Made by Shingen

at a time, you are doing exactly what you need to do.

You are not just “venting.” You are witnessing and documenting the reality of your life, which is a crucial step in not being consumed by it. And you are practicing the critical skill of disengagement.

There is also evidence that the bombardment of protons from the sun may create small amounts of new water when the charged nuclei of hydrogen combine with free-floating oxygen in the upper atmosphere. Still, chances are good that the drop of rain that splashes on your forehead is made of molecules that were here long before the first humans looked up in wonder at a cloudy sky, long before the first leafy plants stretched their roots into the soil, long before the first single-celled organisms took the critical step of dividing in half to reproduce.

Sawaki Rōshi often said, “You can go in any direction—east, west, south, or north. Wherever you go, you are the self that is only the self.”

When we discover Zen practice, we may hold out a hope that it is going to solve our problems and make our life perfect. But Zen practice simply returns us to life as it is. Being our lives more and more is what Zen practice is about. Our lives are simply what they are, and Zen helps us to recognize that fact. The thought “If I do this practice patiently enough, everything will be different” is simply another belief system, another version of the promise that is never kept.