Finally back at my desk with time to write. Sorry for the late posting, and the stand-by text below. Maybe some of you weren’t even aware of that text? We just never know what will arise, nor what will fall away.

So anyway… It’s our fifth and final day of this Heart of Life/Coeur de la vie retreat.  All week, we’ve been circling around the one point that includes all points: seeing through the delusion of separation. That means seeing your life and practice as one. As my teacher’s teacher once said at the end of retreat: « If you don’t want to leave the retreat, don’t enter the retreat. » He was suggesting that it is our mind that creates the separation between retreat / not retreat, enter / exit, etc.

There’s no way out because there’s nowhere to go. That’s the bad news and the good news. There’s nowhere to go – you’re already there! There’s no practice other than your practice, there’s no life other than yours, there’s no practice outside your life, there’s no life outside your practice.

Don’t worry about trying to understand that, though. Just keep going. We sometimes say that Zen practice is like walking through a field of damp grass. You don’t realize that your shoes are getting wet from the dew. Just keep going.

Please post one last time. Or one first time for those who haven’t done so yet!

Tomorrow we’ll be sitting together in Paris from 10h to 17h. Join us wherever you are and whenever you can. Then I’ll send a final email to you all on Sunday with some closing thoughts.

EARLIER POST

Running late today…

To give you a space to express yourself until I can devote my time fully to today’s words, I’m putting this post here, to be updated later.

Meanwhile, as the graffiti in the photo says: Learn to be a tree connected to the stars!