*Daehaeng Sunim. No River to Cross: Trusting the Enlightenment That's Always Right Here.
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Shortly before the Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi died, a student, an artist, met him in private. The devotee told him he was considering becoming more of a full-time meditation sitter and less of an artist. The student showed Roshi some of his paintings. "Hmm," Roshi said. "I think you are really an artist. Paint more, sit less."
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Through time in Silence, receptive to the Light, our Beloved, we become translucent with Grace. We become more of an access point to formless Presence. We become sacramental - spiritualized or sacralized is how I have referred to this transformation elsewhere. Associating closely with Grace, we bear the fragrance of Grace.
Thus, what we create in the world of form is a means of transmitting the Light to bless others. Our thoughts, actions, and words can enrich others. It includes our daily tasks. Menial tasks, like sweeping a floor, become holy work. When we have prepared ourselves to be an opening for Grace to manifest, anything done wholeheartedly comes into the world gracefully.
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Not everyone will recognize the gracefulness you and your work embody. You need not be concerned whether they do or not. Recognition thereof, or not, does not alter the manifestation itself. The Sun shines regardless of who notices and appreciates the sunshine. Never seen in a forest, a plant produces leaves and flowers.
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I live in an Inn, where I serve as host at night and volunteer housecleaning. In the morning, the founder comes to host and do administrative work. Volunteers and guests come in and out. She is cheerful when preparing meals. The meals are sacramental - food can be an opening to Grace, a sacred feast. What is placed on the table is sacramental, for she is sacramental, too. Some may experience the sacramentalness of the food and fellowship without recognizing it as such. Still, Grace presents itself in and through the forms present: people, food, conversation, smiles, laughter ...
Of importance, then, is that people may experience Grace and not know it. Later, they may recognize it as Grace. The Light's shine is not reliant on, as noted, recognition, and not on what persons call it. Words cannot capture the quality of sacramentality.
We, too, like my companion at the Inn, can be a conduit of Love, Joy, and Peace by opening ourselves to Spirit. We can integrate the inner and outer life as a single life to bless others, wherever we are, through our presence and kindness - kindness that takes varied shapes, tangible and intangible.
In this being a means of blessing, we are blessed, for we are each community. To touch the other is to touch yourself. Our spirits are one spirit, all bodies live in each body.
Life becomes sacred art, a diaphanous means of something more than ourselves and the deeds we offer - the Unseen and always near.
*Suzuki Roshi anecdote from David Chadwick. Zen is Right Now: More Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.
*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.
