We can talk about "oneness" until the cows come home. But how do we
actually separate ourselves from others? How? The pride out of which
anger is born is what separates us. And the solution is a practice in
which we experience this separating emotion as a definite bodily state.
When we do, A Bigger Container is created.
What is created, what grows, is the amount of life I can hold without it
upsetting me, dominating me. At first this space is quite restricted,
then it's a bit bigger, and then it's bigger still. It need never cease
to grow. And the enlightened state is that enormous and compassionate
space. But as long as we live we find there is a limit to our
container's size and it is at that point that we must practice. And how
do we know where this cut-off point is? We are at that point when we
feel any degree of upset, of anger. It's no mystery at all. And the
strength of our practice is how big that container gets. . . . This
practice of making A Bigger Container is essentially spiritual because
it is essentially nothing at all. A Bigger Container isn't a thing;
awareness is not a thing. . . .
-Charlotte Joko Beck, /Everyday Zen/
