Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner
Last night I went to the New Orleans Zen Temple for a Zazen session. I hadn’t been since sometime before the failure of the federal levee system and was asked to go by a friend. I won’t go too much into the practice or it’s deeper meaning, but essentially I sat in a corner facing a wall and meditated for about an hour. It had been a long time since I’d meditated and the first time back was spent trying to wrangle my mind into silence. Your mind wanders and you bring it back to center and try your best not to judge yourself for having crazy thoughts and an over active mind. At some point I nearly burst out with laughter because it dawned on me that I just paid five dollars to be put in timeout. To a kid this is torture, but to me it was a welcome break from a hectic day and nobody was going to bother me.
When I returned home I was reminded of this picture taken in New York. I was out window shopping when I came across this little shop selling Eastern religion items like buddha’s, prayer flags, books, and such. There was a cart outside of the shop to display some of their offerings. This one caught my eye because it said something about practicing meditation and being bound to one another. Now I know damn good and well that they were chained together because some ass clown had previously attempted or succeeded in stealing some merchandise, but I thought it was a nice reminder.
