Meeting and greeting the Presence within happens in all degrees of intensity... One day the silence may suddenly, automatically deepen -- like a car going into overdrive -- when you effortlessly remain in the deepest relaxation, undistracted, receptive. In this state you may feel the love going out from you and coming back to you and you may feel within you a sudden walling-up of glowing happiness or intense, vibrant joy. You may find yourself smiling as you realize you are meeting and being met, as you know you are experiencing the Presence.
We meditate in the library's garden, desolate in winter. We shiver but aren't in a hurry... After a while I feel more rested, and strangely fortified, too, as though by a company of unseen helpers, wise ones who know what it means to live with a heart as open as a clear blue sky, as passionate as the summer sun, as patient as rain on rock. How I want to live that way. A Zen saying burrows into my quiet, becomes a prayer: "May I walk hand in hand with you, ancestors, the hair of my eyebrows entangled with yours." The empty garden is full.
