Awakened with the sweat of the trail and the cold water of the creek crossings, here we are at the Suzuki Memorial site at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Thanks to all… the hot springs, the zendo, the kaisando, the wild-do, that provided such great environments for us to be students. I appreciated the wonderful opportunity for such quality dialogues with excellent food in the company of good friends.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Mountains and Waves Inside
Here is a poem that Susan shared with me and I would like to share with you.
Emerald Green Good Luck
In the extraordinary beauty of the Big Sur backcountry,
with a simple awareness invitation
to open my sense perceptions...
I turn a corner
on the snaking path
through the rustling of dry grasses
eyes receiving a field
of small poppies, bright
golden as the sun
with their orange laps
alive with bees.
My breath catches,
the brilliance of their sheer existence
brings me to my knees.
I am drenched in beauty,
teary, tender and alive.
Driving back into the very busy freeways of LA,
I dream of all-night, mountain-top vision quests,
Buddha sitting with the Bodhi tree,
and Jesus in the desert for forty days and forty nights.
How can I stay with such raw naked openness here?
I remind myself that the five elements are everywhere
even in LA.
And yet I miss the simple pure vitality
of the wilderness.
Inside me I carry so many impressions --
the chaos of growth and decay of the forest floor,
the bright emerald green good luck
of the redwood sorrel that line the path...
The sense of silent time
being inside
a 'blackened from fire'
hole in the core
of a 2000 year old redwood tree,
the fertile, dark oily shell mound soil
left by 6000 years of the ancient Esalen Indians,
and the sound of the hawks and jays
and all the birds whose names I do not know
announcing our arrival and departure.
The eyes of mountain lions that I do not see
lift the still dark hairs on the nape of my neck.
Offering awareness to the forest
each footprint full of blessing
I feel all the ways that the forest senses us as we walk.
Susan Harper June 24, 2006
Emerald Green Good Luck
In the extraordinary beauty of the Big Sur backcountry,
with a simple awareness invitation
to open my sense perceptions...
I turn a corner
on the snaking path
through the rustling of dry grasses
eyes receiving a field
of small poppies, bright
golden as the sun
with their orange laps
alive with bees.
My breath catches,
the brilliance of their sheer existence
brings me to my knees.
I am drenched in beauty,
teary, tender and alive.
Driving back into the very busy freeways of LA,
I dream of all-night, mountain-top vision quests,
Buddha sitting with the Bodhi tree,
and Jesus in the desert for forty days and forty nights.
How can I stay with such raw naked openness here?
I remind myself that the five elements are everywhere
even in LA.
And yet I miss the simple pure vitality
of the wilderness.
Inside me I carry so many impressions --
the chaos of growth and decay of the forest floor,
the bright emerald green good luck
of the redwood sorrel that line the path...
The sense of silent time
being inside
a 'blackened from fire'
hole in the core
of a 2000 year old redwood tree,
the fertile, dark oily shell mound soil
left by 6000 years of the ancient Esalen Indians,
and the sound of the hawks and jays
and all the birds whose names I do not know
announcing our arrival and departure.
The eyes of mountain lions that I do not see
lift the still dark hairs on the nape of my neck.
Offering awareness to the forest
each footprint full of blessing
I feel all the ways that the forest senses us as we walk.
Susan Harper June 24, 2006
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