Sunday, March 15, 2020

Greetings and blessings, dear Zen Heart Sangha!

In order to find ways to stay in touch with all of you, I am stretching my tech savvy (with the incredible help of my husband) and starting a blog--something I would never have thought to do before the current craziness of COVID-19.

Each day I will be posting something just to reach out and ‘bow’ to all of you. You are welcome to add your comments, poems, questions, requests, or anything else that you’d like to share.  I could have done it by email, but as my husband pointed out, not everyone will want to receive an email every day, but a blog is something that you can choose to view or not.

So here goes the beginning of Misha’s ‘brave new space’…

It seems particularly appropriate and relevant to start with my very favorite quote from Suzuki Roshi.  Someone once asked him why he sat zazen:  I sit because I hope that someday, in the case of an emergency, I just might do the right thing.  

Well, the ‘emergency’ has inarguably arrived and I don’t know about you, but I am deeply grateful for years of practice to support me during this incredibly uncertain time. I always liked this quote because of both the humility and reality expressed by ‘I just might’ rather than ‘I will’.  We are all trying to do the right thing, but we might not.  By saying it this way, he gives us permission:  we are going to make mistakes because that is how we learn, and because we have not been in this situation since the Spanish Flu in 1918, our learning curve (personally and as a nation) is huge.  The world has changed drastically since then, especially in terms of huge population growth, the globalization of economies, and the ease of international travel—all of which are now taking their toll.  If you didn’t understand emptiness/interconnection before, you now have real-time evidence of how interconnected everything truly is—that what happens in Wuhan will eventually happen in California. 

So the government has already made some big mistakes and eventually we’ll probably find out that our local health officials made some mistakes by not acting more quickly…but as individuals we have the opportunity to lessen our own personal mistakes (maybe doing the right thing!) by following the suggestions of social distancing, ultra-hygiene methods, and self-isolating when possible.

I know that the uncertainty of the current situation is creating stress, anxiety, even fear--but I urge you to follow Roshi’s advice:  whenever you start feeling disturbed or fearful, sit yourself down on your cushion or chair, take a deep breath, smile a little half smile, and remember the most important thing:

I am breathing, I am alive.

With virtual hugs and bows,

Misha Shungen