Products of our Environment

Recently I had an opportunity to teach zazen at a Waldorf school in Prague. For those of you unfamiliar with the Waldorf movement, the schools are based on spiritual principles which encourage a holistic approach to education. This means they are the kind of schools where middle class hippies send their children.

Despite being teenagers from very liberal families, very few of these students had any previous meditation experience. However, you wouldn't have known. Breathing the "right" way came to them naturally. One-pointed mind came to them naturally. Having been raised in non-materialistic environments, they lacked the angst and hunger of the modern world.

Many of us, by our lifestyles, create for ourselves problems which we then seek to solve through meditation. Better to seek a lifestyle in which the problems do not arise.

What is the source of this sound?

 

Walking along the mountain path

A temple bell echoes across the valley
Amidst whispering pines and birdsong
What is the source of this sound?