impermanence

They have posted another warning about snow due here tomorrow. And amidst the flurry (no pun intended) of activity counting down to the first flake, a group of Buddhist nuns from Tibet is quietly creating a sand mandala at Wellesley College's Davis Museum.

They began last Thursday and when it's complete next week, their creation will be swept into a nearby lake. I read that the nuns had delayed their start by a day to one that was more spiritually auspicious. It made me smile: those women disrupting what was likely a carefully planned and coordinated schedule. That wasn't their intention -- nothing so self-centered; they were simply (or not so simply) attuned to other rhythms.

Some other things came to mind as well:
the quiet power of a group with a common purpose
attachment to a creation
attention to detail
staying focused
intricacy and simplicity
knowing one's part in the whole

I'd love to witness the nuns at their work, if they call it "work" at all. I would also like to re-commit to taking a more meditative approach to my own work/life style. Life as meditation, in both the being and the doing. When I first set out to do my own independent work, I brought that sensibility with me. In fact it informed my decision to go out on my own, but it became increasingly challenging to maintain over time as I slid into the busyness of business.

The re-commitment I mention is to those early morning practices that I know work for me, if for no other reason than I can tell when I haven't done them. They include personal journaling and a period of sitting meditation. When I do these irregularly -- as I have been -- I can tell the difference in the way I approach my day and my dealings. Conversely, when I do them daily (or as often as I can) I feel more flexible and balanced both inside and out, and less apt to be thrown off by whatever comes my way.

It's certainly not easy to live in the world with the same equanimity that is possible in quiet meditation or solitude, but the principles are the same. And I suppose that's the point: just keep showing up, practicing, and coming back to center.

Just writing about this reminds me of their importance and do-ability for me. More important is approaching them with no goal in mind except to simply do them as best I can -- to keep showing up. If I remember correctly, one of the Buddhist nuns said that it isn't hard to be a monk, but it is hard to be a human being. She also said that it was hard to have a practice, but harder not to have a practice. For some of us, that's something we simply have to live in order to learn.

So I suppose as every day is swept away, we are left to start again.