2022-08-12

Minister's Post, Fri Aug 12

Dear Ones,

Thanks to all of you who have reached out since my medical emergency on Fri evening Aug 5. What happened? The doctors aren't sure. Some sort of heart event -- but not, they say, a heart attack (blood enzymes aren't consistent with that). Last Friday evening, LoraKim and I were sitting on our deck chatting when I passed out for about a minute -- and was too light-headed to stand for about 3 hours thereafter.

I'm currently wearing a heart monitor for two weeks, and have a cardio stress test appointment for after the monitor comes off. Now you know about as much as I do.

As of today (Friday), I continue each day to feel a little more energy and focus -- and I'm pretty much back to normal.

Yours in the faith we share,
-Meredith

Join a Journey Group: http://cucwp.org/journey-groups

I.C.Y.M.I. (In Case You Missed It)

The Aug 7 Service, Rev. LoraKim Joyner, "You Say What?"



Here it is, your...
MOMENT OF ZEN
#125: Guided By Karma

This is Wolverine's third appearance. The first was in #36, where Wolverine was avoiding first-person pronouns because, she claimed, "No-self has appeared." The second was in #114 regarding the meaning (or possibility) of hiding.

The Zen story, "Baizhang and the Fox" (Gateless Gate #2) makes the point that, on the one hand, an enlightened person does not fall under the law of cause and effect (i.e., is not tangled in the laws of karma), and, on the other hand, such a person is attentive to cause and effect (is not free of karmic law).

Our causes and conditions push and pull us in various ways. Among the causes and conditions may be, if we're lucky, the capacity to step back from causes and conditions, identify and evaluate them -- and thereby engage a more awakened self with the situation.

Case
Wolverine wandered by again and positioned herself in the tall grass just outside the circle.
"I don't know why I'm here," she said, with a rather far-away look in her eyes. "I guess my karma brought me."
Raven asked, "Don't you have a say-so?"
Wolverine said, "I just let myself be guided."
Raven said, "How about when a hunter trails meat to a trap?"
Wolverine put her head on her paws.
Verse
Intention arises, sometimes, dispelling aimlessness.
Maybe it clarifies into a trumpet
of compelling and bold mission.
Who blows that rally horn?
Whence the source of its call --
Or my answering march?
When the brass beckoning of grace sounds
There is no resistance --
Or none not overwhelmed --
Which means this too is
following the path of least.
Case adapted from Robert Aitken; introduction and verse by Meredith Garmon
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