Minnesota Zen Meditation Center
  • Home
  • Programming
    • MZMC Programming
    • Zoom Program Links
    • Introductory Class
    • Sunday/Tuesday Talks
    • Calendar
    • Classes
    • Practice Periods
    • Retreats and Workshops
    • Daily Meditation
    • Curriculum
    • Affinity Groups
    • Mentorship
    • Youth Programs
  • Resources
    • MZMC Resources
    • Sunday Talk Archive
    • Chants and Services
    • MZMC Authors
    • Sewing Practice
    • Books and Links
    • Spiritual Care
    • Equity and Inclusion
    • Library
    • Ceremonies
    • Primers
  • Community
    • MZMC Community
    • 50th Online Booklet
    • Council Process
    • Racial Justice Action
    • People of Color Dharma Group
    • Death and Dying Book Group
    • Waking Up to Race
    • LGBTQ+ Dharma Group
    • Volunteer/Work Practice
    • Mala Making Workshop
    • Buddhism and Recovery
    • Joyce Food Shelf
  • Katagiri project
    • Katagiri Project
    • Biography and Lineage
    • Books, Photos, and Videos
    • Audio Archive Project >
      • The Dainin Katagiri Audio Archive
    • Tomoe Katagiri
    • Blog
  • About MZMC
    • About MZMC
    • Teachers
    • Board
    • Ethics
    • Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
    • History of Inclusivity
    • Initiation and Priest Training
    • Building Project
    • Contact
  • Support
    • Support MZMC
    • Membership and Donation Season
    • Become a Member
    • Donate
    • Donation-Only Programming
    • Volunteer



Tim's Blog

Despair and Empowerment in Challenging Times III

4/19/2021

0 Comments

 
Too often we cover over the vital energy of heart-mind and feel helplessness and/or hopelessness.  We do this to protect ourselves from acknowledging and accepting our darkest thoughts or feelings.  Dan began coming to our Zen center 15 or 2o years ago.  He was still in a 30-year marriage that had been very unhappy.  And during an early retreat at our center, the thought kept coming up for him, “This will never work, this will never work.” We talked about this persistent refrain and how important it was for him to see the situation from his own eyes not his wife’s or adult children or other family members’.  As he followed my advice to continually put awareness of heart-mind first, which meant listening to his own despairing voice as it persistently bubbled up during his meditation, he moved toward separation and then actual divorce. He realigned his life and after a period of disorientation, found a steady balance that he had not had for years.
 
Seeing life through your own eyes not the eyes of a parent, boss, spouse, kid is not selfishness. As we open to heart-mind, we grow and connect with ourselves and others at a deeper level, self-protection becomes less important, as happened with Dan. At the same time, we no longer need immediate gratification. Our socialized false self becomes less prominent. We are no longer hung up on problems from the past in an echo chamber which id continually reverberating. Heart-mind is not ruled by past.  It is not dominated by mandates from the family. 
I’d like to end these three pieces with 3 haiku to help us open to heart-mind.  The first by Issa:   
On a branch,
floating downriver,
a cricket singing    
 
Our own lives are like this.  We are small beings resting on a tumultuous and unpredictable world (with COVID, social unrest, and climate change) floating toward our demise. Can we be fully in each moment, paying attention to and expressing heart-mind?
 
Here is a haiku by Basho that may help your heart-mind open.
too ill
to eat even a rice cake
peach trees in flower
 
As Basho writes this, he seems to be unfastening himself from a single story about his experience.  This reminds me of my examples of Barbara and Dan. Barbara, who realized that her duty and loyalty to parents and brother meant that she was overlooking her deep desire to have her own family; and Dan, replacing his story about his obligation to stay in an unhappy marriage with a more deeply satisfying story.
What is your single story that you are stuck on?  We have just ended the most difficult year in our country since I was born during World War II. If you find yourself thinking, “the world is going down tubes,” is it possible to bring in an alternative story?
Here’s a second haiku by Basho: 
Two sea slugs
frozen alive    
one body   
 
We see the slugs on a winter walk and go, “Ohhh!” As we feel their suffering and the suffering all around, and then, “Ahhh,” we see their connectedness and feel our own connectedness with all life.
When is it heart-mind and when is it ego? Heart-mind never feels helpless and hopeless. Heart-mind doesn’t go on and on with rumination or criticism. Heart-mind doesn’t rationalize. Heart-mind is not captured by waves of emotional turbulence. It simply allows them to pass through, regardless of how strong they are. When we speak from heart-mind, our expression is generally simple, since we don’t have thousands of opinions based on thousands of fears. We’re able to simply be who we are without worrying about being left out, rejected, or not fitting in.
Finally, heart-mind rests in a “don’t know” space, trusting the feelings and images which emerge from it, both cloudy and clear.
 
Many people have fallen into despair during this past year, a year of social isolation and loss of relationships. Each loss creates a hole in our heart-mind, whether it’s the loss of people, animals, or some other committed relationships. Because of this, I have been counseling people over and over to risk more than in the past, reaching out to others to make new or bring back old heart connections. As Anais Nin says:
And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to Blossom.   

 
By taking this type of risk, you may find yourself acting more and more from your own heart-mind, the heart-mind of the universe.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Tim Burkett, Guiding Teacher

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

SEARCH THIS SITE

Our location

Picture
  • Home
  • Programming
    • MZMC Programming
    • Zoom Program Links
    • Introductory Class
    • Sunday/Tuesday Talks
    • Calendar
    • Classes
    • Practice Periods
    • Retreats and Workshops
    • Daily Meditation
    • Curriculum
    • Affinity Groups
    • Mentorship
    • Youth Programs
  • Resources
    • MZMC Resources
    • Sunday Talk Archive
    • Chants and Services
    • MZMC Authors
    • Sewing Practice
    • Books and Links
    • Spiritual Care
    • Equity and Inclusion
    • Library
    • Ceremonies
    • Primers
  • Community
    • MZMC Community
    • 50th Online Booklet
    • Council Process
    • Racial Justice Action
    • People of Color Dharma Group
    • Death and Dying Book Group
    • Waking Up to Race
    • LGBTQ+ Dharma Group
    • Volunteer/Work Practice
    • Mala Making Workshop
    • Buddhism and Recovery
    • Joyce Food Shelf
  • Katagiri project
    • Katagiri Project
    • Biography and Lineage
    • Books, Photos, and Videos
    • Audio Archive Project >
      • The Dainin Katagiri Audio Archive
    • Tomoe Katagiri
    • Blog
  • About MZMC
    • About MZMC
    • Teachers
    • Board
    • Ethics
    • Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
    • History of Inclusivity
    • Initiation and Priest Training
    • Building Project
    • Contact
  • Support
    • Support MZMC
    • Membership and Donation Season
    • Become a Member
    • Donate
    • Donation-Only Programming
    • Volunteer