Meet a Dear Friend of Mine

Imogene Ware and  Shunryu Suzuki lived during similar times. Shunryu Suzuki was the Zen monk who brought Buddhism to North America. He once said, "The point is to attain complete composure," and his was a life that modeled, in spades, that lack of entanglement with himself and the world. My friend, Imogene Ware, on the other hand, was an illiterate, Black housekeeper during that same time span, earthy, funny, talking with God with the same familiarity as with her car horse, Polly, but I suspect Shunryu Suzuki, had he known her, would have regarded her as very Zen. The only difference is that Imogene Ware walked through the pages of a novel while Suzuki Rossi walked this earth. But once you get into the novel ACCIDENTS OF BIRTH, I sense you might forget that one small difference.

Suzuki Rossi was once asked to summarize Buddhism in one sentence. Everyone  waited to hear the response to what seemed an impossible question. His reply was: Everything changes. 

Miss Imogene, when talking about life said something very similar: So it be with life, each piece, each bit whether a flower, a bird, a sin or a song pass on, fo’ life be motion, an motion be change.

Unfortunately, Shunryu Suzuki has left this life, but Miss Imogene lives on. I know Suzuki would have delighted in her company. I bet when you get to know her, you will too.

Accidents of Birth 
A Story in Two Parts

 Summary: The greatest influence in setting the course of anyone’s destiny is where and to whom they’re born. What we’re taught to believe, what is asked of us, the burdens we’re given, the lies we share all start there. Through the eyes of an illiterate Black housekeeper, Imogene Ware, born in 1928 in the post-Civil War enclave of Small Town in rural Mississippi, the reader gets to view the last half of the racially charged, politically divisive 20th century through her eyes.

Available in Kindle Format and Paperback (very soon)

A Month of Doing Anew – Next Thoughts

If you recall, what we’re about is ending up this month different than how we started, engaged with life in a way new to us which leaves its imprint sufficient to have us notice ourselves responding to  life anew. And remember, you don’t have to have a life shattering experience to create change. In fact, it is possible to have a life shattering experience which does nothing more than embeds your fears more deeply. So don’t pooh-pooh a quiet, daily pressure that births a new sense of life.

I have been a lover of Zen for many years. I’m not a follower of any particular spiritual philosophy. I pick fruit off many different trees, but the arrow-like nature of Zen observation of the world makes it a most penetrating experience. Zen focuses on a mind that is quiet, meaning not filled with the continual chatter that occurs in most everyone’s mind, night and day. That sort of quiet mind is a present mind and thus the person whose head that mind occupies is said to be present, or living in the present moment.

Now, I’m sure if you are reading this blog, you have heard that terminology often or others like it–mindfulness, presence, being present. But do we really understand what is being implied by this concept, for if the human mind banters anything around for a period of time is has the ability to suck all the sap out of it without even tasting it. So here is what the ancient Zen folk say, Master Dahui, in this case:

Buddha said that when the mind does not gasp things of the past, does not long for the future, and does not dwell on things of the present, then one realizes that past, present and future are empty (without substance, meaning or indeed existence).

Don’t think about past wants, whether good or bad, for if you think about them, this impedes the Way. Don’t calculate future matters, for if you calculate, you go mad. Don’t fixate your attention on present affairs, whether pleasant or unpleasant, for if you fixate your attention on them, they will disturb your mind.

(Now here’s the kicker) Just deal with situations as they happen, and you will spontaneously accord with these principles.

So here’s my question. How many times in a day do you deal with something that has actually happened? Don’t answer too quickly. Take a look. Maybe you just had an argument with one of your children and would take that as an example of being present and dealing with a situation as it happens. But if you are willing to look closely, you might find that what you were really dealing with were old fears, the past, concerns about your success or ability as a parent. Or maybe instead, you were dealing with future fears of what might happen to this child if you can’t get him/her to do as you wish. Or maybe you continue to play the scenario over and over and torture your present. But what likely didn't happen was dealing with the situation just as it was happening in that moment. Trust me, if you were, there would be little or no emotion, just a rational and quiet discussion of that current point.

So here’s the challenge, something truly new. Watch yourself. Catch yourself living in your mind, emoting from things you are thinking about, be they past events, future fears or dreams or present scenarios that are not actually taking place at that time.

Any success at all in this endeavor is a truly new experience for most every human being. Take it seriously, and for sure you will not end up this month the same person who started it. There will be more peace in your heart than you've felt since a child and so much less fear in any of it forms.

There it is: Just deal with the things that are actually happening and see how life changes.

A Month of Doing Anew

I woke this morning feeling like January was slipping away before it had even started. So the Hans Brinker in me stuck my finger in that dike as I began to clear the clutter off my desk. Under one pile, I pulled out Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing to return it to the bookcase after having lain on my desk for a month or more unopened. I didn't get very far, however; because for the hundredth time, I opened it and, if you've ever read it, you know what happened next. Yes, I got caught again in Bradbury’s zest for writing, for life, since they were one and the same for him.  I began reading some of the many places I had magic markered. If there was ever a book that walked its talk, that is it.

Most all of us want something different as each year starts. We are keenly aware our life does not meet our expectations for it. But we always start in the same mood, disposition, and doubt that caused us to start listing our resolutions to begin with, the only thing new or different being the sheet of paper on which we’re writing. So let’s do something different this year. Let’s just start doing what we are waiting for. No plans, no schedules, just do – as Yoda told us.

Here’s how dear Ray Bradbury puts it with a few insertions to make it clear this works for anyone:

If you are writing (living, working, parenting) without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer (alive, a worker, a parent). It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market (bank account), or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie (what someone else thinks), that you are not being yourself. You don’t even know yourself. A writer (and everyone else) should be excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms.

If you expect something different you must fight through the fog of sameness and complacency and be different right from the start. You wonder how, since this appears to be the problem? You’re telling me you don’t already know how to laugh, to dance to music, to sigh over poetry, to feel the penetrating power of beauty to lift you tall? Use them then every time you begin to head into the weeds. That’s what I’m going to do.

Then say to yourself every morning as you rise, “I will not end this month the same person I began it.” 

Change is not a future event. How else do you think we change, but by doing right now? In 25 words or less: How do you want it to be different? Get clarity on that and then, live in that way right now. If it lasts only minutes the first little while, that’s still minutes of a different way of being. Each time you pick yourself up and start again, now it is anew. This is how change happens, spontaneously but driven by the intensity of your desire. Keep your vision close to your toes, shuffle if you have to, but be a doing that is your being, the you that yearns to feel alive and fearless. Your actions inform you of who you are.

Stick with me this month, and I’ll share with you what I find along the way to know myself anew. Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing is a great place to start whether you’re a writer or not. His enthusiasm for life will infect you and what a glorious infection to have.