Fast and Loose

Dear Friends,

This week and next week we will continue our effortless way.  We'll focus on the union of two apparently contradictory gestures: simultaneous holding and releasing.

Holding.  I have a project, like writing a letter, or choreographing a musical, or solving a math problem, or holding (as we say) a meeting. Or leading a life.  Or concentrating on the breath, or on a meditative theme.  

Releasing.  Within this held space, this held environment or process, I must effect a kind of release, or nothing further happens.  

So I give myself the form of a sonnet or a haiku, and that invites the free creativity to fill out the form.  I hold the meditation theme, in the sense that I return to it from obvious distractions, but within the theme I allow any thought, any depth, to arise for me.  If I am a good leader, I can delegate rather than micromanage.

We seek to have strong concentration, and at the same time, within it, a maximum of letting go.  This has something of the structure of the invitation from the good host, who invites someone, welcomes them, and then allows the guest a great deal of freedom within their role as guest.  We welcome so many kinds of guests: babies into the world, and ideas that are new to us, and, as Thoreau put it, "an infinite expectation of the dawn." Recall that in the Sufi tradition, God is referred to as the Guest.

Today we'll make of our group a strong container, a strong holding environment, invite a guest within it, and then arrange for release within this held space. We'll be hosting a meditative sentence, "The Earth is made of meaning." 

What is it that we must release for this guest to live and thrive among us?

with love,

Michael