There’s a popular Zen story about Layman P’ang, a successful merchant in 8th century China.
A family man who, instead of becoming a monk, chose to pursue lay practice, studying the sutras at home with his wife and children.
Worried that his material wealth might impede his path to enlightenment, he put all his worldly possessions in a boat, and sank it in the middle of a river.
After that, he lived life like a leaf on the breeze…
Papaji too, embraced this way, visiting the river Ganges each weekend, throwing all that he had in there, money, jewellery, knowing that what he needed would come in the following week. No attachment. Total freedom.
I’ve lived like a leaf on the breeze for as long as I can remember, but more fully, for the past 7 years, as I have lived freely and nomadically, travelling where the wind blows me, constantly allowing life to reinvent me. I’ve let go of the steering wheel.
Like a leaf on the breeze, I move on today, from Brighton, England, to Peniche, Portugal, the breeze of life continues to blow me along.
If you were to stop trying to control things, change things, and just let life blow you on it’s breeze, who knows where you might end up?
Maybe you could try, just for today, or even just for a moment, this moment, just let go, and see what happens.
Trust the breeze of life.
ANDO / LIVING ZEN RETREAT / DAY 28 / SUNDAY 2 FEBRUARY 2014, 07:00.