Nambe retreat

Nothing Missing: Relaxing the Requirement for Self-Improvement
Nothing Missing: Relaxing the Requirement for Self-Improvement
Thank You
Nothing Missing: Relaxing the Requirement for Self-Improvement
Metta Phrases and Gestures
(both hands on your own heart)
We tend to think we are a problem to be solved. Consciously or unconsciously we have this
uneasy feeling that something is missing. Something is not quite right.
From a psychological point of view we think the problem is our conditioning. If we could only
identify and work effectively with our conditioning, then we might find some relief from our
shaky identity and establish a strong sense of self that is robust and healthy.
From a spiritual point of view, we hope to either affirm a belief system we can rely on forever,
or dedicate ourselves to a set of practices that will eventually end our suffering and assuage this
existential sense of lack. Often, the result of these two approaches is that we either work
endlessly towards psychological self-improvement or become a perpetual spiritual “seeker”
looking for nirvana.
Both paths to salvation are flawed because they both miss the shadow aspect of this pervasive
“sense of lack.” Our deepest fears are not that we will never be good enough or that we will
eventually die. The shadow fear, the one we least want to face, is that the sense of self we rely
on for our identity is, in truth, groundless and without substance.
Nothing is missing. We are always perfectly ourselves. The thing we cling to the most — our
constructed sense of self, our thoughts and feelings — is not worthy of our faith and trust.
We cling to our conditioning and forsake our True Nature.
~ Flint Sparks, for a retreat at Open Door Zen Community 2011
My message is not about changing the world.
My message is changing the way we meet a world the won’t stop changing
May this body be at ease
May this heart be open
May this mind be boundless
May this being awaken
(hands open in an offering and
receiving gesture)
May your body be at ease
May your heart be open
May your mind be boundless
May you be awakened
(holding hands around the circle)
May our bodies be at ease
May our hearts be open
May our minds be boundless
May we awaken together
(arms and hands lifted up to
indicate everyone)
May all bodies be at ease
May all hearts be open
May all minds be boundless
May all beings awaken together
(bring hands down into a
prayerful bow to each other )
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