A day after an Awakening Week (our monthly silent meditation retreat), I went for interviews with our teacher Soryu. We met twice that morning.
In the first meeting, I stated my goal, to realize that “Happiness is not meaningless. My happiness matters.” It came out dead.
Soryu told me to not just say the words but to realize the state of mind. He told me to remember all these connections.
I left confused. All these connections? What?
In the very brief time before the next meeting, I waited in a little meditation shack, trying to make progress on Soryu’s instruction.
In the next meeting, he said: What is needed is the willingness to die. Willingness to die is connection.