That's what it's all about

Reading from Tuesday, February 19, 2013 yoga class

From the book, "The Zen Commandments"  by Dean Sluyter

"Some people are waiting for the sun to shine, but not Gene Kelly.  As he performs the title song in Singin' in the Rain, the weather is imperfect but that's perfectly fine with him.  He's not just coping with it, he's celebrating in it--splashing and stomping through puddles the way we did when we were kids, his smiling face turned to the sky, his umbrella (signifying all our sensible, grownup caution) closed and transformed into a graceful dance partner.  I think people love this scene because it conveys the uninhibited joy that we somehow feel our lives should be about, even as the storms of messy, uncontrollable circumstances rain down upon us.  You'd never guess that Kelly was running a 103-degree fever during filming. 

We all probably suspect that such a life is possible... maybe while reading poetry, listening to Bach or Hendrix, scaling mountains or making love.   The light flickers on, but then flickers off again.  The big news, which is not new at all, is that we can have that light as a steady brilliance, if we know where to focus.  The light, the kingdom of heaven, nirvana or whatever your preferred vocabulary, is within YOU....not in some external sensation or grand achievement, not in some holy person or next world up in the clouds, but within YOU.  And it is within you, NOW and ALWAYS.   

Because it's within you, this radiant happiness is nothing exotic, nothing extrasuperduper to be added to life like a deluxe whipped topping, but the nature of life itself, as it is already, which has somehow gone unnoticed.    All we need is clearer vision, not more concepts or beliefs, but direct experience.  Without that direct experience we're naturally skeptical... like the cartoons in which the cross-legged guru on the mountaintop imparts some bogus secret of life:  "You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around.  That's what it's all about." 


So this is the premise of this book, "The Zen Commandments"  to give us suggestions as to how to find this light that is always there inside of us.   And YES...  we did do the Hokey Pokey during class.  We had great fun!!!  :)