Lost and Found
By Jūken Zach Fehst
*A few days before our Friday Night Zen meeting on the first Friday of the month, the person facilitating sends out a little missive about what we’ll discuss. These often are great food for thought, so we offer them here on the blog for journaling and discussion. 🙏
In Zen, waking up to reality is often described in mundane, even banal terms. It's drinking water and knowing for oneself whether it is warm or cold. It's recognizing a flower or washing a bowl. It's three pounds of flax sitting in sacks on the ground outside a kitchen.
It's like finally finding something and realizing with a jolt that it was never for a second lost.
In Buddhism (our preconceived ideas of) "gain and loss" are considered two of the main things that continually drag us into unhappiness.
Questions to ponder
1. Do you tend to view your inner (spiritual) life as a quest or journey? What are the potential benefits and pitfalls of an approach that directs your spiritual energy toward some kind of "goal"? What are you looking for, and how will you know when you've found it?
2. Have you had experiences where things that seemed at first like losses turned out to be gains in disguise? What about the opposite?
3. What if you lived into each situation or moment as though you were finally arriving exactly where you were meant to be? How might this be a helpful way of encountering our lives, and what might be important to be wary of?
Jūken Zach Fehst, a Minnesota native, is a graduate of the film school at the University of Southern California and holds a Master of Theological Studies from Boston University. His novel American Magic was a Library Journal “Summer Best” pick. He is on the path toward ordination as a Soto Zen Buddhist priest.
Jūken is also a piano and guitar player, a world traveler who has explored dozens of countries, a fluent Spanish speaker (gracias a la previsión de sus padres), an English teacher, and the former host of the Discovery Channel’s Emmy-nominated show, “The Ultimate Guide to the Awesome.” He is married to author (and Clouds Executive Director) Renkyo Heather Demetrios.