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 on the other.

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 utter simplicity and clarity.

The cessation experience is the same as the manifestation of inherent compassion, and that the other is 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.” - recount  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 said, “Functioning as body and mind, but free from body and mind.”