Zen and Christian [antikvár]

One MORE THAN ONE THING As I put on the light, More plum-flowers are seen behind Branches fair and white. Gyodai The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, The world, and those who dwell therein. 24:1 New possibilities It was dawn and the sitting had begun. A short while before, we had finished cross-country skiing under the three-quarter moon, trying to work silently on rhythm and pattern in our movements across a field full of light. Now the moment of concentration and no movement had come as we began zazen—the time of cross-legged, straight-back posture, of counting breaths, exhalations and inhalations, of thoughts arising and fleeing. Darkness gave way to grayness and then to the whiteness of a bright January day; one phase was naturally leading to another, and a similar sequence was repeated in the sitting. Soon I was able to follow my breathing "with my mind's eye," not having to count the movements of my abdomen in the deep, centered, slight activity of my body. Then I felt no longer apart from the people sitting with me, no longer apart 11