MEDITATION

I had the opportunity to sit with my old friend and teacher Than Geoff (Thanissaro Bhikkhu)  yesterday, for the first time in months. I presume to call him "friend" because it feels that way to me, but in truth he is the abbot of the Metta monastery in Valley Center, California, and a distinguished scholar and teacher in the Buddhist world.

Anyway, it was a pleasure to sit with him! And as usual with Than Geoff I learned a lot. I learned a lot, first, by simply listening to his guidance during the first half hour of the hour's meditation. Having started my own small group up in Los Angeles, I have been offering guidance myself, modeled of course on what I have learned from him over the years. Listening attentively to his guidance with that history in mind, I was conscious of how slowly and calmly he proceeded, allowing generous lengths of space and silence in between each instruction; and how non-obtrusive he managed to be, somehow backing away into that silence after each instruction to allow for its completion. Hard to describe...

During the question and answer session following the sit, he answered one questioner, concerned with the noise of daily life, with the suggestion to avoid the internet, newspapers, the television. I engaged him a bit on this: is it not our responsibility, I asked, as lay citizens, to be concerned for the welfare of those around us? And does that not necessitate the kind of information that we get from just those sources? Than Geoff seemed to agree, but suggested--you guessed it!--moderation. We have had conversations of this kind in the past: I grew up--as readers of these pages will know--with an Anglican minister father who preached social conscience to his flock as well as to his son, and sometimes got in trouble for it: the pulpit, some of his parishioners objected, was no place for politics. Would that some of the Christian communities in this country today might voice the same objection!

I have long nursed this inner conflict, between quietism and engagement. Engagement has usually won out... but in a quiet way. Hence my blogs. The first one was The Bush Diaries, a quiet form of engagement, in which I could speak my mind about national and world affairs, but in the shelter of the blogosphere. It morphed into The Buddha Diaries, in which I have been writing now since 2008, nearly ten years. It's a place that offers me the opportunity to look within, as well as to look without--a medium that suits me well, and I'm grateful for it.

I exchanged a few more personal words with Than Geoff at the end of yesterday's session. He inquired kindly after Ellie, and expressed sympathy for the sciatic pain she has been experiencing. And I took the opportunity to express my gratitude for the practice I have learned from him. A truly positive addiction in my life, it has served me well, for now more than twenty years. What a gift! And what a blessing!