Living the Life

When we arrived at Mindystock on Saturday night, the hostess, Mindy, was not at the party site because her rooster had gotten into a fight with someone’s dog and had run off into the woods.

I have a book that came into The Exchange called BE HERE NOW, which is apparently a pretty important Buddhist text in the US. Stephanie, who works at The Exchange, told me that it is the first book that she remembers reading that sort of opened her eyes to her path in life. Well, it advocates that we, strangely enough, should be here now, rather than reflecting on the past or thinking about the future. I've been doing that for the last few days.

Thursday was class and lunch after class, then working at the Island Flavor. Friday was The Exchange and then on Friday night we had a kickoff party for The Exchange ART (appropriate recycling technology) Show, which showcases art made from garbage. That party was at The Grange which is next-door to The Exchange. Saturday was the ART show and all of the employees were there so no one really had to do all that much work. We had a keg of root beer and set up a sound system on which we played various records that have come into The Exchange. Lots of people liked my entry, which was paper bowls made out of pages from BE HERE NOW. I called them Dharma Bowls. Saturday night was Mindystock, with the aforementioned rooster incident. Sunday was church and then back for a short shift at The Exchange. I spent Sunday evening by myself watching Star Wars: Episode I, baking with baking soda that was kaput and centering myself after so much socializing. I also got to spend a little time talking with my brother Daniel.

So, no big philosophical realizations today. I was just experiencing life as it came at me. I did just finish reading A Passage to India and Professor Godbole describes the Zen moment (without using those words) that I have mentioned before, like this:

But how, if there is such an event, can it be remembered afterwards? How can it be expressed in anything but itself? Not only from the unbeliever are the mysteries hid, but the adept himself cannot retain them. He may think, if he chooses, that he has been with God, but as soon as he thinks it, it becomes history, and falls under the rules of time.

I wonder how I could connect this sense of simply experiencing with the rooster? :-)