-Suzuki Roshi
Walking back from Lappert’s in the hopes of burning off some Kauai Pie ice cream calories, I stop at a scenic overlook. My family is expecting me back at our condo soon, but my body will not move.
Reflecting back on a guided meditation from Tara Brach’s online course, Awakening Your Fearless Heart, I’m seeing a vast ocean striated with waves of jumbled thoughts. The waves are numerous, but each one eventually bows and breaks against the shores of loving presence.
I will never get rid of the waves. Though there is something quite peaceful about a surface of still water reflecting ease without ripples, it isn’t waters elemental nature. Water is meant to flow the path of least resistance. Waves are not meant to break until they can surrender all fear to shores of loving presence. Only then will they have the courage to return to an ocean of uncertainty, remembering and forgetting to repeat the cycle again, and again and again.
“If you’re alert, you can hear the tide turn.” It shifts our perspective. May we practice not only for ourselves, but for all beings everywhere without exception. When I forget, may you remember. When you forget, may I remember.