A Great Silence

There is a great silence. It will find you when you step out of the noise. This silence is a dragon flying through heavens, a carpet of fall leaves, the ocean caressing the shore, a heron in a silver bowl. When this silence sneaks into mind, the world falls away and reveals itself and purifies your heart.

This great silence is an invitation to step out of your house, not through the front door, but through all the windows. Suzuki Roshi called it a letter from emptiness. It is the soil out of which all trees grow, blossom, and whither. It is the peace that we long for and think is over mountains and down rivers far from home, yet the mountains walk through us and the rivers pulse in our veins.

This great silence is mana. Stop wherever you are and listen. Sit on the grass. Close your eyes. Listen with your pores. It is all around you, a golden pearl at the center of the things. Glance out of the corner of your eyes and the shadow of luminous silence will waltz through you. It is your long lost friend, waiting for you, waiting, waiting, waiting....

I sit in the morning sun
as the pond whispers
to the bare trees