It didn’t take long for me to recognize similarities between the Catholic traditions I’ve known since birth and Buddhism. One of the first was prayer and practice in Zen meditation.
Why? Because it’s been a long time since I could say I did something for the first time, and because I need this.
One of my best teachers is Karen Maezen Miller of Sierra Madre, who from her first book, “Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood,” has been a light in my life. Here is what she writes about the path we all are on, and what we can do while on it:
“Two years ago we took a summer vacation to Hawaii. Nowadays weather is unpredictable all over, and here it was unseasonably wet. Roads flooded and bridges washed out. One day the clouds lifted. Housebound and bored, we signed up for a kayaking tour that would have us paddling up a river and hiking to a waterfall.
“The guide told us that because of the rain, this was the first day in a week that any boats had gone out. When we launched, the river was wide and placid. About two miles in, we pulled out to start the hike. They gave us sandwiches and cold drinks for a picnic in the shade. Then they told us that to start on the trail, we had to cross a ford over slippery rocks in high water with a churning current by holding onto a rope. We’d have to do the same on the way out. There was no way around it.
“For some of us, this is where the fun stopped.
“I spent last weekend sitting with a group of people in Cincinnati. Anyone who has ever been on a meditation retreat knows that the principal reason you come to sit, whether you realize it or not, is because life is difficult. Sure, meditation helps you focus and calm down. But no one with a half-opened eye comes to Zen just to chill out, be a better person, or get more out of life.
This was never clearer to me than when folks began to tell me their troubles. Inside this silent room, amid a rainbow of stained glass, illuminated with the dappled daylight of the glistening garden beyond, disease was spreading, surgeries were pending, marriages were ending, parents and partners had perished, children were stumbling, money was scarce, worry was rampant, and fear flooded our hearts. The sky was falling and the earth was burning. Up ahead, the current was swirling.
“Knowing what we know—the swiftness of change—and what we don’t—the miles of uncertainty ahead—how do we live?
“There’s a rope over the river and we cross it together.
“The rope is love. Take it.”
Printed with permission. Miller will offer a beginner’s meditation retreat again in the fall. I’ll let you know how it goes for me too. (I am practicing meditation postures as you read this!) For more information, visit www.karenmaezenmiller.com.
Anissa V. Rivera is a columnist for the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, Azusa Herald, Glendora Press and West Covina Highlander, San Dimas/La Verne Highlander, Southern California News Group, 605 E. Huntington Drive, Suite 100, Monrovia CA 91016, 626-301-1461.
