It Can Always Hurt

The Circus is gone with the dust & the wind. It was never that much fun anyway. 
Hitch up your trousers & move on. 

Q: Roshi, what are your views on Mindfulness?

A: Mindfulness teachers & coaches are, without exception, unscrupulous assholes. Smiling foxes, I call them. Look for a Mindlessness teacher instead, & get a taste of real Zen -- if you can find one!

Q: Where does this leave me in my search for inner peace to balance my busy corporate life?

A: High & dry, I'm afraid. Like the hanged. Do you know the Villon poem about crows eating the eyes out of the sockets of hanged men? That ballad has the taste of real Zen.

Q: What will I do to stop feeling so wrought up & anxious & unhappy all the time?

A: You've got to take control of your destiny, like a true mensch. Grab hold of the tiller, because if you don't you'll hit the shoals & break into fine foaming debris.

Q: How do I do that?

A: Try just for a few moments a day to relax your breathing. Let it deepen. Let it become quiet & profound. Let your nostrils stir a little, like a horse in springtime. Feel the cool breeze on your face. Listen to the laughter of little children raising clouds of dust as they run around in the square. Whatever.

But don't think you're special. Don't think "I'm being mindful!" Don't think anything at all. Let the willows be softly green.

The moon waxes & wanes without the help of anybody's self-involved thinking process. A lotus does not decide to rise above the mud & burst into spectacular white blossom. It just does it.

Anything but this constant feverish internal monologue, this painful gap opening always between present desire & future satisfaction, this showering of your own head with hot coals of remorse for the vanished past.

Anything? Or nothing? Grasping the world in thoughts is so boring.

This world is like a dream or an echo. It's like the circus that rolls into town, makes a lot of noise, & then one morning is completely gone. It has no real substance. You can't grasp it, can you? But it can always hurt. And it can also -- sometimes -- transport you into empty bliss.

As our master Joshu once said when asked to describe his enlightenment, "Suddenly I was ruined & homeless."

In the Chuang-Tzu, we read these immortal lines: "Comb Your Hair in Wind, Wash Your Face in Rain."