A Cool Breeze in Summer by CIMC Guiding Teacher Narayan Helen Liebenson “Ten
thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, A cool breeze in summer, snow
in winter. If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, This is the best
season of your life.” This teaching, offered by Wu-men, an ancient Chinese Chan
master, is both invitational and provocative. The first two lines describe the
natural world of the seasons, evoking aspects of beauty and serenity. You may
sense a kind of tenderness in your heart when you read these words. You may be
called to remember moments in your life when you were touched by aspects of
nature – looking up at the sky at a sunset and down on the ground at a blade of
grass, feeling your body touched by a warm or cool breeze, and delighting in the
first appearance of snow in winter. And there may also be a sense of poignancy
along with this tenderness and delight. As we well know, in this current time on
our planet, there is great upheaval causing great suffering in the face of
extreme weather patterns. And yet, and yet. These wondrous aspects of life
continue to exist. The flowers, the moon, the breezes and the snow exist now,
and we find ourselves grateful. The third line, “If your mind isn’t clouded by
unnecessary things”, is surely an invitation to explore and investigate. It is a
beckoning, an instruction. It is also a statement of trust and faith. It offers
a path of investigation: look at your mind. Find out for yourself what is
necessary and what is not. What is clouding natural innate wisdom and
compassion? How is the mind conditioned by past experiences and how might those
clouds dissipate? What are the particular habits and patterns that have had you
in their grip from time immemorial that may now be released into the clear blue
sky? The last line is provocative: “If the mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary
things, this is the best season of your life.” What does this mean in these
times that are so dire on so many levels? What could it possibly mean? It means
a life of meaning, a life lived now, a surrender to life being lived through us
rather than controlled, managed, and manipulated. It means a life of connection,
availability, and engagement. When we understand that we are sharing this life
with one another and can’t carry the weight of the world alone, when we live
with hearts of peace, we see we can be joyful in the midst of sorrow, balanced
in the midst of tumult. We glimpse the possibilities of living amid things as
they are, without being overcome with despair and hopelessness. What does life
want of you rather than what do you want to get out of life? Asking this
question with sincerity and honesty, attending to the clouds without judging and
identifying, makes this the best season of our lives. There is another
translation of this same passage which goes like this. I will end with it as a
blessing: “The flowers say it, the moon, the breeze, the snow. Each time we
pause to notice the living world around us, it blesses us and says: May your
mind be unclouded and may every season be the best season of your life.”
