The Zen Commandments

Reading from Wednesday April 3, 2013 yoga class

At the end of April I have the great fortune of attending another workshop led by Judith Lasater.  One of the required reading for the workshop is the book "The Zen Commandments" by Dean Sluyter.  I had already read the book a few months back and just LOVED the book and had taken notes on each commandment in my journal.  So...  I am re-reading the book and want to share my notes with this class starting today and for the next 9 classes.    Here are the Zen Commandments:

1.   Rest in openness
2.   Act with kindness
3.   Notice the moment
4.   Recognize teachers
5.   Keep it simple
6.   Be devoted
7.   No appointment, no disappointment
8.   Bless everyone
9.   Disconnect the dots
10. Be a mensch and enjoy the joke

1.  Rest in openness
How do we dive in? Essentially, by letting go and doing nothing.  Anything else will result inour splashing around and churning water, creating more turbulence.  Instead, we need to take a break from all that doing and just rest.  Of course, we already rest we sleep, but then we fall unconscious and stop experiencing.  Instead, we need to consciously do nothing, take it easy alertly, repose in wide-awakeness: REST IN OPENNESS.
As we gradually learn to leave off distractness and rest in openness, we stop looking for fulfillment outside of the way things already are.  Till now we've gone through life pushing and pulling--trying to push the undesireable away from us, and pull the desireable toward us.  But resting in openness, free from the agitation of pushing and pulling, we can just WITNESS the situation. This doesn't mean to suppress our anger at the traffic if it is arises, or our lust for the babe if it arises, for those arisings are also part of the situation we're witnessing.WHEREVER you are, is the perfect place to rest in openness... as long as you're paying attention... washing the dishes, cleaning the kitty litter, listening to annoying political opinions, stubbing your toe, dying, or being born.  You'll forget a million times, and a million and one times you'll remember:  oh yes, this is it... JUST THIS... rest in this.