EASTER SUNDAY 2016
Those of you who know me and Dharma Center, might know a little bit about the ongoing teachings of locked Gates. Dharma Center, which sits at the shoreline of Ocean Beach, is housed in a building that has a few businesses. That building has gates in the front, gates in the back, gates at each stairway.
Over the years, the locks have been changed, sometimes, the rules about locked gates have changed sometimes, and students can’t get up to Dharma Center sometimes because another business owner has locked the gates.
TODAY, Easter Sunday, I went down to Dharma Center to teach a class. The ice cream shop and the beach bar were closed. Those businesses are ‘always’ open, so I go through them to open the front gate. But not today! All the gates were locked. My key did not work on the front gate, my garage door opener did not open the door. I was locked out.
When a father and son arrived at the front gate, we discussed the lesson of the locked gates, and decided to have a meditation on the beach. It was a perfect Easter day for sitting in the sand, and the energy of the sand, wind and waves was a gift.
Towards the end of the class, a surfer clad in a black wetsuit from his head hoody to his bare feet approached us. It was my son, who was walking from the water to the parking lot, so we all had a chance to talk. (My son was born on Easter Sunday, many years ago.)
So when the gates are locked, thank those gates for being your teacher, and get into the flow of the Tao.