This year’s five day Western Zen Retreat began much as had all the others I’d attended: my mind filled with the beautiful and the painful and the mundane, the usual clutter of living in this particular world.
After a while–actually, not too long a while–my mind began to clear, thus making more than ample room for
screaming pain, great doubt and the kind of suffering you don’t want to know about.
Imagine a malnourished and consequently really pissed lion raging inside your brain, your knees and your hips.
More time, a little more, then bango! the bolt of lightening, the pealing thunder, the parting clouds and voila! Mind clutter pretty much cleared leaving nothing but the knee pain, the hip pain, a wealth of smiles and more gratitude than a man in so much knee and hip pain could ever really account for.
Ah, the good old Western Zen Retreat.
Chances are next year I’ll go back.
Welcome! 