'Gentle the Flow - Back River'
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A student of the Zen teacher, Shunryu Suzuki, asked him in dokusan - the private session between disciple and Teacher - "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" Suzuki Roshi answered, "It doesn't matter."
As one grows in intimacy with Life, self living more from the heart, she undergoes simplification. The simplification includes the mind. Much in the mind-library loses its prior capacity to hold captive the attention. One becomes free mentally, intellectually, of the tyranny of what finally does not matter. Then, the mind and heart are free to attend to what truly does matter.
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About seven years ago, a spontaneous affirmation began arising during meditation: "I don't care." This affirmation, at first, was bewildering. The words clashed with my past. I had lived a life of caring too much, which led to health challenges from stress. "I don't care" felt like inner freedom. A light sense of joy was present - relief felt in the body. No one had ever said it was okay for me to avow such uncaring. I saw I do not have to or need to care about what others say I, or anyone, should take seriously. By not caring as much, we have more energy to attend to what most needs our care.
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To walk a wisdom path, we are willing for the not-needed to drop away from our lives. We might find trying to let go of something does not work, and, suddenly, it falls away without our effort to drop it. These shifts occur naturally through our devotion to the Way.
rain drops
splash!
leaf falls
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2020
*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. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, especially Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the teachings and imagery in the poetry.
