The sign said, "Leave no trace" and was written in small, neat hand-writing as it hung in the tiny bathroom on a day I was learning to be mindful back in 1995 at the Mount Equity Monastery.
I spent this day with a zen abbess who was leading a group of six in a day of mindful meditation which included a meal. I believe there was a simple miso soup, a salad and a rice/vegetable dish.
I participated in the silent meal obediently...UNTIL we were told to rinse the dishes with water and then drink the liquid from our dirty bowls. This was to ingest the last morsels of nutrition from the dishes and the teacher was showing us the way things were done according to her monastic experiences. Instantly, my mind rejected the idea of rinsing out the rice bowl and dumping the liquid into the salad bowl and then into the soup bowl AND then drinking it!!! I thought I would gag and fifteen years later, I believe I have blocked out of my mind whether I somehow complied or just how I got out of doing this. Even now, I find this somewhat repulsive although I'm not sure why...I understand that this practice was another form of "leaving no trace", but on that day, I had my limits!
I also remember we performed several sessions of sitting and walking meditation. I remember the walking meditation was performed with the goal of walking as slowly as possible -- entirely different from what I was used to.
The phrase and the image of the written instructions to "leave no trace" are burned into my memory and often it comes to mind in different contexts -- sometimes even in relationships, I contemplate how I strive to walk gently, leaving no negative traces, realizing that everyone at some point walks a painful path and not wanting to contribute to another's suffering.
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