*Dainin Katagiri. The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life.

Walking, after arising early morning, bypassing the usual wish for coffee and readings first-thing. After a time of walking, exhausted I stand beside a tree, while looking out over the marsh decked in wintry white. I decide to rest against this tree at the edge of the marsh, hugging it and speaking words with it ~ in communing, there remains no speaking to. In relaxed, motiveless Receptivity, before this awe-inspiring vista, sense of separation melts away in the unseeable Sun of Silence. A self-sense, subtle, is present, a witness within all about, feeling an intimacy with no near or far. All is simply here, in pure Simplicity, as calming Quiet. This subtle self-sense, or higher Mind, recognizes and feels a Oneness, the only stable reality here. Recognition is spontaneously, effortlessly present that lack is not present and no particular form stands apart to itself, and even to say the particular blends into other particulars would be misleading. While forms are here, no object remains, for form has been denuded of objectivity; all forms remain, no object does. No form seeks communion with any form, for this is Communion. Each something is without border demarcating it from any other form, yet forms remain to be perceived within this Oneness as a unity, so, perceived only as in harmony with all else. Here, is seen the truth of the image of cloth and design.

How does Life adorn Itself with such an assortment of lives? Yet, It does, and without losing any of Itself in so doing. What is known here, now, is outside all ideas of how all this got here. Theory cannot find a place inside this placeless Sanctum.

Here, one discovers the self, with mind and body, is simply another expression of the one Silence speaking its Word into and through the somethings of all Nature. Here, one recognizes, through reposed consent, yielded to this immaculate Immensity, there is one Body alive and breathing, discovering Itself through the self of everyone and everything. Here, one enjoys repose, and leaving, one is thankful and changed in some way, and in what way one has no felt-need to know.

This is simply, then, one meeting with the Beatific, a Love holding the meeting of self and Other within Itself. Such Life is present, for Presence, equally in this one moving Moment, sometimes appearing veiled, sometimes unveiled, always the same glorious Glory.

this Silence
... Love, Harmony, Presence, Grace, Beauty ...
is not something one finds

does not arise
from anywhere

Silence is the no-whereness
between words

for

Presence present
before, within, and after
the meeting of any presence with any presence

to know, simply inquire
"From where does a word arise from?"
"What is before and after a word comes into form?"
"What is between words?"

you will see
words, unlike Silence, arise
from nowhere into form

all sound in Creation
is created
born of time, dying in time

Silence is timeless
no beginning, no end
birthless, deathless

so, Silence, being a fullness
is not to be avoided as a lack

even as an absence of words
for Silence is Plenitude, not poverty

no, we do not and cannot find Silence,
Silence is ever-present

simply for one does not see the Sunlight
does not mean the Light is hidden

Silence, like the Light, one may never 'see'
for never posture the heart in lucid Attention

Silence, in giving, gives Itself
and, with a "Yes," remains for a time in the foreground

and the more this occurs
the more Silence-oriented
the human consciousness becomes

before, one sought to live in Presence
now, one becomes lived by Presence

this becoming keeps becoming
and the background, Silence,
becomes steadied as the foreground

not negating anything,
for Silence is not opposite anything

Silence is absolute Positivity
for without either "Yes" or "No"

transcending gloriously all contrasts,
for prior to all contrasts

in Silence all is primordially one
all becomes one, again, by Grace

when introduced to Beauty by Beauty
in the breathing nowness of this one Moment

*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2018.