Only Like This

Inhale, "Renewed."
Exhale, "Reclaimed."
Breath like Body.
Body like Mind.
Mind like Breath.
Only like This.

The Zen Jewdhist Dichotomy Rears It's Head

I used my lunch break to sit in meditation with a Buddhist patient unable to sit for himself by request of his wife.  This was a new experience for me and I'm still processing it.  I found while sitting in this man's darkened room at two AM while he and his wife slept that I still find dichotomy in my Zen Jewdhist path.  My internal monologue (which was more of a dialogue) went something like this:

"So... you're still a Jew, right?"
 

"Yes."

"But you're sitting here in meditation for a Buddhist."

"Yes, I know that. I was there when I said I would do it."

"Does it bother you that you told this Buddhist man's Buddhist wife that you practice Zen and now you're sitting doing Buddhist meditation for him?"

"Not as much as it seems to be bothering you.  And what's with all this Buddhist labeling anyway?  I thought we'd gotten past all this and had agreed that if there is no place where G-d isn't and G-d is present everywhere and in everything like the Chassidic masters claimed then, so long as we recognize HaShem in others, ourselves, our actions and deeds we can never be too far off the derech.  Remember?"

"I remember, I remember.  Would you knock it off with all the Jewishy words already? Who are you trying to impress Mr. 'Ger Bodhi-Tzaddik'?"

"Wha?"

"The point is, when you're talking to me you get all Jewishy, when you're talking to Dude's wife you sound all Buddhisty.  Who are you?"

"Now who's sounding all Zen?"

"And what about all that HaShem and God with no vowel stuff?  Buddhism is non-theistic, and Judaism is mono-theistic.  Have you figured out how to make that work, Hot-Shot?"

""Hot-Shot? Who says that?' Look, remember? Ayn Od, Ayn Sof, all Truth is Truth, all not-Truth is still truth, G-d is Everything. G-d is One, G-d is nothing... "

"Yeah, 'ALL ONE or NONE,' I read the Dr. Bronner's bottle too. Face it, you aren't even sure if G-d exists."

"I know that there is something that unites everything together.  What do call that I don't really know.  It isn't really that important is it?  That I know what to call that which I sense to be beyond myself but that is a part of every living and non-living thing in the universe and beyond?  That which can never be known but only sensed?  Maybe it's G-d or maybe it's only my imagination.  Sitting in the dark in the middle of the night in a room that smells like kaka and listening to this patient's wife snoring, does it really matter if there is a Hebraic G-d or if this Great Mystery is only in my head?"

"If there is no God, why are you sitting here?"

"I didn't say there was no G-d...  I'm sitting here because it brings comfort to this patient and his wife... Even if they're snoring ...and can't tell I'm here 'cause they're asleep... or something like that... Look, this is supposed to be meditation.  Can I get on with it please?
 ...Here... Now... Just This... Breathing... One... Two..."

"Did we ever resolve this???"

"Shh... Just be present right now.  That's all. Let the Infinite take care of itself."

"Ok...
...Is this prayer? What we're doing?"

"Shhh... that's a subject for another time.  Let's just be here in support of this family...
...Here... Now..."

"Here... Now..."

 

Thay Drinks Clouds Again

Ocean,

humidity, 

clouds, 

snow, 

mountain stream, 

river: 

always water.  

Others choose to label it this 

or that. 

It is always 

just itself. 

Differences

Differences between you

and I

are like differences between two waves.  

Look deeper 

see 

we are the same ocean.