Just Opening.
Frequent readers of this blog will not be surprised that I was delighted when the first dharma talk I heard upon arriving at the Forest Refuge featured part of a poem by Mark Nepo. But it may surprise you as much as it did me that the poem was one I had not heard before.
Maybe that’s why it stayed with me pretty much the whole time I was there. I found myself focusing on one line, each day. Not thinking about it. Just saying it (silently) thought the day. I hadn’t intended to do it. It just happened. And right away it became clear to me that these were practice instructions!
Sacred Tremor (excerpt)
by Mark Nepo
Having loved enough and lost enough,
I am no longer searching
just opening.
No longer trying to make sense of pain
but being a soft and sturdy home
in which real things can land.
These are the irritations
that rub into a pearl.
So we can talk awhile,
but then we must listen
the way rocks listen to the sea.
And we can churn at all the things gone wrong
but then we must lay all distraction
down and water very living seed.