A young monk in the monastery,
He goes to see the head monk,
Joshu,
And he sees him and he says,
I've just entered the monastery,
And I was hoping you could give me some instructions.
And Joshua asked him,
He says,
Well,
Have you eaten breakfast?
And the young monk says,
Yes,
I have.
And Joshua says,
Then wash your bowl and walks away.
And with that,
The young monk is enlightened.
So.
We can imagine the young monk was really hoping for some elaborate instructions beforehand,
That he'd really thought about,
Oh,
It's going to be something very sacred,
Maybe something very secret.
And in one fell swoop.
Joshu just rips right through,
Cuts right through all these expectations about what enlightenment is,
About what awakening is,
All these ways in which we distract ourselves from the immediacy.
Of this moment in one sharp slice,
He brings him right back to what's here.
Wash the bowl.
So when we.
When we think about these ideas that we have about awakening or enlightenment or even,
Let's just say,
Contentment.
The idea of contentment is not what contentment is,
Right?
Because we imagine in our minds,
Ourselves,
Without all the demands of life,
Without all the pressure to be something,
The pressure to be someone,
And so kind of creating even more pressure in the imagining,
Right?
The pressure that we're hoping to be free from,
Adding more pressure in by imagining what it is,
But of course,
It is just an image of us content,
And that is not what contentment is.
It's not what enlightenment is.
It's not what awakening is.
But what actual contentment is,
Is the absence of that image of me,
That absence of the checking,
Have I arrived yet?
The absence of the me,
Do I need to get somewhere,
Right?
It's the being here with what it is that's happening.
Directly experiencing,
Participating.
In this moment.
Because whatever it is that we're doing.
Whether we're washing a bowl,
Whether we're drinking a cup of tea,
We're having a conversation with someone,
This is life happening.
This is a hint.
Right?
We imagine that there are some moments that are more sacred than other moments.
But really,
All of life is sacred.
I mean,
What is the difference between the trillions of conditions that went into the a shaman in Peru having some elaborate ceremony and passing out the special tea.
Versus the trillions of conditions.
That went into the moment arising of washing the bowl.
It's all just the mystery of life.
Happening.
But we have this tendency to categorize and separate things.
In this moment over here,
It's special,
It's sacred.
In this moment over here,
It's not.
And so the mind divides life into moments that matter.
And other moments that we just have to get through.
And those moments that we have to get through,
So much of life becomes a waiting room.
Where we're just waiting for something else to happen.
So whether we're doing the dishes or we're paying the bills or we're folding the laundry,
We see these things as interruptions to life,
Things I've got to just get through so I can get back to life.
But that's life.
That's life happening.
And I'm not suggesting that we make the dishes into something bigger than they really are,
Into some special ceremony.
But that we don't make them lesser than what they are either,
That we don't imagine that this moment doesn't count.
Because the moment that we do that,
Right,
Notice when we say,
This moment doesn't count.
Where have we just put our lives in that moment?
Somewhere else.
It's on the other side of whatever activity it is we're doing now.
It's the experience that we're hoping to have.
Later in life.
And so we make this division between there's a me And then there's this activity that's standing between.
The life that I want.
And me.
And so.
If we look more closely at this,
Though,
What we see,
If we're doing the dishes,
Let's say,
Right,
We can feel the water on our hands,
We can feel the movement as we're wiping the bowl,
The suds,
We can maybe feel that there's a tiredness in the body.
We can maybe even feel that there's a thought of being tired.
But that thought,
Those sensations,
Those feelings,
They're not separate from the activity.
They're not separate from life unfolding right now.
They're a part of it.
This is what we keep missing.
We keep thinking that everything is separate from us.
When in fact we are arising with whatever activity is arising,
Even if that activity is nothing.
Or meaning just not doing anything.
So when we see a butterfly,
Right?
A butterfly comes into our field of vision and there's maybe a little bit of a fluttering in our heart or a fluttering in the belly and a smile's arising,
Right?
So we can look at that and we can say,
Okay,
What were all the conditions that came into that?
The butterfly came into our field of vision,
There was light,
There was seeing,
There was a little flutter,
There was a smile.
All of that was life happening.
We can't find anything there that was standing apart heart from it.
It was all arising as life happening in this moment.
No separation,
No division.
And we like the little examples of the butterfly,
I get that,
It's easier to see it there.
It's a little harder to see it when we're experiencing some physical pain,
Some discomfort,
Maybe we've got a backache and there's some discomfort in the body and there's sensations and there's resistance and maybe there's the thought that I wish this wasn't happening.
But all of that.
Is life happening?
All of that,
No separation from it.
I'm not suggesting that we pretend that we're not feeling pain,
That we wouldn't take some Tylenol or that we wouldn't shift our position or maybe put a heating pad on.
Yes,
Because all of that too is all life happens.
But that we don't pretend that this is something that we've got to get back,
You know,
We've got to get past.
In order to get back to life.
Because if we do that,
And it's really easy to do that when we're feeling discomfort.
Really think,
Well,
No,
No,
No,
This activity,
I've got to get past this so I can get back to life.
