September 2019
Dear Friends,
As fall approaches, we meet, yet again, a season of loss and renewal. As political, personal and professional seasons shift and change, how do we, as Zen students, meet it?
A poem, adapted from my book, Sid:
Yes, there is a remedy for illness—
it is received by saying into each shaded name and form
one indivisible word. What is it?
(It is just now, as we talk to each other that the medicine begins. Do you hear it?)
Furthermore, there is a remedy for aging—
It is attained by stepping off the edge of time and space
On a single breath.
(It is just now, as we turn to each other, that we extend ourselves. Do you see it?)
And there is a remedy for dying too—
It is realized by letting the heart out of its cage, turning cause and effect to shimmering dust.
(It is just now, as a smile lights from one face to another that renewal begins. How will you catch it?)
Yours in the everlasting dharma,
Jeong Ji
