Group,
I carried out some errands on foot near home today, and among my stops was the
bank, where I visited the walk-up auto-teller machine.
We all know that habits can become ingrained, even good or merely neutral ones.
Well, while using the ATM today, I recalled banking in "the old days" ...when
you had to go into a bank to do even the simplest and most routine business,
and never gave it a thought. I remember waiting sometimes for 15 or 20 minutes
in LINES for an available teller, especially on payday Fridays, to cash a check
before the weekend. And I think Pensioners always cluttered the place on the
first days of the month, before the days of "Direct Deposit" and common use of
the ACH system. (Edgar knows about this, I think!).
After becoming a Zen student in practice formally with a teacher at a practice
place, I remember how some of what I learned in Zen practice changed my
"waiting-in-line" habits. At a Zen place we all learn how to hold the hands
(our OWN hands) in "Shashu", when standing and listening to the Dharma, or when
practicing kinhin, or even when just walking in the zendo from one place to
another, never letting the arms swing distractingly (especially on Sesshin).
Well, I recall standing in Chemical Bank in the 1970s in Shashu, and I remember
a private joke I had with myself at those times, and ideas for a cartoon I
could draw, and caption (but I think I never drew it):
I thought, "Gee, we could see who else is a Zen student *just* by noting how
people hold their hands while waiting in line on these crowded days at the
bank". Or waiting to pay tuition or other bills at the Bursar's Office at
college. Etc.
Did I ever see anybody else standing in line and looking like a conscientious
and comfortable Zen student? No. I did not. If I had (done), I would have
spoken to them and asked them, "Are you a *Zen* student?"
I'm sorry this never happened, ...it could have been so much more of an
interesting story to relate, here. ;-)
The other mudra we all know is the zazen mudra, of which there are several, not
all variants of just one.
Maybe others here have some mudra-related stories.
"Mudra, She Wrote?"
--Joe
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