In order to expand our universe, we need to limit our focus. In order to have panoramic awareness, we need to limit our actions and our thinking. We must cut through our Small I to reach our Big I. The petty gives way to the expansive, and universal. Grasping and clinging gives way to compassion and giving.
28 days later, I’ll be coming out of a month-long section of Winter Kyol Che 2013, which is a 3-month intensive retreat held at the Diamond Hill Zen Monastery at the Providence Zen Center. The sun may or may not be shining, the clouds may be there or the sky may be clear and blue. But there will be clarity. And that will be enough.
We’ll see how it goes. It’s a radical re-orientation away from the common notion in the western world that we need to be working, working, thinking, thinking–just turned on and going all the time. What have you done in your life? What have you made for yourself? Instead, retreat is about returning to the way things are, not getting caught up in how we think they are, or how they were, or might be, or could be. Just, how is it just now? Who is sitting here, who is typing these words, who is reading these words? Only that. Breathe in, breathe out. Don’t know.
See y’all in a month.