But the way we do anything is the way we do everything.
And so if we're thinking that I am separate from this in some way,
And that life is waiting for me on the other side of this,
Then we just keep that belief.
That idea of separation going,
And then it happens in all of our lives.
Because the way we do anything is the way we do everything.
So when we're sitting and we're having,
There's just not a lot going on,
Right?
And we just,
We feel that little sense that something's missing.
We're so used to that sense that something should always be happening.
And the mind starts projecting some meaning into it.
Oh,
My God,
Something must be wrong with our lives.
Right?
And so one just sitting,
There's nothing going on,
All of a sudden there's a whole judgment about our lives.
But then maybe some mindfulness,
We start noticing what's happening,
Mindfulness arising,
Because all the previous conditions of the Dharma talks and the previous meditations and seeing this pattern happening over and over and over again.
Right,
That there's all of a sudden this recognition of,
Oh,
Here it is,
The wanting more.
It was just a little bit of a discomfort moment.
And in that became this,
I want more from this moment.
And so we recognize it,
And we breathe,
And we feel.
We notice the contraction in the body.
We breathe into it.
This is the immediacy of life.
All of this.
We tend to think even mindfulness is,
Oh,
So I can get through this to get back to life.
Mindfulness is bringing us into the immediacy of life of what's happening right here.
If it's restlessness in the body,
If there's contraction in the body,
If there's fear,
If there's disappointment,
If there's anger,
It's bringing us into what's here.
It's not saying this moment doesn't count.
It's saying this moment counts,
Too.
Trillions of conditions.
Went into this moment arising.
Even the thought,
Oh,
I'm missing out on my life.
That is arising in life.
Right?
There is no way to separate any of this out of it.
Right?
There's no not participating in this.
We can think we're not.
We can believe that we're not,
We can believe in separation,
We can believe in the division.
That's what we're waking up to,
That in fact there isn't any.
Each moment arising,
Trillions of conditions,
Countless conditions,
And all the conditions here,
The feeling,
The thinking,
The tasting,
The smelling,
The seeing,
The hearing,
Right?
All of this arising as life and changing in each and every moment.
So I thought we could use this as our.
.
.
As our reflection for the retreat as we're slowing down,
Right?
To notice the.
.
.
That impulse to want to separate out this moment counts and that moment doesn't.
This moment is boring and that moment is going to be,
You know,
I got to get to the better moment,
Right?
Noticing that there's going to be pleasant moments,
There's going to be unpleasant moments,
There's going to be neutral moments,
Right?
And as these moments,
They keep,
They're coming and they're going and they're changing and things are happening in us and our biology is changing and maybe hunger is arising or maybe some discomfort is arising,
Maybe some boredom is arising,
Right,
Whatever it is that's arising,
But using this as an opportunity to reflect.
On all the conditions that are going into this moment,
But also to see that there is no separation,
That whatever is arising,
There's no separation here.
It's all just life happening.
Right?
Whatever is happening,
It's us happening.
We are happening.
And so as we're slowing down and we're being more thoughtful,
More mindful during the retreat,
And this is the time that the two and a half hours might be,
Yeah,
Two and a half hours in between.
To really notice this,
Notice that mind movement.
Of this moment counting and that moment not counting.
Right?
The way that we divide things up,
The way that we give specialness to some moments and unspecialness to other moments.
Because while of course we do enjoy the pleasant moments,
We enjoy the feeling when the body feels good and we enjoy the nice food that we're tasting and maybe you're sitting outside and a little butterfly is coming by and yes,
Enjoy these moments,
Appreciate them,
Have gratitude,
Right?
Because they're fleeting,
They're just as every moment is,
They're arising and changing,
Right?
So we can appreciate those moments,
But really,
Even more importantly,
In those moments,
Those little moments of discomfort,
Those little moments where we're just that,
Oh,
You know,
I want to get past this.
Right?
There's so much to see in that moment because we are feeding into that belief of separation.
If we only want the good moments and we're always pushing away the unpleasant moments,
We're still living in the illusion of separation.
We're not really even,
You know,
We're.
.
.
Always wanting to be somewhere other than where we are.
And a great deal of suffering comes out of that.
So when we slow down and we notice these things and we notice that impulse and we kind of pause and think about all the conditions that went into this and really how this is all participating,
Right?
Noticing that like,
Yeah,
Wow,
Wow,
There's a lot more going on here than the head would have us believe.
That it's a lot more interesting than the head would have us believe.
And that whatever it is that's arising,
It can be an embarrassing moment.
A difficult moment,
A moment of anger,
A moment we dropped the cup and broke the cup,
Okay,
That's what's happening,
Right?
Whatever it is that's happening,
This is life.
This is what Joshu was pointing towards to the young monk.
If it's washing your bowl,
If it's eating your food,
If it's going for a walk,
That's the immediacy of life.
That's what's happening.
And how we show up for this moment affects how we show up for the next moment and the next moment and the next moment.
So this moment,
Each moment matters.
And anytime we discount it,
That is affecting also how we show up or don't show up for the next moment and the next moment and the next moment.
