Ganko

I love starting the year practising Zen calligraphy with the sangha I am so blessed to have discovered in 2013. This year we brushed a Zen expression Gankō. According to my teacher Sarah Moate, Gankō can be interpreted in English as ‘Cherish the Light’.

Then questions started coming – What is light? What is the source of light? How can I cherish the light?

I love this teaching from Japanese culture – get the question right, don’t worry about the answer. I continue to be amazed by how the answers start to come. Since then many layers of this profound expression are continuing to be revealed.

Firstly I remembered, Reiki is light energy. This expression is helping deepen connection with my daily practice of Reiki.

There is light all around and within each one of us. Fire element or light is essential for our existence. Our body has the ability to generate heat with each breath.

One could think of the Sun as the source of light. Since discovering this poem by Rumi, I am cherishing the dust grains I sometimes see in the light near the window.

On this full moon day, it is a lunar eclipse too, I am also cherishing the light of the moon. As the light wanes towards the new moon, light of the stars grows stronger in the night sky. Eclipses can be transformational. As the caterpillar helps us see in nature, the transformation process is not comfortable, but is so needed. It feels super helpful to receive this quote from James Clear through his newsletter email:
“Some people get addicted to chain-smoking their problems. They spend all day going from sorrow to sorrow. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can live each day going from joy to joy—like a sunflower that turns to face the sun as it moves across the sky. It’s not about having a problem-free life, but about focusing on the light. Sunflowers still have shadows, but they are always behind them.”

Then I discovered Mary Oliver poem – Mindful. I love the thought of being like ‘a needle in the haystack of light’.

At this moment I am loving being with the question – If I could cherish the light – both within and around me – what would it feel like? I know that the ability to cherish the light is already in me, in each one of us. My wish today is for this ability to surface from the unconscious to conscious awareness for the highest good of all.

Feeling deep gratitude to all my teachers and to life itself. Also to Rumi, Mary Oliver and James Clear.

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