The Sunday Paws: #5

Yesterday I returned from a solo retreat at the Center of Solitude in Belmont, NY. I remain grateful for the opportunity, and to the many beings that supported time away from the usual hustle-and-bustle of everyday life. I am grateful, that is, for an extended pause.

Speaking of pausing, Hongzhi Zhengjue writes:

Here you can rest and become clean, pure, and lucid. Bright and penetrating, you can immediately return, accord, and respond to deal with events. Everything is unhindered, clouds gracefully floating up to the peaks, the moonlight glitteringly flowing down mountain streams.

The “here” Hongzhi speaks of is serene illumination, silent introspection, often expressed on one’s zafu (meditation cushion). I am confident that the back of a couch is a suitable alternative, though, as we see Wilbur demonstrating in this photo.

Learn from Great Teachers Hongzhi and Wilbur. Sitting serenely carefree, becoming cold, clear, and bright, reenter the world to dance with delusion … or simply stay on the couch. Whatever you do, please remember to pause.

The quotation from Hongzhi Zhengjue is from “Cultivating the Empty Field” edited and translated by Taigen Dan Leighton, with Yi Wu.