A « new » month finds me home between travels after days of sitting in the heart of a searing hot Portuguese summer. Writing that, I marvel at the great fortune that has brought me to practice in Portugal these last six years.
The days at Quinta das Águias went from fresh, easy morning to unthinkably fiery midday to the slow ooze of late afternoon into peaceful, cool evening and then the immensity and depth of night, which found us installed in the bowl of a small meadow, overlooking the forest below stars timelessly rising with the moon and the ancient call of night birds.
Having arrived late, due to a cancelled flight on Saturday, I was pleased to discover the retreat well under way without me, the practice carried by each and every participant. Everyone sat as they were, sincere, authentic, clear why they were there, not moving from the moment at hand.
And how did I get there? Thanks to Easyjet’s unexpected change of plans, I had come from nowhere. For a day and a half, I had been under the radar, not where I was supposed to be, neither here nor there. « Chaos, » the ungovernable, had granted me the joy of being just where I was, where I always am.
In the heart of neither here nor there
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.
Thank you, Patricia. Thank you for your practice, too.
It was a fantastic week, within all serenity where nothing happens but at the same time everything happens! 🙂
Still tape in my mind memories and words of your wisdom that they have helped me to see the things as they are and focus myself in them when I start to get lost in illusions of my mind. Thank you!
Thanks too for teaching me to learn how I can listen what the silence has to tell me, for teaching me to lose the fear of "the silence of my life" and to get start to love it and realize that the silence is powerfull.
We wait for you with respect and friendship in Portugal!! Thank you for existing and for your practise.
God bless you more and more!
With love,
Patrícia
While you were all coming in Portugal, I was breaking my brains on Nagarjuna’s 70 statements on Emptiness.
They basically say that since all phenomena are empty they are manifestations of Nirvana.
And trying to understand this emptiness intellectually is futile.
As all concepts the mind creates are empty.
Like whatever the mind grasps is empty.
And even the grasping mind itself is empty.
So emptiness can only be approached without effort; intuitively; in a plunge.
thank you for coming, tiago.
What a fantastic week! Thank you for coming 🙂