Rev. Danny Fisher

Today’s quote is from Zoketsu Norman Fischer, poet and Zen Buddhist priest.  Co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center from 1995-2000 and a Senior Dharma Teacher in the SFZC community, he is also founder and spiritual director of the Everyday Zen Foundation. A prolific author, his books include Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up and Benedict’s Dharma: Buddhists Reflect on the Rule of St. Benedict(with Judith Simmer-Brown, Joseph Goldstein, and Yifa, edited by Patrick Henry). This is it — from a teaching given in the days after the terrorist attack of September 11th, 2001.

There are times when life becomes so stark, so absolutely real in and of itself, that there is no thought of meditation practice—just bearing witness to what is is enough, and more than enough. But here I do not mean meditation practice itself. I mean the preciousness of it, all the interesting refinements and developments of the practice that can get so artistic sometimes. It’s all of that which reality often blows out of the water.

But meditation practice itself—the simple practice of being quiet, the practice of listening to ourselves, to the cries of the world, listening deeply with an accurate ear, allowing, opening to what we hear—that practice is more relevant in times like these than ever. There are, in a crisis, a million ways to help and we all should help in whatever way we can. But beyond help, and in addition to it, we need to bear witness to what is happening. To take it in, imagine it, feel it, grieve over it, accept it, not accept it, understand it, fail to understand it, and comfort each other in that. To do that we need to sit, we need the expansiveness of our sitting, as well as of our chanting and our prayers. It seems absolutely essential.