Waking up. Report from a Temple

Waking up. Winter Sunset on Chamberlin Mills Road, Hebron, N.Y.

Got up at dawn and drove into Northern Vermont to the Vermont Zen Center planning to meditate, but the schedule was wrong, so when I arrived meditation was over. So I joined a work party and cleaned the center’s eight bathrooms. Living in the moment.

Then I talked with Darmhan Rice, a priest, about Buddish, religion and my own issues with teachers and authority. We also talked about Zen practice. Breathing on the exhale, how to sit. Meditation has opened something up in me, a window of some kind and I feel I am finally getting to know a bit about myself and my boiling mind. Each time I meditate, I feel like I am pouring water on hot coals, and I can almost hear the hissing.

Then Darhman and I had lunch. We joked about Thomas Merton who asked a young monk what he had learned in the monastery. The monk shrugged and replied, “How to open and close doors.”

At lunch someone asked me what I had learned. I was taught how to pour anti-bacterial soap from a big bowl into a small dispenser without spilling any. Windows and doors. Single steps.

Going to walk the dogs, light the fires, look at the photos I took on the way home. Maybe post a couple. I want to get back to the center and learn more.