Today's events proved enlightening starting with the quote from American Actor, Zen priest, and beatnik activist, Peter Coyote, who said,
"The idea of absolute freedom is fiction. It's based on the idea of an independent self. But in fact, there's no such thing. There's no self without other people. There's no self without sunlight. There's no self without dew. And water. And bees to pollinate the food that we eat...So the idea of behaving in a way that doesn't acknowledge those reciprocal relationships is not really freedom, it's indulgence."
For example, every time I walk to the park for aTai Chi lesson I pass a house with a well fed, well kept, very green yard. It's the kind of yard you don't normally find in the desert. There's always standing water by the curb, and last week I watched the man of the house soaking his yard with a hose. I'm sure he feels that he has the right to take care of his yard any way he sees fit. He pays his bills. It's a free country. I'm just imagining what he thinks. To me, it seems indulgent. In other adventurous news, I freely channeled my Dave Ulmen today and fixed the wobbly arm on the toilet roll holder. Very satisfying after I finally started listening to Dave's advice, "Slow down, relax, have some patience." I thought to myself as I tried to wiggle a tiny screw driver into a place holding screw that was upside down, and in a tight space, "You're one to talk!". My final enlightened moment came during Tai Chi class when Sifu pointed out a fine point in the form. It was the kind of advice that cannot be unheard. I'll try to incorporate the action from this day forward. Enlightenment is like that. It's visceral, internal, and primal. It enters the whole body. It's the kind of feeling that makes life good, especially today.
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