From the time I first heard it as a young girl, "be in the world but not of the world" caught my attention. Maybe I sensed that it pointed at a way to be happy in the world, and I wondered how one did that. No one around me seemed to know so it just sat there for many, many years unanswered. The word “koan” was not yet in my vocabulary.
Recently I had the opportunity to spend some time outside the Monastery gate. As I moved about, I was attending to keeping the privileged environment. I practiced greeting each person I met with a silent gassho. This fostered respect for each person I encountered. There was an open curiosity present, instead of a list in my head of how others should be according to conditioning. There was no desire to engage in a conditioned conversation. There was just being in the miracle of life. It then occurred to me that this might be what being in the world but not of the world was pointing to. It is a happy place to live. Practice brings countless miracles.
Gasshō,
Sequoia