Angel love: Angel-by-Angel

Yesterday was an exceptional workday. I completed three and half angels in one day! I’m beginning to understand the forms. I do think two months per flight is the 'right' time-line for completion.

Last night I went to the Sangha and meditated.
This weekend at the workshop on Zen Buddhism the Three Jewels of Buddhism or taking refuge was explained as The Buddha (the enlightened one), Dharma (the teachings of Buddha), and Sangha (the community: those one practices Buddhism with or those who are enlightened). The Zen master I worked with explained these jewels are not an outer manifestation but best served when viewed as inner constructs. I like this!

Getting to the cushion, painting angels, committing to walking everyday, committing to kindness, as far as I’m concerned are all the same thing. I was born with a rebellious arrogant nature. Like the title of Bruce Springsteen’s song ‘Baby I was born to run’ says it all. For fun, recently, I went back and read the lyrics of this song. The last verse could be a Buddhist teaching:

The highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody’s out on the run tonight but there's no place left to hide
Together Wendy we'll live with the sadness
Ill love you with all the madness in my soul
Someday girl I don't know when were gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go and we'll walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run



The lyric suggests that when we befriend our wild loving human passionate nature and understand that we are all infallible; with a rich palate of emotions, and we all live with saddnes i.e.‘suffering’ then perhaps together we’ll walk in the sun (enlightenment). Yet until we’re willing to commit,'to love 'with all the madness in my soul', (change my to our) well there is more running to be done!



Any way, ‘not running’ is this morning’s theme.
Yesterday when returning from my morning walk, I saw the most extraordinary thing…
There was this one patch in the forest where light, breeze, and dangling fall leaves played. A mobile of light, wind, and leaf came together. The odd thing was there was no sign of breeze-disturbance anywhere else. Just in this one place. It was as if fairies were dancing all around in an unseen dimension and all that was visible to our mortal eye was their wake in the form of this light leaf wind dance. The triple jewel event of leaf, light, and wind, awed me.


Perhaps the grace of sticking to my daily practice of walking, or meditating or ‘angeling’ is surprise. One doesn’t know what or who or what aspect of themselves one will meet by honoring the commitment. On the meditation cushion last night I met fear and it was everything I could do to sit and breathe with and thru her. Fear had no face. Fear was a complete sensorial experience. I did not want to dishonor her with a story. She came and I wanted to know her more. The impulse was to run. Fear is VERY strong. I did not ask her where and what aspect of myself she harbors in and why she came. When I meet her again, I’ll be stronger and we’ll have a different conversation.

So is enlightment in the form of the great taking over or light and ‘ah ha ness of life’ my goal? Not really. (I wouldn’t turn the experience away.) Perhaps I’m not hungry enough for this. Commitment is my goal: 'The act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action.'

I like this definition!
For baby, I was born to run.