ango, peaceful dwelling

The Japanese word for practice period is ango. It means "peaceful dwelling." When Jane spoke about this matter tonight, she made a connection that interests me, quoting Dogen's phrase, "the dharma gate of joyful ease." Where is this dwelling, this peaceful place, and what gate opens onto joyful ease?

Suzuki Roshi said, "It is enough to live." Sometimes I remember that. Sometimes I even believe it. At those times, folding the laundry, washing the kitchen sink, making the beds, weeding a garden, playing with Anakin--any one of these is enough, is more than enough, is great wealth. In these acts there is peace and ease, in any moment of mindfulness too, even mindfully listening to a friend as he details the future he's planning to have with his ailing wife, those details fraught with fantasy and delusion, he as he is and I with him as he is. The simple fact of it all.

Joan Didion's A Book of Common Prayer opens with this sentence: "I will be her witness." There's the ticket, to not turn away from things as they are. And to what place does that ticket give you--give me passage? Ha!

'Night.