An Active Calm

Wednesday, August 14, 2013:

Zoning out on a Zardoz Death March

We say, “In calmness there should be activity; in activity there should be calmness.” Actually, they are the same thing; to say “calmness” or to say “activity” is just to express two different interpretations of one fact. There is harmony in our activity, and where there is harmony there is calmness. This harmony is the quality of being. But the quality of being is also nothing but its speedy activity.

Shunryu Suzuki;

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

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In another one of my morning meditation readings the topic was, “Alert, alert; yet relax, relax.” This admonition seems to be a paradox at first glance because the duos; relax and alert, activity and calm, are opposite ends of a polarity. I laughed at a bumper sticker I once saw that read, “Jesus is coming, look busy!” This is the same idea even though it is tongue in cheek.

            I don’t sit in meditation to “zone out”. The idea is to become alert and calm; to stand back… straighten the spine… lower the shoulders… and breathe objectively. Any problem I have that encircles the mind like a labyrinth of confusion and doubt, in most cases, and can’t… won’t be solved with panic. The same problem can’t be tackled by the paralyses of analyses either. A core sense of calm is displayed by employing a walking meditation in my practice. Moving, yet unmoved, I take each step; placing the heel and rolling the foot to the toes, in union with my breath. It is no zombie death march (as in the kitschy flick, Zardoz). It is a living... pleasant to do on a forest trail where no one is watching… walking… breathing… step by step… so sweet is the mountain air… it can be tasted! Alert, the eyes see the wonder of it… the ears hear the music of chipmonks chipmonking and birds birding… moving my body centered, I am calm and alert at once…. A human being, being human.

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