Zazen as Refuge (Personal Statement)

There are the formal Buddhist refuges of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. I also like to think of zazen as a refuge. In my experience, it is a refuge from a mind that is sometimes burdensome.

Yesterday my wife left on a nineteen-and-a half-hour flight from Kona airport to Houston. There were layovers in Phoenix and Los Angeles, both long. Sandra rarely finds anything on restaurant menus that appeals to her, so she was going to be eating little or nothing during a layover. She was on a very long flight with not enough food. My, I did worry about her quite a bit during her flight.

That’s over now. But now today, I had an order I needed to place online. Web programmers often make mistakes. The clumsy web site that I needed to use double-charged the order to my credit card, as I found later when I checked the card data online. That led to fussy phone calls to get the double-charge straightened out. The memory of that troublesome transaction erupted in my mind several times in the day.

Both yesterday and today, I could look forward to the relief of zazen. In meditation, my fretful mind gave way to deep relaxation and a peaceful sense of the fitness of things. Zazen is such a wonderful refuge!