Everything is in its place.

I had hoped to post something here much earlier today. But after sitting I was then busy all morning speaking with students via Skype. Which meant that I had to let go of my goal. If I had not dropped it, I would not have been present with the people with whom I was speaking. But because I was able to drop that expectation about writing and posting early, I could fully appreciate each moment with each person I met. I could then be surprised and touched. Such a rich and simple joy!

It was exactly 12h noon as I finished writing that sentence, so I stopped for one minute of silence. Another rich and simple joy, letting go again.

These two situations this morning serve me as reminders that « whatever I meet is the path, » as a slogan from the Tibetan teaching on mind-training Lojong says. As the Zen master Norman Fischer writes, practice « is not something that we are doing over and above our life. It is our life. It is the way we live. »

Everything is in place for you to experience that this week. That’s exactly what this retreat is about.

I’m infinitely inspired by making practice my whole life. It’s an inexhaustible practice, a practice that is always new. It’s a practice that is always accessible, always here, even when I forget about it. I’m always in the heart of it. Where else could I be? I am that practice, I am that path. And so are you, even if you don’t realize it. It’s just who you are, just where you are. It’s an endlessly rich and simple joy.