Zen Firefighting

I really love this story in today's paper about how a Zen meditation center is preparing to fight one of the hundreds of wildfires raging throughout the state. 

"Fire is not a stranger," said Stücky. "It's telling us to be here in accord with the reality of fire ... we're not really fighting the fire. We're meeting the fire, letting the fire come to us - make friends with it and tame it as it reaches our boundaries."

Schommer said the fire had strengthened his spiritual practice. Clearing the brush meant creating places where fire could not burn. He called it a parable to the mental practice of Zen meditation, where you clear the mind from external thoughts burning through.

I experienced a bit of these fires twice over the past three weeks as I have been all over the state of Northern California.  Three weeks ago, I was on the Moto Melee riding through the area where the fires were just when they started.  In fact, I saw one of the main thunderstorms kicking down lightening while I was riding through the valley near Red Bluff.  Then on the ride home, I rode through area that were so thick with smoke that the visibility was only about 50 yards, and my eyes burned.  Last weekend I was up in the Sierras and experienced the thick smoke again.  It is pretty scary to be in the woods when the smoke is that thick and there are that many fires around...