Wonder,
Who has the magic to make the sun
appear every morning?
Who makes that bird on the elegant tree chirp?
Breath, pulse, music, dew, sunset,
the burning ambers of the fall.
There is unfathomable joy in all that.
Life is a stream.
It flows on its own.
No one knows why we are here.
Stop trying to figure out the great mystery.
The tea in front of you is getting cold.
Drink it.
Enjoy every drop of it.
And dance.
Dance until there is no more dancer,
it is the dance without dancer.
This is how great mystics dance.
by Anam Thubten Rinpoche
I love the invitation in this poem to both be full of wonder at the big questions, but also to dive into the magic of the here and now – the tea in front of you that’s getting cold. I feel a sense of freedom and celebration, of wholeheartedness in the words of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Anam Thubten Rinpoche. What if we didn’t have to cling to everything quite as much as we might habitually do, if things were not as much of a big deal? If we could remain connected to a bigger perspective that can celebrate the unfolding of each moment, even when it’s a challenging one? No need to figure everything out and instead experiencing it directly…
Of course this way of relating to what’s here may be more accessible in some moments than in others. I’ve recently had the opportunity to immerse myself in a weeklong retreat where it felt much closer than in parts of my daily life where I get triggered in habitual patterns. But there are these moments of spaciousness in practice, in nature, on the dance floor… and as someone who loves dancing, I really relate to the invitation to dance till there is no more dancer!
PS Our Level 3 and 4 courses – Insight and Wisdom – are exploring the kind of freedom this poem alludes to…