From Mushin:
We gathered for a summer movie night at Sangha Jewel, where we watched I Heart Huckabee. The story begins with Albert confused and worried about coincidences that he feels have some meaning which he can’t figure out. His confusion prompts him to seek help from a couple of existential investigators. The entire movie expresses the koan of his everyday life in terms of the conditions that mark it, and perhaps yours – a fixated view, conflict, competition, disappointment and skepticism.
Each of us has our own set when we turn to Zen practice with similar confusions and impatience. We tend to see the teachings also through our habitual blind spots and slowly we begin to clarify them. There are so many ways that we can misunderstand our direct experience and then become skeptical when those fixed ideas about the practice don’t turn us around. We persist in looking in habitual directions. Albert finally gives up, rebels and follows his heart. In the same mysterious way that Zen practice opens us up, he is transformed by his persistent and determined and embodied inquiry into the true nature of his life, in ways that he least expects it. It’s not what he thinks. Sound familiar?