ABSORPTION

Crimson light through pine shadows.

Setting sun settling into the ocean.

Night follows the setting sun,

Day follows the fleeing moon.

All too often, we tend to think of absorption as a static thing :

Water is absorbed into a sponge, and there it stays. But true absorption

is a total involvement in the evolution of life without hesitation or

contradiction. In nature there is no alienation. Everything belongs.

Only human beings hold ourselves aloof from this process. We have

our civilization, our personal plans, our own petty emotions. We divorce

ourselves from process, even as we yearn for love, companionship,

understanding, and communion. We constantly defeat ourselves by

questioning, bumerting ourselves at the wrong times, or letting hatred

and pride cloud our perceptions. Our alienation is self-generated.

In the meantime, all of nature continues its constant flow. We need

to let ourselves go, enter freely into the process of nature, and become

absorbed in it. If we integrate ourselves with that process, we will

find success. Then the sequence of things will be as evident as the

coming of the sun and the moon, and everything will be as it should be.

But seriously, look at how funky he is