I’ve been writing poetry for some time now. My journey as a meditation practitioner has been going on about as long as I have been writing, so the two have naturally influenced one another. I’ve always had an affinity for poetry in particular. In my first poetry class in high school I remember discovering many amazing poets, but the old Chinese poet Li Po (also known as Li Bai) really stood out.

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

I found an old copy of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind in my possession in the heart of the pandemic. My father had given it to me some time ago, likely when I was in the throes of some existential malaise. I had kept the well worn copy, it’s spine partially broken with some pages loose, until I rediscovered it in lockdown. As I carefully read through it, against the backdrop of a huge upset in civilization, it had a sharp and immediate impact on me.

“Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth,” writes Pema Chödrön at the beginning of her masterful book When Things Fall Apart. This potent statement speaks to our need to cut against the grain of our ordinary habits and impulses, to patiently seek out a greater degree of intimacy with our own mind and being. She encourages us to not sidestep suffering but consider it as part of life’s messy soil, out of which we can tend the expanding garden of our spirit. When things fall apart and we feel nailed to an unraveling situation we can try to run or we can embrace the fundamental groundlessness of our lives.