“The self and the things of the world are just as they are.
The gate of emancipation is open.”
Last week, we carelessly left the front door unlocked and a stranger walked into our center and home at 3:28 am Wednesday. A thin black man wearing a mustard colored shirt and a surgical mask that dipped below his nose was photographed by our front door security camera.
My husband and I were fast asleep. He walked to the back of the zendo and took the blue and cream satin altarcloth I made and a small black speaker sitting on the cabinets. He came upstairs and entered my study which is kitty-corner from our bedroom. He took my iPhone, wallet, and laptop.
On his way out he looked in the hall closet and found my backpack to put his newly acquired things in. He dropped the altar cloth hurrying back downstairs to empty out the donation box of some $8 in small bills and change. He left the building at 3:37 am wearing my bright polka-dot backpack on his back.
When I woke, I noticed a few odd things: like my desk being slightly pulled away from the wall, no iphone anywhere, and the altarcloth upstairs on the dining room table. My husband, who awakens first, found the cloth on the floor in front of the hall closet and put it on the table. After morning meditation, four hours after our stranger left, our executive director told us that someone had been in our building. Ahh, a break-in. It all started to make sense.
We went into action. Through the Find My iPhone application on my desktop computer and working in concert with the Oak Park police, we were able to “get our man” a couple of miles away. His photograph, the polka dot backpack, and pinging the iPhone when the police were close to him helped find him and recover all of my belongings.
He’s awaiting trial and my things are still at the police station.
A couple of people have asked if I feel traumatized knowing an intruder was so close. I thought about it. Initially I felt uneasy that someone had been so close. But soon after, I felt fine. There’s a calmness at our Zen Center and Halau that happens when people meditate regularly in a space. Did that have any effect on him? I wonder.
We all have the choice to do something or not. To take something or not. Our second Buddhist precept says, “I take up the way of taking only what is freely given and giving freely all that I can.” This same man came in once before and asked me for money to buy food. I could have given him some dollars but I did not.
The gate of emancipation is open. Let’s walk through.
Malama pono (take good care of body, mind and spirit),
June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue
Kumu Hula, Sensei
P.S. Listen to a talk I gave recently on Sunday Morning Zen on "Buddhas in Training - The Way of the Bodhisattva" (enlightened being) https://youtu.be/1H0_0jRYdac.