There is a simple circle that depicts dedication to my life-path. I call it:
…Living, Seeking, Finding…
…Living, Seeking, Finding…
…Living…
Living
In this context, living refers to Being Present to Life with all its joys and sorrows, all its blessings and challenges. Learning to BE, includes a sense of gratitude for Just Being Alive. There is a quiet joy in Being, which in its essence, is both gratitude for and love of life.
My appreciation for Zen comes from its simple emphasis on valuing the present moment. When we can be open to “what is”- which includes the people, animals, nature, and life-situations that we are given in this moment- we are expressing a fundamental valuing of life and a heartfelt “yes”. “Showing up” for life is a powerful way of saying “thank you”.
In presence, we sense the potential “livingness” in every interaction. When “I, in presence, meets anything”, we can be touched by life itself. Yesterday, I had a surprisingly engaging encounter with a wood table, as I coated it with oil. Today, sensing my bare feet on the grass and then my hands in warm water doing dishes a soft smile arose. Sometimes I miss these meetings, other times they are both delightful and remarkably nourishing.
Seeking – Valuing life “just as it is” might be a simple idea but is not always easy. Presence, Gratitude and Love are demanding teachers. To be connected to the world is to know that horrific suffering is always happening. How can we value the endless gifts of life, as our hearts open to universal suffering? What a challenge for our awakening humanity!
Every day, even when life is going well for me personally, I pass time distracted from the present moment through repetitive, often ineffective thinking. Sometimes I-we am lost in judgments, resistance, or unhelpful worry. Other moments, I-we might be just absent. At times, there might be value in these “time outs”. I don’t criticize myself for these habits, rather, as a dedicated seeker, I use them as reminders for returning to presence.
Great loneliness in life comes from disconnection.
When we lose connection to the meaningful threads that bind us: to other people, to beauty, to everyday tasks, we feel separate from the flow of life. This is misery for human beings. Often, we counter these habits of “absencing” with temporary, usually unfulfilling, strategies for filling the holes in our hearts.
Whatever your deepest value, “seeking” invites an earnest striving toward your “most important thing”. For me, being on a path is a commitment to connect with life – even when it is unpleasant. The doorway back to the quiet joy of Being Alive is through this direct experience of the living moment.
The function of seeking is finding.
Finding
As a guide for others and a student of life, I notice that many seekers seem to rarely experience the profound satisfaction of finding. I often hear a dominance of disappointment/dissatisfaction from fellow travelers. Oddly, many seem more committed to seeking than to finding, to seeing what is missing rather than what is here. Why is this? Is there an imaginary “ecstatic carrot” that is always just out of reach?
Many who are lost in seeking don’t seem to notice the subtle, seemingly insignificant moments, of being touched by life. Almost every moment has some kind of beauty in it, some kind of goodness, some kind of essential truth, some gift that we can learn to value.
Letting go of what you don’t have is a key.
Lowering our demands on life to meet our expectations is a big part of the experience relishing ‘what is’. Changing our orientation by asking, “what does life want from me now”?can be illuminating. When our seeking leads us home to true presence, there can be an genuine instance of finding.
Meaningfulness is intimately connected to directly and wholeheartedly experiencing the living moment.
This is returning home – coming home through the reality of This moment. When we can appreciate – the color of anything – a flower or piece of clothing, the taste of water, the sweet smile of a stranger, a burst of laughter from a child – the subtle sense of being home in body/self/place/world arises. This is called Finding.
Learning to cultivate and celebrate simple moments of living connects us to Life, Love and, perhaps most importantly, to each other. The path is simple but not easy. It takes a dedicated intention, a commitment to a life path. In Zen, this is called Vow: a vow to Life, to Self to and to All.