{"id":6798,"date":"2011-08-28T21:40:45","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T04:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/?p=6798"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:32:16","slug":"brief-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2011\/08\/28\/brief-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Brief Notes of an Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just returned from my first sesshin<\/a> at Hazy Moon Zen Center<\/a>. It was fruitful. I’m tired and glad to be home. All that I experienced is settling, so I hesitate to write extensively about it. Here are some brief reflections. The first one is from my drive down, when I stopped at San Luis Reservoir<\/a> for a break. The entire drive leads through two mountain ranges (the Diablo Mountains<\/a> with the Pacheco Pass<\/a> and the Tehachapi Mountains<\/a> with the Tejon Pass<\/a>) and the central valley; it’s beautiful country. It’s a six hour drive (one way) — which is just right.
\n—–<\/p>\n

Brief Notes of an Adventure<\/strong><\/p>\n

The lake — a bowl of glitter!
\nWinds whisper to water,
\nwaves murmur replies.
\nA crow flies, snail snared
\nin its beak.
\n—–<\/p>\n

Rooster crows, broom sweeps.
\nA car growls to life.
\nHelicopters thump the sky.
\nPigeon wings slap air.
\nSirens keen, dogs bark.
\nZazen in L.A.
\n—–<\/p>\n

My food – Advil.
\nMy nectar – water.
\nMy balm – sleep.
\n—–<\/p>\n

Now the cushion
\nNow the breath
\nNow the work.
\nSamadhi does not
\ncome in a box or book.
\nIt cannot be imagined
\nor conjured.
\nBells, incense, bows, chants
\nbring dignity and form
\nto the formless.
\nBut above all,
\nit is about the work.
\nBreath.
\nSamadhi.
\n—–<\/p>\n

Cresting the mountain,
\nvalley a blanket spread low;
\nslices of miles served –
\nfeast towards home.<\/p>\n

–Kathryn Harper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just returned from my first sesshin at Hazy Moon Zen Center. It was fruitful. I’m tired and glad to be home. All that I experienced is settling, so I hesitate to write extensively about it. Here are some brief reflections. The first one is from my drive down, when I stopped at San Luis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,111,48,16,215,29],"tags":[270,176,301,303,229,260,245],"class_list":["post-6798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aenigmas","category-buddhism","category-community","category-nature","category-poetry","category-regional","tag-attention","tag-change","tag-dharma","tag-meditation","tag-poetry","tag-practice","tag-zen"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6798"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10607,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6798\/revisions\/10607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}