November, 2020
“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium. It will be lost. The world will not have it.
— Martha Graham
It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”
How are you? Hope you have been well in the last three months. In this challenging year, I have been digging deeper into my roots – did you know that if you go back ten generations, each of us has 4,096 ancestors? This simple fact fascinates me. Our existence is evidence of the resilience of 4,096 people, whether we know who they are, or what their stories were. When I meditate recently, I have begun to call in ancestors in my sittings. La Samiento taught in a recent retreat to feel the ancestors in our back when we sit. When I have done that, I feel a sense of grounding and courage enveloping me. And I realize that I would like to start using my full name, Lin Wang Gordon, to acknowledge my Chinese ancestors.
I have also thought deeper about what I would like to offer in my teachings. I realized that in addition to nature meditation, I’d like to start offer more ecodharma – help people face and engage with climate crisis from a place of love, wisdom, compassion, and equanimity. The name “Being in the Wild” seems not quite capturing the essence of what I will be offering. As a humble student of impermanence, I relaunch the website and simply use my full name. It will evolve as I evolve. I don’t know where this journey would lead, but one thing I have learned through hiking is that you don’t really need to know the whole path by heart, you just need to find and see the next blade on the path, and enjoy the exploration as you go.
Hope you will continue to join me in this journey. May you be blessed with good health and light in this deep winter.
Blessings and love,
Lin
Photo: Online retreat, a cabin in the woods in Connecticut, October 2020