The stranger sits quietly in the waiting room of the doctors. It is his first time. Fully in focus, he does not read the donated magazines, neither does he observe the people to his left and right. He merely waits.
Moving in good time to the beat, the smiling girl grooves like she has never grooved before. She is neither aware, nor unaware, of those all around her. She merely dances.
The black cat runs furiously around the house in a state of tail-high excitement. He jumps from sofa to tabletop. He lets his paws feel the textured surfaces, but does nothing to notice them. He merely scampers.
Within the window box the geranium grows slowly in a late spring cold snap. It is blown backwards and forwards with the wind, but responds most to the sunlight. It merely prepares to bloom.
The chattery starling sits on the rail observing people in the park. He is hungry, but watches the noisy lunchtimers eat their sandwiches and cakes without approaching or fleeing. He merely pays attention.
Depending on the time of day, the clouds part to reveal sun, moon or stars. Each one follows its trajectory across the firmament, neither deviating nor staying put. Each merely shines.
God sits in his heaven, a useful metaphor and the signature of alignment. Impossible and possible, being, but not acting according to our understandings, God neither descends nor ascends. God is God.
"Harmonizing opposites by going back to their source is the distinctive quality of the Zen attitude, the Middle Way: embracing contradictions, making a synthesis of them, achieving balance." Taisen Deshimaru
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