Buddhist Trash Collecting
by Maylie Scott

We went for a weekend retreat on Stinson Beach and decided to spend an hour or so picking up trash along the waterfront. It was a beautiful day. We brought along the small plastic bags you tear off the roll at supermarkets. It was not a very dirty beach. We walked along together on the access road, stooping to retrieve cigarette butts and bits of plastic and broken glass. As two of us spotted the same piece of tinfoil and headed a little competitively towards it, I thought how much work in the world there is to do. How eager we are to do it, and yet, on this day, how removed from its urgency. As we spread out along the beach, there was more rubbish. I found a large plastic garbage bag and gradually filled it, so that as I slung it over my shoulder to go back, it was a proper burden; I enjoyed a sense of accomplishment. Missing a turning, as I am apt to do, I carried the bag until I was quite tired and nervous about how lost I was.

As I walked, I thought how this small adventure replayed the life of the group: a lot of quite energetic talk about experience and action, then the lonely going out to do what one can, often with some questioning, some sense of absurdity, to find what there actually is to do, and then looking forward to the comforting return to the dharma nest.

— Maylie Scott

Contents
BASE Weekly Meeting
Moving Together with Encouragement and Forgiveness
Buddhist Trash Collecting
Family
Home is Where the Heart is
Making a Dent?