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Here, there may be nothing particularly notable or exciting or even apparently sacred or spiritual happening, as he conveys in a poem, "The Meteoric Mountain," in Timely Rain.
There is so much energy where I live
Which feeds me.
There is no romantic mystique,
There is just a village boy
On a cold wet morning
Going to the farm
Fetching milk for the family.
Foolishness and wisdom
Grandeur and simplicity
Are all the same
Because they live on what they are.
There is no application for exotic wisdom.
So, good news of this passiveness-with-responsive-action is three-fold. First, we are are part of the activity of the moment unfolding: passive does not mean inactive, but one with the activity of the whole taking place. And, second, this opens us to the joy of receptivity of fresh, unplanned experience. So, the non-clinging to a particular experience welcomes experience. Passive, then, means welcoming and expectant, but not a clingy, controlling way of relating with Life. Then, third, we feel a connection to the total environment. Unlike feeling like it is all on us, the environment is more like an orchestra, and you are one player. So, this heals the sense of isolation, the burden of the ego feeling it needs to control Life happening. This means a lot of energy is freed up to enjoy the Journey.
* * *
Zen master Tozan was asked, “What is real Buddha beyond the three categories of Buddha?” Tozan said, “Now, here am I, wholehearted.”
What is this wholeheartedness beyond the teaching about the Buddha. Buddhist master Dainin Katagiri says, in The Light Shines through Infinity...
Wholeheartedness is a time and place where all categories, levels, and forms of discrimination simultaneously loosen into just this. That wholeheartedness is very serious but also soft and flexible. Seriousness and flexibility come together and walk together as one.
* * *
Recently, I could not sleep. I felt a deep grieving within. Energy was all in my room in the night. I did a more formal sit in the Quiet for a long time, after engaging some Dzogchen meditation. Then, I went to bed, turned out the light, and rested wakefully in the Silence into the early hours of the morning. I would normally, after a time, have gotten up and watched a show or read. I did not. I sensed I needed to be with all the energy moving, manifesting in the body and in the environment, and the shifts from the felt-hurt to being embraced in quiet bliss. So, I, you could say, just let the whole energy-environment carry me along. I was surrendered to all this movement, everything seemed movement, seemed moving, and I was part of it all, I was moving too. And, to me, it was all Prayer, all a gift.
So, that is what we want. Surrender to Grace is surrender to this moment, this environment one is in, when we have been freed from trying to manage Life, God, ourselves. You remain pliable, open to see what happens, and you are willing to act as part of the action of the total space, be part of co-creating there. So, you are devoted, seriously so, but with a sense of not having a tight-grip. You can relax, you can experiment, you can enjoy. So, while you are serious, you or somewhat nonseriously serious, or seriously nonserious, so some humor about it all. You are weaned, if religious, over taking God so deadly seriously. You sense you can lighten up, and you can help others take themselves less seriously, and laugh more, and cry more too. Crying is as much a part of the Life-flow as is laughing. It all belongs, all of it, it is all working together and you are intimate with it all, no longer seeking to hide in some ideal of what life ought to be, what you ought to be. You just dive in, you give yourself to Life, to the Sacred, though you cannot manage the Sacred or even know what the Sacred is. You do not really need to add sacred or spiritual or religious to life, anything descriptive at all like this, if you choose not, still you are part of the Whole, everything, and you are moving together with it all. Wonderful!
(C)Brian Wilcox 2020
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