Welcome to another series of blogs, topic: koans!
As I share what I've learned about koans and my experience with them, things might get too obtuse, confusing, or far out. It’s likely helpful then to note that working with these koans helps one to live with more peace, ease, confidence, and compassion. At the very least, having a touchpoint each day, hour, moment is a great mindfulness practice. An excellent way to navigate the inevitable trials of these lives and times! Koans came about when Buddhism was carried out of India and met
Taoism in China. The resulting sect of Buddhism became known as Chan and when that found its way to Japan, it became known as Zen. Koans are awakening stories of various lengths and from a wide variety of people both monastic and lay-folk, but most commonly between students and a master.
My heart is like a singing bird.
My post today is about gratitude and as I wrote it, a really spectacular photograph came to mind. One that evoked gratitude in me. It was passed around social media feeds in 2021 and it likely will resurface to get passed around again because it resonates with some deep truth. (This is why we still watch shakespearean plays and listen to Mozart.) It’s an image of a bird singing in the morning light on a cool day. Simple. Commonplace. But the temperature, the light, and the timing of the photographer coalesced to capture the brief cloud that the singing bird’s warm breath made in the cold air. You might have seen it! And doesn’t it evoke a shock of realization: a bird’s breath fogs in the air the same way mine and yours does when it’s cold.