I want to tell you about a retreat I am putting together together with my dear friends at BKI in the San Francisco Bay area on December 12-14th. It is called The Work and Silence and it combines periods of sitting meditation with doing The Work with a partner. Silence will be observed between sessions throughout the entire retreat. It will be a weekend of silence, stillness, deep listening and open ended inquiry.

The retreat will take place at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, 40 minutes north of the San Francisco Airport, in a valley that opens out onto the Pacific Ocean. It is a beautiful venue with hiking trails that lead to the shores of Muir Beach in only a few minutes. Green Gulch hosts a community of Buddhist practitioners that year round devote themselves to the study and practice of Zen as they care for an organic farm and garden, a guest house and a conference center.

We held this retreat for the first time at Green Gulch in March 2008 and it was a beautiful, intimate experience. I learned a lot and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible there. If this interests you, I strongly invite you to consider attending. Scholarships will be available.

See

http://thewayofit.com/blog/2007/09/03/true-nature/

As much as I like blogging in Zaadz, I like blogging on my own website http://thewayofit.com/blog even more. So I will be contributing my new posts there.

Thank you for being you.

Eduardo

By accident, I ended up at Steve Pavlina's blog today. I had been there before. Intriguing, strong willed character, Steve is. Browsing through his posts, I found this one called "How to discover your life's purpose in 20 minutes." Too tempting to pass. On his post he recommends the following exercise:


1. Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type .

2. Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”

3. Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.

4. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.


So I decided to give it a try. I opened up my word processor, wrote at the top "What is my true purpose in life?, and began to write.

I immediately wrote:

To be happy, to serve

and began to cry.

So much for it taking 20 minutes. Maybe all the inner work I've done through the years hasn't been in vain.

I heard this song many, times over when I was in my early teens. Today, when I stand at this big fork on the road of my life, I listen to it again, and have fun with it.

Enjoy.

La ex-señorita no ha decidido qué hacer.
En su clase de Geografía, la maestra habla de Turquía
mientras que la susodicha
sólo piensa en su desdicha y en su dilema;
¡Ay, qué problema!

En casa, el novio ensaya qué va a decir,
seguro que va a morir cuando los padres se enteren.
Y aunque él, otra solución prefiere, no llega a esa decisión
porque esperar es mejor, a ver si la regla viene.

Decisiones (Ave María), cada día (Si señor).
Alguien pierde, alguien gana ¡Ave María!
Decisiones, todo cuesta.
Salgan y hagan sus apuestas,
¡Ciudadanía!

El señor de la casa de alquiler,
a pesar de que ya tiene mujer,
ha decidido tener una aventura (A lo casanova);
y le ha propuesto a una vecina que es casada,
de la manera más vulgar y descarada
que, cuando su marido, al trabajo se haya ido
lo llame para él ser su enamorado.

La señora, que no es boba,
se lo cuenta a su marido
y el bravo decide, cómo no, invitar al atrevido
y ella lo cita, cual lo acordado.

Y el vecino sale todo perfumado,
con ropa limpia que su esposa le ha planchado,
y trae una flor que se encontró en el tendedero (A lo "LoveStory").
Dentro en casa de la vecina está el marido,
indeciso sobre dónde dar primero,
con un bate de beisbol del extranjero.
Y suena el timbre, rin-rin (y no es el Gran Combo),
comienza la segunda del noveno.

Decisiones (Ya pa' qué), cada día (Tu verás).
Alguien pierde, alguien gana
¡Ave María!
Decisiones, todo cuesta.
Salgan y hagan sus apuestas,
¡Ciudadanía!

El borracho está convencido
que a él el alcohol no le afecta los sentidos,
por el contrario, que sus reflejos son
mucho más claros y tiene más control.

Por eso hunde el pie en el acelerador
y sube el volumen de la radio para sentirse mejor (bienchevere),
y cuando la luz cambiando a amarilla,
las ruedas del carro chillan y el tipo se cree un James Bond;
decide la luz del semáforo comerse
y no ve el truck aparecerse en la oscuridad.
Pito, choque y la pregunta "¿Qué pasho?"
"Pa' la eternidad"

(Persígnate Brother)
Decisiones, cada día.
Alguien pierde, alguien gana
¡Ave María!
Decisiones, todo cuesta (Persígnate).
Salgan y hagan sus apuestas,
¡Ciudadanía!

Every day is so wonderful
And suddenly, it's hard to breathe
Now and then, I get insecure
From all the pain, I'm so ashamed

I am beautiful no matter what they say
Words can't bring me down
I am beautiful in every single way
Yes, words can't bring me down oh no
So don't you bring me down today

To all your friends, you're delirious
So consumed in all your doom
Trying hard to fill the emptiness
The piece is gone left the puzzle undone
Is that the way it is

You are beautiful no matter what they say
Words can't bring you down oh no
You are beautiful in every single way
Yes, words can't bring you down oh no
So don't you bring me down today...

No matter what we do
No matter what we say
We're the song inside the tune
Full of beautiful mistakes
And everywhere we go
The sun will always shine
But tomorrow we might awake
On the other side

We are beautiful no matter what they say
Yes, words won't bring us down oh no
We are beautiful in every single way
Yes, words can't bring us down oh no
So don't bring me down today...

Don't you bring me down...today...
Don't you bring me down...mmmmm...today...

To keep at it is at the same time divine medicine and insane medicine.

It depends on what is it that you keep at.

Does what you keep at bring peace or stress into your life?

Just notice.

Then stick with what brings you peace.

And be kind to yourself. Persistence yields its fruits in its own time, not your own time.

The thing with life is that it does not ask for my permission to take place. Life just is, and the more I simply ride it (as in a never ending love making adventure) the simpler and more enjoyable it is. It feels as if sometimes I betray my own capacity for joy by overcomplicating things to the hilt. It's a habit that I seem to have developed several decades ago.

But I found the antidote. And I try to have a little of it daily.

It is called: telling the truth.

The truth, no matter what it looks like, sets you free. It requires courage and surrender, and it then leads directly to clarity of mind, openness of heart and unconditional compassion.

The funny thing is, the truth keeps changing. As one rests in That one finds the Truth that never changes.

The one. The many. The none.