The more I think of Bernie Glassman Roshi's quote (blog 8-19), the more I realize how interesting his words are, in so many ways.

For starters, we're all just a mass of spinning molecules, whether we like it or not!  We seem to make sense as individual objects, but how?

I remember my Dad trying to explain this to me when I was about 10 years old, and it really blew me away.  For days, everywhere I went, everything I came into contact with, made me wonder why we weren't all falling into oblivion and then getting all mixed up.  It troubled me to think that our existence might not be any different than all the foods on my plate mixing, or my watercolors blending together in the sketchbook.

In fact, I kept wondering why there were any differences at all.

The jumping rabbit becomes the falling star, which is also the blood that trickles from a scraped knee, the wind in the trees and my neighbor's laundry on the line....Maybe there is no "becoming", maybe it's already just "being".

Well, you know, kids think about these things, even if they don't mention it to adults, but maybe we adults should continue thinking in this manner.  It would be a lot more creative than our linear "realism" which only seems to create suffering.

Lately I've been considering that not only is our Zen practice like a spinning top, but that the gyroscope that allows us to remain centered is our Buddha Nature, over and over again, tilting us ever so gently toward awakening, ever present at the hub of the Wheel of Life: Delusion, Hatred & Greed.

Tilting toward awakening.

Gassho Sensei Tony.