SYNCHRONICITY

Well, this is strange. Readers of The Buddha Diaries will know that a couple of days ago I used a long quotation about the "human realm" of wanting, not-wanting and indifference. I had borrowed it from a recent newsletter from Ken McLeod, a long-time mentor, teacher, guide--and, dare I say, friend--whom I first met after reviewing his book "Wake Up to Your Life" for the Los Angeles Times. The book was a life-changer for me, a profound, exhaustive analysis and practical teaching about meditation at a time when I was still fairly new to the practice and in some turmoil in my personal life. 

It has been a good number of years since I was last in touch with Ken, but I remain a regular reader of the newsletter he sends out from his home base at Unfettered Mind. The passage I quoted had made a particular impression on me at this moment, and spoke to me in a way I felt demanded further exploration. Not only did I write about the meditation it proposes in my blog, I set a part of it aside to read it to participants in the small sitting group I invite to join me regularly in my home (and now on Zoom!), thinking it might prove as stimulating to them as it had been to me. (It did. I read it to the group last night, to enthusiastic response). 

Given this context, it was with huge surprise--and a great deal of pleasure--that I opened my incoming email file yesterday afternoon, shortly before the session I had planned, to find a totally unexpected letter from Ken awaiting me. Talk about synchronicity! I'm no believer in coincidence, but obviously have no explanation beyond what another old friend would dismiss as "woo-woo" thinking. Woo-woo or not, I happen to believe that things happen for a reason, that there are forces at work in our universe for which we have no rational explanation, and that human beings can reach out to each other in other than normal modes of communication. 

So I take it there is something to be learned from this strange circumstance. My first take-away is to see it as a confirmation that I'm on the right path, that whatever led me to read the passage in question and follow up in the way I have done is something to be taken seriously. In my sit this morning, I continued to follow Ken's instructions for Week 1 of his meditation on the Human Realm. I am finding it to be a timely and rewarding process.