Waking up in the morning, I vow with all beings
to listen to those whom I love, especially to things they don’t say.
Lighting a candle for Buddha, I vow with all beings
to honor your clear affirmation: “Forget yourself and you’re free.”
When I stroll around in the city, I vow with all beings
to notice how lichen and grasses never give up in despair
Watching a spider at work, I vow with all beings
to cherish the web of the universe: touch one point and everything moves.
When the racket can’t be avoided, I vow with all beings
to close my eyes for a moment and find my treasure right here.
With tropical forests in danger, I vow with all beings
to raise hell with the people responsible and slash my consumption of trees.
Watching gardeners label their plants , I vow with all beings
to practice the old horticulture and let plants identify me.
On reading the words of Thoreau, I vow with all beings
to cherish our home-grown sages, who discern the perennial Way.
Falling asleep at last I vow with all beings
to enjoy the dark and the silence and rest in the vast unknown.
Robert Aiken, Verses for Zen Buddhist Practice
Day and night gifts keep pelting down on us. If we were aware of this, gratefulness would overwhelm us. But we go through life in a daze. A power failure makes us aware of what a gift electricity is; a sprained ankle lets us appreciate walking as a gift, a sleepless night, sleep. How much we are missing in life by noticing gifts only when we are suddenly deprived of them! But this can be changed. We need some methodical exercise in gratefulness. Years ago, I devised a method for myself which has proved quite helpful. Every night I note in a pocket calendar one thing for which I have never before been consciously thankful. Do you think it is difficult to find a new reason for gratitude each day? Not just one, but three and four and five pop into my mind, some evenings. It is hard to imagine how long I would have to live to exhaust the supply.
Finding happiness through our work requires two basic things. First, we have to recognize our own patterns, such as trying ever harder to be appreciated or doing whatever it takes to get approval. These patterns block any chance of experiencing genuine happiness. And second, once we recognize those patterns, we have to undertake the basic, blue-collar work of practice — the mundane everyday efforts of bringing awareness to the underlying fears that dictate how we feel and act. There is nothing romantic or magical about our blue-collar efforts; they are bound to take time and perseverance, and we may become frustrated at times along the way. But we can remind ourselves regularly that awareness is what ultimately heals.
Strolling in a large park one day I was startled by how many people were walking without looking up, or walking in a myopic daze while talking on their “cells,” as we say in shorthand, as if spoken words were paddling through the body from one saltwater lagoon to another.
