by Rev. Taihaku Priest
Cherish.
To protect and lovingly care for. To hold with affection. What is it that we
truly cherish? Maybe what comes to mind are people, values, and principles.
When we look more deeply, we find that the most basic thing that we care about
is life. Our life, our world, our breath.
The
beginning bud of cherish has a fragrance, a flavor of wanting something, of
wanting to keep and protect something for oneself. However, as cherishing
matures, one cares so deeply and values so much that one is willing to let go,
willing to release that which is cherished if that is what is required. In
mature cherishing, there is no quality of smothering or fencing in; rather it
is radiant with the quality of caring. Not a dry taking-care-of, but a melody
of nurturing filled with emotion.
Cherish
has a feeling-tone of every moment kissing it goodbye and simultaneously every
moment welcoming it with open arms. Cherishing squeezes out the tears of transiency,
highlighting both the joy of welcoming and the ephemeral transience that is accompanied
by longing.
Sometimes
people in an effort to avoid attachment can make the mistake of disdaining the
warmth of cherishing. Attachment can
be a part of immature cherishing, yet the solution is not to cut off the
caring, but rather to mature it. To fully mature the caring, such that it
encompasses everything, cherishing all that is.
It
can be helpful in our practice to bring this warm feeling of cherishing to our
meditation and to our daily lives. To bring the warm caring cherishing to our
breath – this breath, this precious present moment -- imbuing each moment with
a mind that cherishes.
