“We Practice Zen” by Roshi June Tanoue
“We practice Zen to purify our love.”
~Suzuki Roshi
Magenta, and striped red and yellow petunias are growing profusely in my window box quivering and dancing in the wind. It’s cool today, overcast with rain drizzling and refreshing them. All the trees are in their beautiful green summery attire. Dark green moss grows on the north-face of the elm tree outside.
We are in the thick of summer! The sun shines, days are long and warm! We have big summer storms with dark clouds that fill the skies, lightning flashes, and the thunder beings talk. It’s like they are having a big meeting in the sky discussing things of importance. I listen to them roaring and growling with a kind of awe. Refreshing rain falls, cools the earth, and nourishes the plants.
Halau i Ka Pono celebrated Summer and danced the hula of our precious Hawaii. at the Zen Life & Meditation Center’s Summer Solstice Party and Fundraiser. We honored Pele, our Volcano Goddess, who emerges from the center of the earth as hot lava to create our beloved ‘aina/land. And we remembered the islands of Maui, Molokai, Ni’ihau, Oahu and Kauai through songs and hula.
In Zen we sit in zazen (meditation). It’s a practice of patience and compassion to sit still with all the different thoughts that arise. Our practice in zazen is to notice, not judge, and release them by returning to breath, over and over again.
In Hula, we dance. It is a practice of patience as we repeat hand and feet movements until our body mind has memorized it. So many hulas are about love and aloha. And with the repetition, the message of the song is internalized.
I can say the same thing Suzuki Roshi says about Zen. That we practice Hula to purify our love. When we focus on the hula, we let extraneous thoughts go. And keep returning to the body. This is a discipline just like zazen. We let rest all those unhelpful thoughts like ‘I’m not good enough’ and we do not let them get internalized.
Our bodies like to move. And when our body hears the melodious music of Hawaii and moves with it, something magical happens. People tell me that they always feel better after they dance. And they return to their busy lives in a more open aloha-filled way.
Can you just be in the moment and enjoy the dance of life no matter what? Zen and Hula are practices that can help you do this. I think of all the people who danced before us and will dance after us. I am deeply grateful to be part of these exquisite lineages of love.