|
I have enjoyed seeing people in these few days since the end of retreat than previously. I see them as manifesting God, in unique ways. Some are joyful, some mean, others cool, aloof, clueless, wise, caring. I love "subway practice," which usually takes the form of choiceless awareness, combined with a dropping of the self on the one hand and an allowing of the mind's curiosity on the other. I love looking at people's clothes, imagining what they are doing, sympathizing with those who are stressed out or who look unhappy, loving when a group of kids come on, with their crazy, unruly energy. (Luckily they're not my kids.) Subway practice depends on dropping my own story – where I am going, how pissed off I am at what happened an hour ago – and it doesn't always work. Particularly when I am running late, I am too anxious to quiet down, and so I give up, reading something on my Palm Pilot instead, or playing a game. Maybe with deeper practice, I will be able both to drop harder stories, and to allow those stories to be watched as part of the parade of life/God passing by at this moment.
How different is subway practice from "see the good in everybody"? Seemingly, only one letter different: "good" has an extra ‘o.' I don't really mind that I have come full-circle to the advice columnist in Reader's Digest, but it is very curious.
-- Jay Michaelson, “You Are God in Drag,” Zeek.net
|
