85. New Year Well Wishes

I want to usher in the new year with a few brief excerpts of some ancient yet time
honored zen poetry.

Before doing so and reflecting on the events of 2021, specifically the January 6th
insurrection at our nation’s capital, the strong political divide, the increasing
number of severe climate disasters, and the genocide taking place in global
regimes to me all serve as a harbinger of increasing tragedies that will befall
humanity in fairly short order.

On the flip side, our Bodhisattva way serves as model. It is one of redemption
from the common slavery to greed and self aggrandizement we witness on a daily
basis. This slavery is the seed of catastrophic misfortune and planetary
annihilation. Alas, we are witnessing this on a global scale as the eight billion of us
enter 2022.

The Korean Zen Master Song Chol issued a simple preparation for monks and lay
practitioners alike to at least help keep our center as we face these most
precarious times.

The first is to cut back on sleep time. The second is to speak sparingly. The third
is to avoid excessive media and printed material. The fourth is to eat lightly and
the fifth is to avoid travel as much as is possible.

Zen Monk Poet Yang Wanli wrote:
Don’t read books
Don’t over speak
Doing so you will become haggard
Much better to sit on your cushion,
Burn incense
Listen to the wind and the rain,
Take a daily walk,
eat sparingly
And when tired,
Go to sleep

Ryokan wrote:
Undisturbed by the affairs of the world, my mind is at ease.
To enjoy life’s abundance, you do not need many things.
I leave everything in this life to the truth that unfolds in each moment
Seeking fame and gain is illusion
Our life in this world is like an echo resounding briefly then off into an empty sky.
Out breath and in breath
They are proof that the universe is inexhaustible.
Human beings are only a passing phenomena.
Our earth mother will survive this unending blight of ego with or without our
presence.