Mung bean sprouts, good enough to eat.

In order to ‘wake up’ the bullet hard beans one needs to soak them in water for 48 hours then, having softened up, they have the potential to sprout. Next they are drained and left in the dark to grow. (The soaking water is an elixir for plants, they love it.) It isn’t enough to just leave those beans, they need to be flushed with fresh water about twice a day or they will dry up. When ready, you eat them. They are very nourishing, but I’ll not go on about that.

I usually sprout green lentils and they are ready to eat in about three days. The mung beans seemed to take forEVER! Even then there were a few bullet beans remaining among the plump sprouted ones. Time to deal with this sort of project is in short supply however I knew I needed to sift out the hard beans, or I’d likely break a tooth on one of them. That’s time consuming work, “do I have time for this”? I asked myself “is it worth the trouble” I complained! Then I thought if there is time to sit and face a wall there has to be time to stand and pick through these beans. Dear Dogen Zenji, weep not for me! For those of you who may not be familiar with his teaching the nub of it is that it is a mistake to believe there is a separation between ‘practice’ and ‘daily life’. Here is a quote from Rules for Meditation by Dogen Zenji: “To live by Zen is the same as to live an ordinary daily life”. I hasten to add here that a goodly part of his life’s’ teaching was answering the question “Ok, so if that is the case why bother to practice then”?

A recent phone conversation inspired me to write the above since it pointed so clearly to meditation where ones spiritual potential grows ‘in the dark’, is watered by ones best efforts and then benefitted from (eaten) in ones daily life.

A much-desired promotion had eluded this person and the news hit hard. There was great disappointment, as well as envy and jealousy eating away in the background. “I have to let go now”! “Sob”. My question was, “OK, however are you willing to let go?” The reply came “But I HAVE TO let go”! “OK, that is all very well, however are you willing to let go?” “Well, I’m not there yet. I’d be telling a lie to say I’m willing”. The conversation went on and in the end the person said, “OK, I am willing to be willing to let go”, it was a step and not an insignificant one either.

To day I’ve been occupied preparing for a series of introductory meditation sessions at the University of Alberta, which is quite close to the Priory. The first session is on Thursday at 3.00 p.m. One of the lay ministers here is a professor and he, along with a woman who teaches at the University, will be helping on Thursday and then running the rest of the sessions. Mike and I got our heads together this morning on the best balance of information and the actual practice of meditation. Students get talked at from dawn to dusk so I don’t want to fill them up with more information than is absolutely necessary. If they feel drawn to the practice they can always come round here for more instruction.

I feel a million miles away from 18 year olds although I can empathize with their situation. Many will be away from home for the first time. That kind of release from parental boundaries can go both ways; mad partying or sad casting around not really knowing where one fits in to the new scheme of things. We have quite a few students come for introductory instruction. They do it as part of their course work for “Religion 101” and I regard their time here as sowing seeds that may, or may not, ripen in the future. I love their open willingness to give meditation their ‘best shot’.

All day, between phone calls and other business, I’ve been back and forth in my mind about what literature to have available for these up coming sessions. Contemplating how many copies to make and where the price break comes in terms of number of copies made. My intention was to nip over to Staples, the office super (dooper) store, in the afternoon and get the work done. It is never a hardship to visit Staples; just ten minutes walk away with only Calgary Trail to negotiate. That is the main southbound road out of town, a veritable racetrack with at least five lanes to get across, however it is worth it. But, something was sticking about this whole copy project and in the end I headed out for a walk in the other direction.

Returning to the Priory somewhat red cheeked from the cold it dawned on me that we have a copier at the Priory! So without further ado I tackled the complexities of double sided copying, putting together leaflets etc. For those of you who may run a meditation group or are part of one there is a booklet in PDF format called The Eightfold Path of Buddhism on the obc web site. It is in both A4 and Letter size to accommodate the two different paper standards in North America and Europe. Rev. Master Daizui wrote the booklet and it is well worth the effort to print up a few copies to give away to people who ask questions like “what do you believe in?" “Why do you meditate?” and “why do you insist on keeping to the speed limit?” Ahem! that sort of thing.

Still scratching my head about how I managed to over look the Priory copy machine!