On the Way

Focal thought: “Consider how everything changes. Nothing remains the same.”

Consideration: Voices outside the window. Conversation – air leaving the lungs through the changes of teeth and tongue to create a vibration of sound waves passing from ear to ear, the informational process churn of brain cells (chemicals flitting cell to cell, electricity shooting along biological wires), blood flow sending the nutrients and calories for work, etc… A complex system of body-mind encountering another body-mind. The rumblings of cars and trucks from the road below and behind – wheels moving at hundreds of rpms, complex machinery laboring with explosive heat – moving tons of metal at speeds faster than the human body can achieve. The houses outside – some being built, others being torn down – an ongoing process of change, repair, disrepair, creation, and destruction. What was this place like 10 years ago? 30? 60? – a conversation with a local resident comes to mind about the neighborhood of the past – 140 years ago? – when settlers were just beginning to create this city? What about the glorious volcano about a hundred miles distant – icon of the area? What was it like when it erupted hundreds of years ago? What will this neighborhood become in the years to come? What will happen if it erupts again?

Shift: what about the changes within myself within this space? Mind shifts to memories of the last few years, thinking on images and moments of the becoming and unbecoming in a mind’s time reversal of the “me”s before. Friends, acquaintances, and family and their own changes/stories/progressions/regressions come up as the mind flits through this time machine imaginarium.

A previous moment and meditation arises: summers ago, meditating on a paddle board in the sea, looking at the beach and the people on shore. Heart broken. Lost. Desperate for peace. Trying to cultivate equanimity in the violent turbulence of the sea’s swells and life’s swells: “All beings are heirs to their karma.”

A pondering: “Who am I sitting still in this world of ever-changing motion?”

Answer: “I” am movement. Nothing is truly “still”. “I” is not a solid, abiding thing.

Koan: “How can I sit to cultivate “peace” in the midst of this ever-change?”

The answer arose immediately and deeply. The emotional distractions fell away, and attending to breath and moment become fluid, effortless, and profound. Just presence. Nothing to solve.