The rain continues heavily this morning. I am slower to wake today after being awakened in the middle of the night to sounds outside my door. I thought at first it was someone walking around, the sound of feet on gravel. I distinctly heard the shuffling of items on my porch. Was someone stealing my bike?
I suddenly wished I had brought my bamboo stick inside in preparation for martial arts style defense on any intruder. Unfortunately, it was on the porch outside my door. I quickly switched on the outside light. There was nothing but falling rain. What had been out there, I wondered. Were the monkeys back? Thieves? Sasquatch? Aliens?
I began to glimpse what it will be like in the coming months. Rainy season. Everyone gone. Surrounded by miles of wild National Park. No one to hear you scream. This is what it will be like to be fully on my own. Off the grid. I am the only one coming to save me. It gave me both a bold sense of self-reliance and also a sobering awareness of fear.
Now 11 days in, I am slowly discovering what it is to completely re-orient myself to time and surroundings. I had so many challenges and difficulties living in America the past 15 months. After having lived the prior year in Kyoto, I could not seem to re-adjust myself to the chaotic pace of life in Austin and the disproportionate busyness to the given day.
Perspective is everything, and my experiences have shown me that the people of Kyoto, the people of Costa Rica, and the people of America all have the same hours in the day to work with. Time moves as it does.
The vast difference in each place and each culture is the way people orient themselves to the day they are given.
In America, we have been programmed in a culture that arrogantly seeks to completely control its environment. We attempt to control our time and schedule and even have others adhere to and accommodate our schedules. We seek to control our external surroundings and elements for our convenience. We get put out when it rains and interrupts our plans. We have our food and comforts delivered to our door. We monitor our efficiency of time on our phones and watches.
This is our attempt to control Nature and the flow of life. It seems to run in opposition to my nature.
One area I struggled with so much in Austin, where I am from, was that we have all but eliminated Nature from our surroundings and environment. So many days I struggled to find a small patch of Nature to connect with. When I did, I was surrounded by traffic.
Here in Central America, it is the complete opposite paradigm. You are simply immersed into the surroundings of Nature and its ways and rhythms. You adjust accordingly. You eat what Nature makes available here. You wake with Nature. If there is sun, you get out into the flow of the day with Nature. If it is pouring rain for days, you take cover and wait it out, like the animals do. You adjust to the flow of Nature and her timing.
In doing so, I hav found myself in a creative flow with Nature around me, accomplishing what is needed, no more, no less. The writing flows. I spend a few hours doing productive work, weather creating a website for a client or writing or foraging for groceries (5 miles today on foot…2.5 hours) or sweeping or washing clothes.
As Lao Tzu wrote, “Nature never hurries, yet everything is accomplished.”
I have to believe that living in this natural flow and rhythm of Nature is one contributor to the people of this area, the Nicoya Peninsula, being among the highest concentration of centenarians in the world. I have now lived in two of the Blue Zones in the world…Costa Rica and Japan. I have experienced the way of life and the rhythm and the elements of the day.
I deeply get it.
It puts me into complete internal alignment with my own core rhythm of life. Perhaps it is good for everyone.
The Unknown Wanderer was asked about meditation in Taoism. What form, what style how long silent chanting, sitting, or special yoga in specific poses with techniques to master?
He simply replied,
“Don’t ask me about meditation,
Ask me what is not meditation
I sit anywhere
I meditate
I stand anywhere
I meditate
I walk anywhere
I meditate
Everything I do
is meditation.”
_____________
In Costa Rica, everything is meditation.
I wake naturally
I meditate
I sit in silence
I meditate
I walk along the beach
I meditate
I embody movement
I meditate
I write
I meditate
In Nature
I meditate
I forage for food
I meditate
I make my coffee
I meditate
I clean
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants.
Zen and Ink Journals represents hundreds of hours of writing over the past decade, sometimes from a train in remote China or a coffee shop in Kyoto, a hammock in Costa Rica or a simple cabin on a mountain in Boquete, Panama.
Zen and Ink Journals is a simple offering of words in the hope of inspiring others to a simpler, more mindful way of life in these chaotic times. I invite you join me each month on the journey for a glimpse of the larger world, reflections on living more simply and quietly amidst the chaos of our modern world.
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For more information and ways to connect with me, visit my website at Zen and Ink
Zen and Ink was born over a decade ago out of my own personal journey to find peace and tranquility amidst the ever-increasing chaos of our modern world. In the last ten years, the pace of our modern world has only accelerated and we have moved further out of sync with nature and the rhythm of our souls. Zen and Ink offers a quiet space for anyone along their journey seeking more balance and Zen in their daily lives.
Zen and Ink provides an oasis for those who are drawn to a slower and simpler way of life; to provide a portal for awakening, tools and resources that many will find useful in their own quest to find the Zen which is already there and always within and around each of us.