Dear ones,

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Greetings on this crisp autumn day. The changing landscape with its cooling air, turning and falling leaves, seems to mirror so perfectly the spirit of this month’s teachings.

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There comes a time in life and in practice when the persistence of seeking begins to not just soften, but fall away. The impulse to reach outward, to master something beyond ourselves, grows quiet. This shift does not mean that practice loses its meaning, rather, our relationship to it changes completely. What once felt like a path toward something now becomes a way of being skillfully and open-heartedly with what already is.

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The four final stages of the *Ox-Herding journey reflect this transformation. In the seventh stage, the character sits peacefully, ox and rope forgotten. In the eighth, that image dissolves into an empty circle where there is nothing left to chase, no separation to maintain. In the ninth, even the circle disappears, and we find ourselves returned to the natural world: a simple, quiet landscape. Clarity dawns. Was the entire struggle imagined from the start?

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At this point, the effort to fix or perfect ourselves falls away and what remains is a trust that nothing is missing, nothing needs to be proven and life feels whole as it is. Practice flows with a quiet sense of joy and relief. Compassion arises naturally, like the breath: boundless, effortless, immediate.

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This is the real fruit of the path: from escape to return. It is the simple dignity of awakening, of being fully human, unguarded, willing to meet the world as it is, in this body, at this time. The stages of practice, imagined or not, are indeed real and we see them for the experiences that they are instead of achievements to collect. They are reflections of what unfolds when we keep returning, showing up with patience, sincerity and love. We cannot rush or will them to happen. Determination reveals itself not as a thing of control, but as devotion.

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In the ninth stage, under the shade of a tree, we turn again toward the immediate. We turn toward the world right in front of us. A cool breeze blows. The impulse is no longer to clutch or retreat, but to open, to stand upright and to let life move through our limbs. We stay. We see that the immediate is the ultimate, and the ultimate is the immediate. And all of this is alive in the ordinary, revealed through the way we love, listen and serve.

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Aspiration remains now as a quiet trust:
in this breath,
this moment,
this life,
exactly as it is.

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Stepping into November, gift yourself an opportunity to touch into the wisdom of returning to the source: 1- What does it mean, for you, to return to the world just as you are? 2- Where, in the ordinariness of your days, do you sense the ultimate shining through? 3- How might your practice this month be a way of staying open with yourself, with others and with the world?

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In trust,

Meg Lucks

El Getsu Endō | "Brilliant Moon, Way of the Circle"

Lay-Ordained Senior Yoga-Dharma Teacher

The Heart Revival Center for Belonging

*March through December we look to the Buddhist Ox-Herding images and their corresponding verses as an artistic illustration of the student on the path. While we will look at them 1 through 10, it's important to note that they are not linear nor hierarchical. They are helpers in our active practice of listening to the heart. We can gaze upon an image or hear the poetic lines and compare them to our lived experiences, with the intention to expand from a narrow mind to a limitless beginner's mind. In the spirit of for now, we can practice taking up what helps and letting go of what does not. We can practice listening to each other, holding space as a living, breathing dynamic, instead of fueling beliefs and patterns that divide, compare and diminish. My intention for our community is to create the ecology (container, context and content) for inner seeing and empowerment to come alive and ultimately bridge the gap between spiritual practice and daily life. www.theheartrevival.com/news