This weekend I am 'on retreat'. In our former life, I would be in Marin, Cal right now at a retreat center near my daughter's house. During the day I would be studying something called The Eightfold Path, sitting and walking and listening to teachings and so on in a beautiful Dharma hall nestled in the brown rolling hills of northern California. Wild turkeys and deer roam around. At night you can hear the peepers in the stream that dries up by mid summer.
However.
I am in my living room with the dog at my feet. We have already taken a short walk this morning. I've showered (!) and put on clean clothes, just like old times. I washed my hair. I 'dressed up', if tying a bandana around my neck counts. I've even cut my nails.
For two days I will be in a virtual community studying the nature of suffering, or as dukkha is translated, dissatisfaction. Indeed, we are traveling through some pretty intense dissatisfaction right now. Uncertainty, fear, sadness, more fear, longing, all of the conditions that are part of being human.
And so. I've even cleaned my house as if a group of fellow travelers are coming to visit.
I'll see you on the flip side.
Beth
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
3 comments:
The things we have always taken for granted, the happiness we often looked for in all the wrong places, the predictability of life we thought was our base, so much to learn.
Thank you for this, dear Beth.
That poem is so beautiful. Thank you for shifting my thinking this morning.
I love that Rumi poem. Thanks for reminding me of it.
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