Hello everyone,
I take refuge in the Buddha.
I take refuge in the dharma.
I take refuge in the sangha.

I am no Buddhist scholar. I have a lousy memory for quotes, so I can never remember what anyone said or who said it; whatever, I generally don’t care. I do have a pretty good mind for abstract concepts, but my mind finds its limits where Zen Buddhism is concerned, and that’s a good thing because understanding Zen as reality is hard. That’s roughly where my practice lies, making those abstract Zen concepts real absent all those quotes by whomever.

I have been pretty busy lately fetching and chopping wood, drinking water, resting where I can here and there, and doing zazen almost every morning. When I can I scan this forum, and that distance from the forum has given me a new perspective on it I thought I might share.

It has occurred to me that the forum is our sangha’s collective mind. It is both one of us and all of us at the same time. This forum does not exist without the sangha and the sangha also exists because of this forum. Those who read this and what you are now reading coexist. We (text, reader, group of readers) are one in the same. But we are also clearly not the same, clearly we are also separate, so what I say here I say for myself.

Sometimes during zazen my mind goes down rabbit holes and I chase thoughts, but I always come back to the source. This forum also chases rabbits, but those threads eventually die off and I always come back to the source. Every time I log on to this forum I am at the source, and then I go chasing rabbit threads because that is part of my nature, but I always at some point let those threads go and come back to the source, the sangha, because that is closer to my TRUE nature.

Sometimes those rabbit threads are contentious and I get caught up in them.
Sometimes those rabbit threads get ugly and I get caught up in them.
Sometimes those rabbit threads are beautiful and I get caught up in them.
Sometimes those rabbit threads are supportive and I get caught up in them.
Sometimes those rabbit threads are ________ and I get caught up in them.
Such is life. Such is zazen

And then I drop it and move on with life the better for having both been caught up in the messiness of it all AND the dropping of it all, knowing I will do it some more as I make my way down the path. Because that’s what Bodhisattvas do.

Please chew on this and feel free to spit it out or swallow as you see fit. Either way, you/we/life and Buddha/dharma/sangha/etc. goes on.