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This drawing is my favorite Zen Telegram. Zen Telegrams, created by Paul Reps, are simple drawings with very short texts that go right to the heart of Presence. Whenever I get worried about anything in my life, if I can remember this Zen Telegram and then step into it, life gets calm. Put aside the questions: How can I stop the war by drinking green tea? Don’t I have to do something? Will coffee work just as well?
Just step into it.
Every morning Kathy Rossol steeps a cup of green tea and steps outside her sliding glass doors out onto her deck. In the rainy season, there is enough of an overhang that she can stay dry. She is an early riser due to a long commute into Seattle, so many days she steps out into the predawn darkness of a northwest winter. Still she finds her dying father, her angry husband, and teenage daughter all being at peace while she is out there. Even though the circumstances have not changed, life is in balance.
Here are her own words describing what she does:
When I first started doing this, it was the dead of winter - cold, dark, often rainy. I would shut the door behind me and stand under the eaves, cradling the cup of tea in my hands. I started by breathing deeply, as if getting ready to meditate. I would sip my tea and wait for the world to sink into me - the sounds, the odors, the feel of the air, the pattern of darkness and light. It's odd how I became attuned to just that cup of tea and those impressions. With each sip, with each breath, I felt more peaceful, more serene. It was easy not to think about my problems.
Now that it's so light out (at 6 am), the world seems a different place and I initially found that unsettling. Sipping my tea, I remind myself that the same world is out there, just clothed differently. The green belt behind my house contains an immense fir tree that creaked and groaned during the winter but now is silent. Raucous bird song now greets me when I walk out on my deck. Were those birds there before, sleeping in the dark hours of the morning or were they in some warm clime down south?
Right after September 11, a Taoist poem was printed in the paper and it caught my spirit. On the deck with my tea these mornings epitomize that poem, calming me, steadying me.
All things pass
A sunrise does not last all morning
All things pass
A cloudburst does not last all day
All things pass
Nor a sunset all night
All things pass
What always changes?
Earth...sky...thunder...
mountain...water
wind...fire...lake...
These change
And if these do not last
Do man's visions last?
Do man's illusions?
Take things as they come
All things pass.
That's all.
She is living this Zen Telegram perfectly. What can you do to stop the war?
The Whole Earth Catalog introduced me to Paul Rep’s work when I was still in my twenties during the Viet Nam War. He put together one of the best introductions to Zen that was available at the time, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones; it is still one of my favorites. There are two versions of Zen Telegrams:
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