vomit

As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly. Proverbs 26:11

Now I know this is not the most appetizing text to bring to your attention on a Sunday morning just before you sink in up to your elbows in your plate of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, butter beans, sliced tomatoes, and hot buttered biscuits, chased down by gallons of sweet iced tea. But it's the truth and it needs to be talked about.

I've seen it happen. It's a typical dog action. And lest you cat lovers get too comfortable in your smugness, cats do it too.

We humans are also very good at it. Each of us has some aspect of ourselves that we know is poison to us. Our bodies and our souls are self-purgative. So every once in a while we will live in purge-atory. Whatever that poison is, and you full well know what I'm talking about, whatever that personal poison is within your heart, your soul, your mind, your body, every once in a while, you will throw it up. You will do all in your power to rid yourself of it and it will do all in its power to come out of you. It seems as if you are not its most comfortable host.

After we eject this vomitous poison, we feel much better. Relieved. It is usually at this point that we swear we will never go back to it again. We swear it to ourselves. We swear it to others.

What is this poison? Greed, Anger, Desire, Stupor, in all their forms. They all amount to giving ourselves pleasure, even though it is momentary, at the expense of any and all around us. At those moments, everyone and everything else can go to hell. We come first.

And don't go pointing your finger at Brother or Sister Whoever. I'm talking about YOU, darling, and I include myself in that YOU. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Brother James, I saw you nudge Sister Mabel, winning your bet that I couldn't go for a month of Sundays without bringing up sin at least once. A pretty safe bet I would say. After all, this is a Baptist church. Zen Baptist.

Zen is a Japanese word derived from the Chinese chan, which was derived from the Sanskrit dhyana, which means meditation. Meditation means to be mindfully present and aware and to act upon that awareness.

When we return to our folly which we have vomited up at least once, swearing to ourselves never to go there again, we are meditating on our vomit. Sin, in this sense, is keeping your vomitous poisonous folly before your eyes and convincing yourself that it is not so bad, and so you start licking around its corners, its edges. As soon as that happens, you are a goner.

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his folly. We fool ourselves, make fools of ourselves.

An old Zen story has it that a student asked a Zen master (Ichu) to write something of wisdom for him. Ichu wrote: Attention. The student said: Is that all? Ichu wrote: Attention! Attention! The student said: That doesn't seem very profound. So Ichu wrote: Attention! Attention! Attention!

I see I just woke up the back row.

The student, all frustrated now, no doubt expecting some long self-help book s/he could read, feel better, and toss away, said: What does attention mean?

Ichu said: Attention means attention!

The poison is called the dote. The cure is called the antidote. The antidote for our particular individual self-chosen poison is our attention.

As we meditate, keep our mind on, our awareness on our spiritual teachers, our spiritual teachings, and ask for the aid of our spiritual community (embodying and not), we will not be returning to our vomit.

Wherever our attention goes, we go.

Let's stand and sing "Revive Us Again!"