Be soft in your practice

Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you.

Chan Master Sheng-yen

 Those of us who are waking up to our connection to the rest of humanity may experience grief over the seemingly endless suffering we humans impose on our fellow creatures and the land. We may become heavy with grief, which is not so useful if we want to lift others up. This is one of the challenges of waking up in this world of dark and light. We need to find ways to remain buoyant while still keeping our eyes open to the darker side of life.

 Buddhism has developed, over years of many challenging times, tools and wisdom to keep our ship afloat during the inevitable storms. The practices that have sustained many others throughout history are poised to sustain us now.

 Be soft in your practice, says Sheng-yen.  Change, in ourselves and in society, is messy and does not always happen suddenly or dramatically like a raging waterfall. Sometimes it appears that change isn’t happening at all. But if we are slow and persistent, an undercurrent of change slowly erodes the banks of our human greed and hubris. We can count on impermanence.

 Sustainable change is slow and steady like a silvery stream. Each day we wake up and do the best we can. At night we let go of the day. The next morning we wake up and begin all over again. We may not always notice the changes in our psyche, or the world’s psyche, because awakening happens in increments filled with both victories and setbacks. We think going backwards is bad and going forwards is good. But, even going backwards is going forwards when we keep our eyes open to it all.

 Be soft in your practice and commend yourself for caring enough to keep putting one foot in front of the other even when you think you are getting nowhere at all. All any of us can do is move forward from where we are, patiently and persistently.