Vipassana Retreat: Day Two

Being Direct
From The Book of Awakening, by Mark Nepo

We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are,
when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved,
and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed,
and beneath every sadness is the fear
that there will not be enough time.

Arinna Weisman began the retreat by reading this poem.

I think about all there is to love. How can anyone ever feel there is enough time? Petals fall from azaleas and rhododendron. Every raindrop is nourishment for wet earth, for wet feathers of wet birds and for wet animals in the wet forest. As we were meditating, I opened my eyes for a moment and and saw a young doe slowly coming toward us from the forest, watching us with unalarmed interest. She must be accustomed to people sitting around this place, not moving, not doing any harm. When you can open your eyes and see that, how can you not want to open them? There are people to admire, skin and hair and ideas, bone and angle, light and cloud. Who could ever have enough time? Of course we're sad about not having enough time. How could it be otherwise?

I went out in the rain on Friday, wearing my rain gear and carrying the camera next to my chest under the raincoat. Everything is fecund and trembling in the chilly wetness. The whole world is wet and green. In the Jizo (memorial) garden behind the monastery, the statues stream with raindrops  and the prayer flags and dressings on the statues drip and decay and fall apart. Moss grows on the decaying life, making new life. How can there ever be enough time to love it all?