Zen and the art of Motorhome maintenance.

I've just returned home, after a 1500 mile road trip in our little camper van, 9 stops, 150 mile average per day, travelling with the bare minimum of neccesities was an excellent way to detach from the routine trivialities and hamster wheel habits that become the norm unless challenged with change.

Change is good, a rolling stone gathers no moss and all that shazam.

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I did take along with me, Urs App's book of sayings by Yunmen, but due to the fantastic scenery, the solitary beaches and amount of time it takes to do the basics of cooking and cleaning on the road, this book never got lifted.

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Case six of the Hekiganroku sees old Yunmen answer his own question when enquiring about the days after the fifteenth of the month and he says that

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" Every day is a good day"

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This trip has allowed me the time to get away from the frantic hamster wheel of routine day to day life, and to get back to basics, when you are on the road, everything takes way more time, and at first, to my usual mindset this was an inconvenience, but after settling into the slower pace of life, I was actually able to see life from that perspective and get a more clearer view on the "Norm"

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Yunmen offers a good take on the day to day trivialities, and he is right, every day is a good day, maybe we don't see it as such when we are in the midst of a really bad day, but, given the correct perspective hopefully we can find a little peice of light within the darkest of days.

I'd like to delve a little deeper into this subject, as it is an interesting one for me, as I've had some pretty dark days over the years, as every human being will certainly have, at one time or another during their lives.

Didn't the Buddha say There is suffering?

Oops, wrong sub.. 😁

But hey, I'm sure that the Zen masters would also agree, that the human condition will inevitably entail a certain amount of suffering, so how can this tally with Yunmen saying that every day is a good day?

Well, when we just go along with the flow of what is happening, without any expectation of ease or comfort, or that things must turn out a certain way, then everything that happens is good. Even the bad stuff..

Maybe I got a little too carried away with myself, maybe it's just that as humans, we are always interpreting things and events as good or bad, and that those things and events in and of themselves are neither good nor bad..

What do you guys think?

Submitted June 28, 2022 at 03:14PM by transmission_of_mind https://ift.tt/o0nQ3Vd