Friday, January 27, 2012

What came before...


If you don’t understand the way right before you,
how will you know the path as you walk?
Progress is not a matter of far or near,
but if you are confused, mountains and rivers block your way.
- Harmony of Difference and Equality

At San Francisco Zen Center they offer classes to understand the sutras and chants, like the excerpt above. I'll be living there in two weeks but have thus far had no formal training. Even with no "training" per se, the practice of chanting still gets inside. Today these two lines are speaking to me a little. But I'll get back to that in a moment.

As long as I have known my husband he has wanted to live at Green Gulch Zen Farm. As long as I have know myself since going to yoga school I have wanted to live in a spiritual community of some kind. I will spare you the details of first meeting my husband and opening my heart to Zen and later, marriage. Last year I started an amazing job and moving to a spiritual community, renouncing most things, and making no money seemed very far away and my husband was willing to be open. But somewhere along the way, I woke up ready to go. How do you know when you're ready? You announce your journey with a light heart and no real fear. How else do you know you're ready? Everything starts to fall into place like the most beautiful puzzle you have ever seen. I will also spare you all those details as well, as I am pretty sure they are only interesting to me. But here we are. Two Zen priests, and dear friends, have moved into our small New Orleans zendo and have stepped into the moving waters of Mid City Zen. We have begun to say our goodbyes slowly. So slowly they almost aren't goodbyes...yet.

So back to the lines from the chant above. I am not sure I understand the way right before me but I know it's the path for me and I have not really encountered any mountains or rivers blocking my way.