so helpful ... so lazy

V-E Day in Times Square

This morning, I interfered with a perfectly good 'Zen teaching:' Instead of letting things play out, I sent a email to the three people who indicated they wanted to sit in the zendo today: Heads-up guys! The clocks were set back an hour last night so what might have been a start-time yesterday is no longer a start-time today. Others might call it "helpful." I call it pure laziness.

Without the note -- or even perhaps with it -- someone might show up an hour ahead of time, which would entail my telling them that they were early and that Zen practice has to do with paying attention to your life ... including the clocks. Since Zen also has to do with making mistakes and then correcting them, my email was just a sign of laziness on my part: I don't much feel like explaining or being interrupted by someone else's inattentiveness. This may be my mistake, but it is one I am willing to own up to and not fret too much about.

Three people is a crowd in this neck of the woods. Over the years, I have become accustomed to one or two visitors or, with increasing lazy enjoyment, none at all. Three people is like V-E Day in Times Square. Something inside mutters, "Go away! Enjoy yourselves!"

But I made this 'spiritual life' bed, so I guess I will sleep in it much as anyone else might sleep in theirs. Still ... that doesn't mean I have to give away another hour.

PS. An extra visitor showed up unannounced. There were not enough zabutons ... but we worked things out and did a very-truncated two sits and kinhin.

And, since it may be the last time I ever put on robes and rakusu, I will append two of the pictures that were taken afterwards. I can now appreciate why my teacher, Kyudo Nakagawa Roshi, refused to let me take his picture because, "I am getting old."

L-R: Madelin, Adam, Aubri