the Four D's and the big Z

An out-of-the-blue email asked me if there were still zazen (seated meditation) practice here. I wrote back that Black Moon Zendo was, to all intents and purposes, closed to new business. Old age and laziness will do that for you.

But then I started thinking about the few details the writer had provided about himself ... off-again-on-again practice over a number of years, looking for a group setting etc. Idly, I wondered which of the Four D's afflicted him ... if any.

I hadn't thought of the Four D's in a long time, yet there it was, bright as a new penny in my memory banks: The shorthand version of why anyone might snoop the edges of a meditation practice.

DEATH
DISEASE
DRUGS
DIVORCE

Naturally, the Four D's don't cover all terrain and each has its set of particulars, but in general the Four D's are close enough for folk singing.

Funny how that recollection popped up like a shin when the knee cap is hit with one of those little rubber hammers. I guess some things are hard to forget or wear off or whatever.