Dear members of the sangha,

Joe Confino is a co-host with brother Phap Huu and they record our monasteries podcast “The way out is in.”

If you haven’t listened yet, please feel free! Their insight is more than mine could ever amount to for the sangha. But I wanted to review his book and give you my thoughts as a Sangha leader on what stuck out to me.

The bee and the cacti

Just finishing Jo Confino’s book today of “Between the Earth and Sky”

I think my favorite excerpt of this books was when we was explaining the relationship that we have as humans where we tend to focus on having a plan versus having a path. He was explaining that he saw often these moths, bees, animals being stuck at the end of the cacti’s prick. And how he wasn’t sure if they got there from the winds that carried them there or poor execution when trying to get seed. Either way, he showed these pictures of these bees and moths hanging at the end of the glochids. it’s a beautiful but tragic metaphor to not get stuck in living a plan but letting life unfold your path. These creatures were unaware that their path ended today even though they made those plans day after day to voyage.

This also goes along with the concept I have been speaking of about suffering. No matter how well you plan, how great your actions are, something can still come onto your path And deter you , ie create suffering. The first noble truth is realizing that in life there is suffering. Not only the suffering you create, but also the suffering that you run into. The kind that glides towards you in force winds that you have to work your way out of to survive.

We can’t be so distracted by our plans that we don’t allow the universe to co create our life with us. We can’t be so rigid and steadfast that our visions can only become true in the exact way that we need them to. We are losing our magic and divinity in this way. Creation can surprise even the most stubborn of will. It can lead you places tomorrow that you couldn’t reach by yourself today. It creates doorways of opportunity in the silence and the night that you are unaware of in order to reach to you. And by dismissing what life can bring to your doorstep creates a dishonor to the universe that was created for you and around you. To not take part of the celebration is to lose touch to its magic. Things are working out around you that you have no idea about. And the faith that you have will bring you to those places once the destination is ready to be acquired. If it’s not sent to you immediately, it’s because the work isn’t finished yet. There is still untangling that needs to happen.