Sunday, August 27, 2006

Our Mindfull Bell

With palms together,
Good Morning All,
 
This morning I am so sleepy. I thouht of the story about Suzuki-roshi training himself to literally jump out if bed each morning. Sometimes life is like that. It demands our attention in spite of ourselves.  So few of us seem willing to snap to it, though.  Our tendencies are to give in to our body's base urges: eat more, sleep more, exercise less, park as close to the store entrance as possible, eat fast foods, anything to avoid doing that which we do not feel like doing.  Oh terror.
 
No wonder others see us as a soft bunch.
 
One of the qualities of awakened living is having the discipline to be awake.  And to be awake means most directly to be present, even if, especially if, we don't want to.
 
So, maybe that is what we need in our lives, an internal mindful bell that rings and sometimes gently, sometimes demandingly, brings us to attention. But for what?
 
What is the "so what? of our practice?
 
Why be awake when we so naturally wish to be asleep?  Fit when we would rather be unfit?
 
Our answer is precisely in the question.
 
Be well.


Rev. Harvey So Daiho Hilbert, Ph.D. 
May All Beings Be Free From Suffering
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