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As time passes and the numbing drumbeat of mediocrity begins to suggest that excellence is a fabrication, sometimes it is hard to remember that excellence is actually possible.
Yesterday, as I prepared to leave Michael's house after a pleasant lunch, his wife handed me a small bag filled with tomatoes and a pepper. Today, I ate the tomatoes.
Jesus, Joseph and Mary!
After so long of eating the agri-business tomatoes from supermarkets and even those sold at smug roadside stands, I had begun to be convinced that my dream of a really good tomato was just some fantasy based in a faulty memory.
But one bite was all it took: I had not been dreaming. There was excellence.
Today as well, a friend sent along an article entitled "Those Misbehaving Zen Monks" by Grace Shireson. The writing and the thesis were clear enough after eight or ten paragraphs. Grace is a crisp writer, so it wasn't hard. And the topic is an important one to anyone interested in Zen Buddhism, so perhaps some will find it all either shocking or despicable or informative. I'm happy she wrote it.
But I have been around the agri-business mediocrity of misbehaving clericals for a long time and I am tired of them in the same way I am tired of TV sitcoms with laugh tracks or stand-up comedians whose riffs depend on the repetitive use of the word "fuck."
Oh yes, the hypocrisy and unkindness and corruption of those who put spiritual endeavor to their own uses is palpable and real. And it deserves to be called out and shut down and analyzed. And I am glad someone has that sort of willingness and energy.
But also, I am as tired of critical analyses and exegeses as I am tired of those who prance around extolling spiritual excellence, another agri-business by-product. Conniving and smarmy hallelujahs are as wearing and bleak as acidic, scowling remonstrances... at least from where I sit.
Waddling, if sincere, group-think does not bang my chimes, whether pro or con.
And I feel fortunate to have gotten a whiff in my lifetime of a 'spiritual' persuasion not dedicated to agri-business mediocrity. I may fail and fail and fail again, succeed and succeed and succeed again, but the unassailably excellent encouragement remains:
Grow your own delicious tomatoes!
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Grace is my teacher here at the Empty Nest Zendo. I'd describe her as indomitable, but her smile has a way of melting you, a dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki. She's also written a book on the neglected women of zen's history. Here's the link to the zendo if you're interested.
ReplyDeletehttp://emptynestzendo.org/