaks overhead.
I am filled with a swelling love for this beautiful building, its selfless giving of itself so that we may have shelter from the elements.
In fact, it just sits with us and we just sit with it.
Or perhaps it sits as us and we as it.
Retreat notes, Portugal (II)
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.
Not loving what is, is a form of self-chastisement.
I do it myself, it is unpleasant and it is completely pointless.
Knowing that, why do I not love my malfunctioning printer or the person who sold me the wrong cartridges? Why do I get upset?
I still remember this comment when you made it in the retreat and although I had also heard the sounds while sitting, I only understood their power when I heard your words.
Later on, after the retreat, while we were sitting last Saturday, an electric old bus passed in the street with all the old engines shouting and for the first time I thought of it as being the bus giving itself to us, to the passengers that it carried, etc.
So profound and transforming.
Thank you very much for this powerful teaching of love.
Annual family reunion softball game at Aquila Field #4, site of some of Sue’s powerful homeruns. Remembered you lived nearby and Sue said so did Lisa A. Couldn’t remember if it was Boone or Aquila so drove down both looking for a light colored front with cement stairs and a garage to the right. Didn’t recognize anything similar to the snap shot in my memory. The neighborhood, like my parent’s, different from what I see in my mind’s childhood eyes. Happy you found a place in Bob’s lyric that "can give you shelter from the storm."
I so love reading your words. Spontaneous online teaching! What fortune. I thank the internet bringing us this infinitely subtle dharma, electric message in a bottle! all my best to you and all your bros and sistas sitting with you in Portugal…and everywhere!