Each Day a Good Day 

The above is one of Roshi's core teachings.  He reminds us often  that, "Every day is the very best day it can be."   

So, each morning, we make the effort to wake up to a good day: not always a pleasant day, not often what we thought we had reason to expect, and, lately, not even the usual "winter" weather.  But each day is a good day, despite the fact that health has been ever at the forefront of our attention in this new year. 
      This focus on the body's condition isn't new for us,
although a bit more intense than usual.  Our Center has a number of health challenges among both the laypeople and the clergy, and we practice with that in mind.  But the roller coaster of symptoms this Winter opened up a whole new level of lessons in the ephemeral nature of life, the traps that are our expectations, and the practical difference between pain and suffering.    

     I was challenged to find gratitude as these lessons presented.  Sometimes, I could glimpse the Dharma of "everything changes" and feel the insidious hooks of "attachment/aversion."  Sometimes, all any of us could do was ride with the immediacy of the process.  In truth, it is a process, and it starts with simply seeing things as they are.   

     At one point, when Roshi was in the Emergency Room, waiting to be admitted to ICU, he said, "I'm getting to experience -- once again -- that 'I' do not have and never have had control over anything in 'my' life."   

It wasn't a new thought for him; it wasn't even a new thought for me.  But as he said it, I felt a Vajra blade cut loose the worry nurturing in my heart -- just a piece, just a tiny bit -- but I felt it fall away.   

     There were many teachings this Winter.  

     Another, about perception and language, came when a recent group of visitors expressed great concern about Roshi's recovery.  They know he works very hard, and therefore encouraged him to take it easy.  They told him that he had to take care of himself, that he had to rest, now that he was...  

                                     old.   

It was quite a moment.  Maybe you had to be there, but I'm sure we'll continue to enjoy a lot of age-related humor for many years. 

     Which leads us to a possible new "Good Day" practice at DZC.  I like to think of it as the folk song version of a Long Life gatha for Roshi: 

I get up each morning and dust off my wits.

Open the paper and read the obits.  

And if I'm not there, I know I'm not dead.

So I eat a good breakfast and roll back to bed.*  

May we all be peaceful and well, free from suffering.   

Palms together,           

Sư Cô             

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