A joy as big as the wide blue sky

reflecting on time spent at a zen monastery

Yesterday I left the zen monastery in Japan (here’s the first and second posts on that). It was incredible and incredibly challenging. I felt that I touched something so rich and meaningful and beautiful there. I wrote this poem to describe my feelings in leaving:

I don't want to go back
To the realm of phones
To the world of hungry ghosts
To the aisles of want

Let me return to that joy
As big as the wide blue sky
We were laughing tending gardens
Together our hands wove beauty

Let me return again
To that time I saw everything
Clearly
Cleansed of the mind's narrow gray filters

Each moment pristine
Each moment radiant
Each moment breathed
Each moment enough

One taste
Your voice and my voice and our voice
Do I need to achieve and be amazing
Or do I just need to be one fitting part in something good