Greetings Friends,
Here we are in the heart of summer. I am writing this a week after the passing of beloved eco-dharma elder Joanna Macy. We are also in the middle of our summer read of The Hidden Lamp: 25 Centuries of Awakened Women. The koan story that we explored this week was Case 13: Chen’s Mountain Flowers and the commentary happens to be written by Joanna Macy. So I want to take the time in this post as well as the dharma talk audio to appreciate Joanna Macy’s life, work and practice through the lens of the koan.
Chen’s Mountain Flowers: China 7th-9th Century
Chen was a laywoman who traveled far and wide, visiting famous masters. After she realized enlightenment, she composed the following verse.
Up on the high slopes, I see only old woodcutters.
Everyone has the spirit of the knife and the axe.
How can they see the mountain flowers
reflected in the water—glorious red?
Joanna wrote about and lived her life with a wild love for the world. This was demonstrated in her activism, her translations of Rilke’s Book of the Hours, her work at building containers to help those engaged in the on-the-ground activism to connect with the emotional and spiritual side of their work and her own dharma practice. The koan Chen’s Flowers also speaks to a wild love for the world. One we are invited into through Chen’s simple poem.
I want to share an excerpt from an interview with Joanna Macy where she is speaking about her love for this earth/world, being less afraid of her fears and belonging—we are already home, she says:
It is so great a privilege to be here on Earth at this time. I have had the good fortune to drink from three great streams of thought—the buddhadharma, systems thinking, and deep ecology. Each gives me another way to know Gaia and to know myself. Each helps me be less afraid of my fears. I have had the joy of helping others experience this too, of seeing them take the Work That Reconnects further, building our collective capacities and our trust in reciprocity.
Being fully present to fear, to gratitude, to all that is—this is the practice of mutual belonging. As living members of the living body of Earth, we are grounded in that kind of belonging. We will find more ways to remember, celebrate, and affirm this deep knowing: we belong to each other, we belong to Earth. Even when faced with cataclysmic changes, nothing can ever separate us from her. We are already home.
Our belonging is rooted in the living body of Earth, woven of the flows of time and relationship that form our bodies, our communities, our climate. When we turn and open our heart–mind to Earth, she is always there. This is the great reciprocity at the heart of the universe. My gratitude to all. May we experience “sheer abundance of being,” as Rilke says, and know that we truly belong here.
Here are some resources if you would like to connect more to Joanna Macy’s Life Work.
On-being—An interview with Krista Tippett and Joanna Macy where several Rilke poems are shared
Work that reconnects—Joanna Macy’s website with lots of free resources
Lion’s roar interview—An interview with Joanna Macy about Buddhist practice and Eco-dharma
As I turn over this koan and Joanna Macy’s teachings and legacy I find many invitations for practice. Below are three that I am working with this week.
An Invitation to Study Wanting
Chen talks about how the woodcutters know only knife and saw. Taking from the earth is their way. What are the knives and saws in our own life? How do we cultivate the courage and generosity to make space for our own wanting, our own desires? What is it like to pause and feel the sensations of wanting without pushing them away, and also without indulging? What else accompanies wanting? And can we make space for those emotions, sensations, beliefs or memories?
I find when I make space for wanting, I often open to the gift of this life being experienced through my senses, it feels tender and quivering like a reflection in the water. But good, real. Gratitude follows quite naturally.
The Color Red as a Mindfulness Bell
Chen’s poem is short and simple, and yet the glorious red rings loudly. I found myself noticing red after reading this poem. So I took it up as a mindfulness practice. Allowing myself to really notice the shades of red in my life. To take time and linger with them, to feel the glory and boldness of ruby, cherry, vermillion, scarlet, crimson.
Red also became a mindfulness bell, calling me to open my other senses—to really see, hear, smell, taste, feel. To let my awareness open and my thinking mind silence. Red awakened aliveness. I started to see how my neighbor’s overalls, the cardinal on the river trail, the summer rose, the stop sign and brake lights were all in cahoots—helping me to awaken to our shared buddha nature.
Wild Love for the World Practice
What if your love for the world and your grief for the world could co-exist? What if you took them both for a walk? Where would you go? What would you see? What is your own poem to express this wild love?
i meet my sorrow in the lazy river, who doesn’t mind my shy sadness
but instead lets it float along with the gaggle of geese
who seem to be deep in meditation
i don’t try to pretend that i know anything when i walk along the river
its more like meeting god
who seems to shine out of each of us unhindered
a light so honest
i almost don’t lose myself in its playful loving
Listen to the dharma talk for a more extensive dive into this koan and Joanna Macy’s legacy. May we each discover that we too are already at home, and live with a wild love for this life.
Feel free to share your reflections, thoughts or your wild love for the world poem in the comments section. Next week we will be exploring Case 15 in the Hidden Lamp, The Woman Lets it Be. Summer Reading Schedule can be found here.
I’m Amy Kisei. I am a Zen Buddhist Teacher, Spiritual Counselor, Astrologer and Artist. I offer 1:1 Spiritual Counseling sessions using IFS and Hakomi (somatic mindfulness). I also offer astrology readings. Check out my website to learn more. I currently live in Columbus, OH and am a supporting teacher for the Mud Lotus Sangha.
Weekly Online Meditation Event
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Grasses, Trees and the Great Earth Sesshin—August 11 - 17, in-person at Great Vow Zen Monastery (this retreat is held outdoors, camping is encouraged but indoor dorm spaces are available)
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