the Zen Eye

I've been a bit off kilter - running and running. We get into the "gotta take care of this now" mode, dropping what we were doing to meet an immediate and pressing task. Now, I don't plan anything, really, this isn't inconsistent with my modus operandi by any means, but even someone like me has to stop, pause and re-collect.

In hopes to settling my spirit and finding some balance, I bought a book, The Zen Eye by Sokei An. A collection of talks by the founder of the first Buddhist church in the 30s. Interesting. He speaks of things I've thought but never really found the right words to express.

Today, I'm reading about "reality". We tend to think of reality as something as concrete and concrete. But, it's not, it changes - reality changes - and, by the way, so does concrete. A mother with a toddler experiences one reality but that same mother's reality is entirely different when the child is 2 or 20. Ahh, reality.

I can take living in a world without a real constant. My body isn't a constant. My mind is not a constant. The people around me change in the same way. We're more like running rivers than boulders set in the ground that appear to be constant, but over millenia, are not. Maybe some feel the need to have something unchanging, a touch stone. Maybe, just maybe, this is where the need to believe in an "other", Jesus, Mohammed, or even in the extreme, nut cases like David Koresh comes from. Hmmm.

Later, I have to get dressed and run to a meeting!