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morning majesty at back river
Georgetown Island, Maine
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Communion, or heart-with-heart sharing, is beyond like and dislike. We may not even feel a need to like each other, but we love each other - we cannot do otherwise. So, love is not reliant on like or dislike. This love the Way leads us to. And, if we allow this love, we may come to like each other. But if not, that is okay.
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Hoitsu Suzuki visited his dying father [in California]. He was Shunryu Suzuki's eldest son and now abbot of his temple in Japan. Hoitsu was overwhelmed with the size and devotion of Suzuki's following.
Hoitsu said, "I told him, 'You're really fortunate, aren't you, to have all these people care for you.'
"My father answered, 'Yes. It makes me feel happy.' There are many priests who don't find such happiness."
*David Chadwick, Ed. Zen Is Right Now: More Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki.
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The Sage said, in a teaching after meditation, "I often speak of our need for connection with others. When we find connection, however, we find we are connection. That is why we find so much joy in companionship with others. To share heart-with-heart is to be that you are. So, that you are is that we are. Understanding this, you see there is no essential difference between your time in silence and solitude and your daily relations with others. Wherever you are, in solitude or among others, to give yourself is to receive yourself, and to receive yourself is to give yourself. No one loses."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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*©Brian K. Wilcox, 2023.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
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