Gifts from the Far Ocean

Navigating great change—a big move, a divorce, an illness, a job change—involves mystery, uncertainty, and ancient methods of sensing the world around you.

We search for usual or unusual tools to grab hold of. We are all of us always on multiple journeys of aging, beginnings, endings—whatever life brings. As they unfold, we realize we can’t go back.

Our greatest tool from practice is a calm center in the middle of turbulence. My journey’s trajectory and outcome are not completely in my hands. We need to be able to trust when to rest and when to take action.

We will question our process—are the proper thing falling away or am I falling apart? Healing or worsening? We may try to connect MORE when connection isn’t working. When things break it is a harbinger of the new. We can befriend the demons. What I feel doesn’t have to be wrong. Freak-outs, serious diagnoses, or other unpleasant surprises will occur. We cannot keep the journey of life from happening.

Asking, Where is home? is our practice. It is hard to say whether circumstances are fortunate or not: are we drifting toward the rakshasas (flesh eating demons), or is it clear sailing?

Jesse tells the legend of the Ku’ling, a ghost bird who gave the gift of navigation to a Polynesian chief’s daughter.

When out on the open sea, the Polynesian navigator Tupaia, a descended master, always knew where it was when asked to show the direction toward his beloved home in Tahiti. His intense awareness of the world—the sea, the atmosphere, his star houses, his natural tools—were almost beyond comprehension.

You have whatever navigational equipment you need for the journeys you are on.

Trust your life—locate with love.

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A Sunday Zen session with Guest Host Jesse Cardin, recorded March 18, 2023.

Includes music for meditation from Michael Wilding.