Dokusan:
"I'm frightened!"
"How big do you feel?"
"Oh - small"
"How old are you?"
"Seven".
"Be kind to the little boy inside you. Go and look into his fear."
Back on my cushion, the little boy in me and I talked together.
"Why are you hiding?"
"I'm scared."
"Why?"
"Dad's going to beat me."
And as we talked it through, and I cried with fear, my heart went out to the little boy in my memory. I comforted myself. The little boy wanted to know that I would give him enough time - not do a bit and slip back to Mu. He had all the time he needed. Next time we sat, he was asleep on my knee with my arm around him.
I am a 38 year old man who has spent a lifetime running away from this little boy's fear and pain, ambitiously chasing mountain tops in the Himalayas, as a therapist, as a lover, as a Zen practitioner. Is the planet being driven to destruction by men like this?
