After a time, my practice dwindled. Now, it's time to return.
There are many things that can derail a householder practice: family obligations, a job, the ten thousand things of living in the world, health issues, and these days - electronic distraction. We are all likely to fall off the cushion for one or more of these. For me it has been caring for elderly parents, professional obligations, a broken ankle, an iPhone, and fatigue borne of all of these. Practice fell away over several years.
Bodhidharma likely foresaw many of these, but I would particularly like to hear what the bearded barbarian would say about our present-day electronic distractions. This seems applicable:
“But people of the deepest understanding look within, distracted by nothing. Since a clear mind is the Buddha, they attain the understanding of a Buddha without using the mind.” - Bodhidharma
And so, today, I return. For encouragement, I have colored in one eye of a Japanese Daruma doll (達磨). The tradition is to color in one eye when you make a vow to persevere in some endeavor, and
the other when you have achieved it. The irony is not lost on me, as the Heart Sutra says: "Attainment too is emptiness". So the other eye will never be colored in. And yet, it is a way to mark intentionality of re-starting on the Path, although you don't ever leave it.
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