Perhaps the best part of this house where I am is the small private back garden, the little deck on one side, trees on two sides and distant hills.

As a contemplative, a deep sense of calm is engendered - cessation, if you will. The falling away of body and mind - as Dogen Zenji called it. The myriad things come forth and experience themselves in simplicity and clarity.

The cessation experience is synonymous with the realm of compassion, and that the other is also ones-self. No-self, love, unity, the recognition of ones true identity.

Zen koans such as, “With hands of emptiness I take hold of the plough.” “Say something without moving your throat and lips.” “Pick up a stone from the bottom of the ocean without wetting your hands.” - foretell this. As does the koan Mu - in its “Form” and “Empty” aspects - or it did when I worked on it 39 years ago with Aitken Roshi. He commented, “Functioning as body and mind, but free from body and mind;” and, the Diamond Sutra's, "Dwell nowhere and bring forth that Mind."