What It Is!
By Michael Erlewine
Nothing in this world is other than it is. It is what it is, yet what is it?
Recently I have reviewed dozens of framed art pieces I have in closets and flat-file cabinets, around the house and our center, and I have always been careful to separate framed dharma art from other art, like rock ‘n’ roll posters. I assume that dharma art is more precious than rock concert poster art because…. Well, just because.
However, if I ask my heart about this, beauty is beauty, whether it is dignified by dharma or by rock ‘n’ roll. And the whole world is like this. Beauty is what it is to each of us, much like our a yidam is unique to us in dharma. A yidam is our particular and unique path to recognizing the true nature of the mind that we must discover.
It kind of broadens my view as to what is precious, if only to me. As they say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” That much is true. And beauty for each of us is individual.
When it’s warm enough to sit outside in the sun, I sit on one of our plastic lawn chairs and lean back into the grape arbor fence, since the grape leaves have yet to come out, the back feet of the chair digging into the now soft ground, which is unfrozen.
I just do that for a while, usually less than I imagined. And then I’m off wandering around the yard looking at this and that. I’m still waiting for spring, but this is it. The wind which today reaches 25 mph is not our friend.
The air is still a little crisp, but it won’t be long before it’s hot out and we have to go out walking earlier and earlier in the morning, before the sun gets us. This after six months of almost no sun on our skin.
What am I dreaming about, if not this. I have wished for the sun on my body and no cold wind in my face.
[Midjourney graphic prompted by me.]
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As Bodhicitta is so precious,
May those without it now create it,
May those who have it not destroy it,
And may it ever grow and flourish.