The quote is from Laurie Anderson - an artist that I have difficulty describing without gushing. Gush gush gush. The quote is from an essay called "Time and Beauty" - and while some of the buddhaisms in it are beyond my reach, I find it brilliant.
Here's a story found within:
I should say, I am not a sitter. I am, let’s say, a committed beginner of zazen. What has encouraged me as I come and go are the words of a teacher I had in 1975 in Barre, Massachusetts. I took part in a two-week period of silent meditation and at the end of the time, this teacher spoke to us briefly. He said something like,
"Now, of course you understand that when you leave some of you will continue to meditate many hours a day, some of you will meditate only a few hours and some of you won’t meditate at all. You’ll simply forget. But don’t worry about this. Because next time you’ll meditate a little longer and then you’ll forget again. And then maybe a little longer and then you’ll forget again."
As I listened to him I realized that this was the first time I had heard effort described in a way I really recognized. In a way that was really human. In a way that described the way we move through time, remembering and forgetting and remembering again.
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