Thanks to those who inquired about my health last week. I’m now well back in the swing of things, experiencing the bitter Parisian cold firsthand.
And today amid the greater world’s joys and sorrows, the slaughters and acts of kindness, the electoral hand-wringing and bickering, the getting and spending, I managed the daily doings: tending to three loads of laundry, preparing three meals (one for the family, two for me alone), shopping for a few items for my son, meeting with the translator of my poems, working on a text whose deadline is fast approaching… A day much like any other and yet a day all its own.
Then, in a moment of relaxation at my desk, I randomly open « The Zen Teaching of Huang Po » and come upon this passage near the end, which seems uncannily meant just for me tonight:
« Do not permit the events of your daily lives to bind you, but never withdraw yourselves from them. »
Events of your daily lives and mine
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.
You mean you open to them –
but you don’t identify?
not in the possitive sense -neither in the negative?
just awareness?
what about emotions?
feelings?
In fact, the events of your life can not bind you if you don’t withdraw from them! Withdrawing and binding are partners, one can’t exist without the other.
Thank you for this guideline of Huang Po!
If I could really practice this day by day, moment by moment!