Report 53

Bill Moyers interviews Barry Lopez: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04...0/profile.html
A really beautiful interview about the koan of life.

Hmm, don't know where to start -- the question of life seems so wide open.  A possible starting point:

The question of study, self-improvement versus just life has come into a bit of focus for me in the last couple of days.  A bit from genjokoan (thanks Zen!) pops to mind:  "When you first seek dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. But dharma is already correctly transmitted; you are immediately your original self."  The first sentence makes sense, and once I have settled a bit into sitting, the second sentence makes sense too.  But for me, there's still a transition state -- my thinking lags, and must make a leap from the first to the second.  Actually, it's not the thinking itself that makes the leap -- its usually a moment of acceptance, respect, acknowledgement, etc that bridges the gap, and that gesture doesn't need to come from "me".  Although I have come to rely on this and have confidence in a form of agency that doesn't require me to make an action, I still find myself seeking it out, that is, until the moment it all comes to rest.  A bit odd.  I've been feeling rather dreamy these days -- don't quite believe that things are real.  Maybe that's part of it.